A plague on all our house

Most people spent their Memorial Day weekend lounging around, frolicking at the beach or spending quailty time with their loved ones... Well, I certainly got some quality time, but quality was over shadowed by the immense plague that has surrounded the Skates household since last week.

Our little boy loves to play with his friends and unfortunatley his little friends like to share and that includes germs.

He has been so sick, he would just take turns lying on us napping... that is whenever he got comfortable and sometimes this takes a little bit of kicking and sometimes in the area that may cause us to not give him anymore siblings.

Now granted kids get sick, right? You know this... I know this. I am well aware. But, our son ended up with a ear infection...

"but how can this be?" I questioned the doctor at the Urgent Care facility. "We just got tubes put in his ears... shouldn't that keep him from getting ear infections?"

"Generally, yes" the doctor followed. "However, there are the instances where he can still get them."

Well, how-de-do, I had no idea, someone failed to give us that tip of information... we were told if he were to get one ... we would know from the gunk coming from his ears... In this case, however, no gunk. We had no idea what was causing our 14 month old son to have a fever of 102.

So, let me set the scene for you... the most inopportune time for our little boy to get sick... he does...

Fast forward to Saturday... we started the morning, 9 am, at the "urget care," (I referred to earlier)... our little boy had been up all night, coughing and hacking and squirming... we had no idea what to do besides administer motrin and tylenol! So, we knew we have to call the "urget care" and get there as soon as they opened their doors. After sitting in the waiting room, where our little boy ran from chair to chair and banging his head against doors we were called back... after seeing the doctor we paid the "urgert care" co-pay and was sent on with no Rx, but with a wealth of information...

"Call us, if his temp goes any higher," the doctor told us has he exited the room! Thanks doc!

Late Saturday afternoon, about 4pm, my wife and I discovered a lot of funk in my sons left eye, so we tried to find the eye drops from the last time he had pink eye... as soon as I hit the last kitchen stair and rounded the corner to the den I heard and a loud noise and scream from my wife. I immediatley turned around to find my wife sprawled on the stairs, with our son still in her arms. Please note, women nine months pregnant should not be taking the express option when taking stairs... I ran to her and in my frantic mindset all I could do was go from my son to my wife, who do I help first??? I felt such a sense of urgency and panic I looked for blood, I looked for signs of broken limbs... I...

"Take him!" Take him!" my wife exclaimed in sheer agony. I wasn't sure what to do!!! How was I to pick who was more important... I can't take that kind of pressure!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her arm was pretty badly bruised and considering I could already see the blue she had to of hit it pretty hard.

I grabbed our little boy who was whailing at the top of his lungs... his eyes were full of tears, his face red and snot oozing from his nose.

"Ohhh, ohh you're okay little man!!" I said as I bounced him up and down all the while looking at my wife lying on the stairs.. it seemed hours had gone by but only seconds. I saw the drops we were searching for on our brown, linoleum kitchen floor. It was a very, small, clear bottle with blue writing on it.

Laura slowly started to get up, "stop! Wait babe," I said "let me help you!"

I put our son, Mauldin, down and let him stand on his own, also to check to make sure his leg was okay. He took one tiny step toward my direction. I could tell then he hadn't broken his leg. He did have what seemed like a red carpet burn on his knee cap.

"I think his leg fell behind mine on the way down," Laura gasped. "Check him to make sure he is okay."

Mauldin stood there in his t-shirt and diaper, still sniffing, but the crying fit seemed to have subsided, except when I lost eye contact with him the crying continued, but this time at an even higher level. He was fine, but the fall and seeing his mommy lying on the floor I'm sure scared him a little.

"He is okay, sweetheart..." I reassured her. "Are you okay?"

I reached over to help my wife stand up from the stairs and noticed pieces of our baby gate all over the kitchen floor...

"Wow," I said "I wonder where that piece goes!?" I tried to insert some humor into the seemingly stressful situation.

