SICK Season

It has arrived. I really thought that my Daddy might be right, and that we may have outgrown it.

It is beginning to seem that this might become something as dependable as Christmas and Thanksgiving.

We are officially SICK.

Last year, it came that very first week of November. We had ventured out to the Madame Alexander Doll Show in hopes of finding Vivie something wonderful for Christmas.

Afterwards, we stopped by Daddy's on the way home to say, "Hi" and show him how cute we were all dressed up in our going out clothes and all.

I am not sure if we picked it up at Toy Fair, or if we managed to catch something from being at Daddy's house (he has three small children too,however they weren't even home at the time!)

But the symptoms were there, and we were undeniably SICK. It was my first run-in with exactly what low-tolerance immune systems really are all about.

The kids came down with the sniffles that first weekend of November, and it managed to last all winter long, not really going away until well into spring-time.

My Doctor would just smile at us, shake her head, and say, "At least they don't have RSV!"

We didn't get RSV because after that initial outing, I kept them home nearly all season long and we had monthly visits at home from our dear friend the Nurse, who would administer our RSV shots for us.

That is the main reason I was so excited to see summer this past year. It meant that we could again venture out into the real world and begin doing things again like real little kids.

I had almost come to believe my father's optimistic viewpoint that the babies were older now and would be just fine.

The memories of sniffles and earaches and the myriad of doctor's appointments had all faded, blocked out by sunny days and warm weather and walks in the park.

I really thought we had it beat, too. It fooled me, sad to say. Sick didn't put in an appearance that first weekend of November like it had before.

It was sneaky, and paid us a visit the second weekend instead!

At first, my husband was overly optimistic and tried to write off Kaiden's runny nose to his having been crying over gas or accidentally losing his leg in the other leg of his pajamas making him a sort of mermaid baby.

I tried to be chipper and think happy thoughts and believe the best, but it was here. The undeniable proof was consistent and very blatant by Sunday.

Kai's nose was running, he cried over the confusion of having inch long bogeys erupting out of his nose unannounced when he least expected, and he had a fever.

Sunday night, I headed to Brookshires with a huge list of staples to try and head off the SICK monster before it got much worse.

I came home with a super-huge bottle of Motrin, some generic Claritin, and a tube of Vicks Vapor Rub cream (the rub in sort, not the gooey nasty other stuff!)

Thankfully, the folks at Brookshires are all well aware of my tiny toddling trio's existence and didn't try and turn me in for buying unusually large quantities of cold medicines and such!

I made it home just in time for Kai to wake up very upset because of his stuffy state. We were able to get him medicated and calmed down enough to go back to sleep.

Vivienne of course was up along with him, as she doesn't like missing out on much. Her turn is coming, it's inevitable.

Of course, Monday rolled around, and Kai was doing much better. That day, Kian cried a lot, making it difficult to tell if his nose was runny from getting sick or from just sheer tear factor.

Of course, by tea-time, I could tell it was from being sick. I didn't want to have the kids on separate medication schedules, so I waited until bedtime to medicate him along with Kaiden.

To date, Vivie has yet to get the tell-tale signs of the runny nose, but I can feel it coming.

With triplets, it's inevitable that all three will get sick. It's really quite unavoidable. I do try and keep their cups separate, and not feed them out of the same spoon or anything.

The problem is, that they actually do share. They trade cups when I am not looking, and chew on the same toys behind my back.

Sick season means that each night, after the babies are in bed, Bregon and I must go around before we pick up all the toys in the living room, and spritz everything with Clorox spray to try and quell the germ population.

We are trying to be as vigilant as we can be, however I am afraid that it is here to stay. Our very long Winter interment has begun.