The month of sickness

Is anybody else sick of kids being sick? I am ready for spring and warmer weather - and hopefully a break from nasty colds, pink eye, and ear infections! I think the ping-pong weather we have been having is taking a toll on my kids.

At the start of the week, Gavin came down with a cold and has missed some school. Wednesday, Alyssa's tonsils were HUGE and so we took her in to make sure she wasn't developing strep. Thankfully, her strep test (and also a Mono test) were negative but we did talk about her chronic bad breath, her huge tonsils, and her snoring problem and decided in the near future we would take her to an ENT doctor to see if she will need to have her tonsils removed. Our pediatrician said his 5 year old just had it done and his symptoms were very similar to Alyssa's. Last night, Gavin started bawling because his ear hurt. Of course, this develops after the doctor office closes. We tried some home remedies (drops of 50/50 vinegar and water solution and heated a cup of rice up in an old sock to place on his ear) and those seemed to help. He was up crying again at midnight so we did it again. Last night, Cambrie started sounding like she was catching the cold bug. During the night she was just coughing and gagging in her crib (but thankfully she slept well). I had scheduled her 6 month checkup the other day when we were there for Alyssa and that appointment happened to be today.

We all went to the doctor and Cambrie looks good. She just is developing a cold now but he said for now it is just up in her head area - her lungs and even her ears are clear...hooray! The doctor was nice and peeked in Gavin's ear. He said it was so red he was surprised Gavin wasn't crying right then! He wrote us a prescription but told us that after age 5, 85% of ear infections can heal on their own so we can wait 72 hours and treat the pain or we can fill the prescription now and start the antibiotic. I had never heard that you could wait it out for the older kids.

Obviously, Gavin is home from school again and everyone is lounging, coughing, nursing their earaches, sore throats - and watching cartoons! To top it all off, my back has been out of whack since Tuesday night so things are a little rough around here!

When will the warmer weather be here to stay??