My inital thought when Laura fell was, of course, her and my little boy's well-being, but then I also worried about Elle. Our little girl is still inside her mom's belly... and if she was asleep that was quite a wake-up call for her!

"Call the doctor's right now and see what they want us to do" I suggested to Laura as I held Mauldin in my arms. He continued to sniff and wimper all the while tugging on my shirt collar.

"Okay, hand me the phone." Laura said.

"I will call your mom to see if she can come stay with him." I replied.

One thing I didn't know was that Laura's mom and dad had been in South Carolina to visit Laura's sister, Amy and our nephew, Drew...

"We are in SC," replied a voice on the phone "what's going on?"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Mauldin screamed into the phone. I tried to talk as loud as I could, but his deafening screams were muffling my dialouge into the phone. I finally got him quite by the art of distraction... I gave him a plastic chicken leg to hold from his little play kitchen... but as soon as I stood up to talk on the phone again he banged his forehead into the "play" kitchen sink... let the crying resume!

"Call us back when he has calmed down," My mother-in-law replied "I can't hear you!"

My parents were on their way back from a week in Myrtle Beach, SC, at this moment. But, I knew they were headed home... so I called and did not get a hold of my mom... so I called my sister... no answer... I then tried my dad and finally got a hold of them!

"Now, don't freak out..." I said preparing them. "Laura is not in labor, but she fell down the stairs." I went on to explain the siutation.

Well, obviously today was not ideal for us to go into labor, much less have any other type of emergency...

The nurse at the hosptial suggested we come in and have Laura monitored... My parents were in Augusta and were still a good three hours away and I knew we needed to get to the hosiptal before that. Laura was to be monitored for alteast four hours!

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Jenn and Paul, live just down the street, conveient for us when we are in a jam, but on this day our niece Annagrace was sick too and we didn't want our two kids sharing more germs and getting sicker than they already were. Who else? My brain was fried, I couldn't seem to focus on the task at hand... my mind was going from my wife to my son to my unborn daughter... what were we going to do? We certainly couldn't take him to triage with us with him being as sick as he was! I called our friends Amanda and Mike, a fairly newly wed couple, who I trust with my life and just hoped they were nearby and available.

"We are on the otherside of town," Amanda said. "It might be a little while before we can get there."

I was so frustrated... what were we going to do?!

"I have an idea," Laura said. "Let me call and see if Tori and Jeremy can watch him."

Tori and Jeremy are Laura's cousins, they live in our subdivision, so it would be so easy to take him there. But, could they watch Mauldin for the amount of time until our parents could arrive, that was the question! Thankfully, Tori said they could and I rushed to get all of his stuff together to head over there...

I wish I could tell you something more exciting happened, like it sent Laura into labor and we had Elle here already, but nothing like that happened at all... We did end up at the hospital, in the triage unit, for a little over four hours and mom and baby were just fine... well, Laura did end up with some major bruising, but luckily she fell on her toosh and so it softened the blow for our little girl.

To put insult to injury, whatever Mauldin had... he has now passed onto me and my wife. So, Mauldin I love you, but let daddy give you a lesson that sometimes sharing is a bad thing.

Lets hope for less eventful weekends from now on!!!

Have you ever been to the ER with a child?

Have you ever been to an Emergency Room with a child?

Now you may be wondering "why were you in the ER?" Well, we went on Sunday afternoon to pick out pumpkins, have a fun day with family and enjoy a nice, crispy fall day. On the way home our little man was uncharacteristically pissy. He basically whined and cried almost the entire way home. We chalked it up to he was not happy to be in his car seat for the hour 1/2 ride home.

We come home and Mauldin seems to be really hot and on this 60 degree day there is no real reason for him to be hot to the touch. My brilliant and intuitive wife insists we take his temperature.

102 degree temp. I look at her and say,

"don't freak out!" knowing good and well she was well into the freakage zone.

"This isn't a teething temperature," said Laura.

"Lets give him some Tylenol and put him in a cool bath, that might help!"

So, I proceed to do this as we know this is what any doctor may first suggest, not to mention any parent we contact as well. After his splish splashy bath time I take him out and we take his temperature again, knowing that the Tylenol should of kicked in a little.

103.3. I look at Laura's face, and she is on the verge of tears.

"I'm gonna call the doctor on call and see what they say to do," insisted Laura.

Mind you, our soon-to-be three year old niece, Annagrace, has been sick since Saturday, however, Mauldin has had no contact with her. We know that Annagrace was on her way to "Children's" a local Pediatrics doctor office in Atlanta and the wait to get in to see a doctor is 3 hours!

While Laura is calling the doctor on-call - I proceed to call "Children's" to see about making an appointment.

I hear Laura downstairs, "Thank you. Yes, 103.3. 03/21/2009. Oh, okay. Thank you."

I hang up the phone with the very unhelpful nurse at Children's who was in mid- I'm sorry because they had no more spots. The best thing she could say was to walk in and wait the 3 hours.

"What did they say?" I say to Laura as I am 1/2 down the stairs.

I see Laura packing Mauldin's diaper bag and proceeds to strip off his onesie.

"The nurse on the phone said we need to take him to the ER," said Laura. "With a temp that high they want us to have him seen ASAP."

"Okay." I reply.

As I drive us to the ER my stomach is in knots and I am reminded of the stress level that I have before I speak in public or before my first date with Laura. My head was pounding, my hands were sweating as I gripped the steering wheel and the soothing sounds of Jordin Sparks and her "Battlefield" were not all that soothing or comforting so I proceeded to turn off the radio completely.

We finally arrive at the hospital, after what seemed like a million years in the car, and park in the parking garage across the street... apparently we aren't the only one's with an emergency this evening.



Dude, it's so ghetto... okay now I may get some flack for saying this, but in the case of the one we went to on Sunday night... I feel I am pretty accurate in my description.

As we are walking through the parking lot I look over at Laura as she has Mauldin curled up in her embrace. Mauldin's tiny arms and legs are bare to the elements and I start to wonder how is this going to make him better?

"I feel like such trash!" I say to Laura.

"What? Why?" Laura replies with a bit of laughter.

"Here we are walking into the ER with our child in a freaking diaper! How trashy are we? I mean who does that???"

As I say these words I look over to my right and there stands a tall, black man; with his girlfriend. The man is wearing a long trench coat reminiscent of something Morpheus from the Matrix would fashion. One can only imagine why he was there...

I look at Laura... "Okay, I don't feel so bad anymore... I may blog about this!"

After entering the pediatrics ward of the ER Laura goes on to sit with Mauldin as I fill out all the necessary paperwork. I felt so odd doing this because in filling out this paper work I am admitting my child is sick, so sick that we had no alternative choice but to bring him to the ER, the ER where people come when they chop off their limbs or break their arm while playing flag football. We are here in the ER exposing our defenseless and helpless 6-month old son to who knows what... Right then and there I felt like a terrible, terrible parent.

Our little guy was/is such a trooper, he is usually bouncin' around like Tigger, but this particular day he was more like a gloomy Eeyore.

His stuffy, "oh so stuffy," nose is just red and raw. He hates it when you try to wipe it.

Well, after finally meeting with the doctor, one urine sample, complete with catheter and x-rays they determined he was infected with the "flu." We were given a Rx for Theraflu, I believe, I think that is what it is called... and I won't get into the nightmare it was to obtain this medication. Have to make it... comon', seriously?

To top it off, my beautiful and selfless wife, Laura, has caught it as well... So, get well soon baby! I'm sorry you were the one to catch it.

I love you both.

"Practically Perfect in Every Way!"

"Practically Perfect in Every Way!"

That is how I would describe the situation we are in right now with child care. We received word yesterday that Mauldin officially has a spot at an in-home child care facility.

We have found our “Mary Poppins!” Her name is Gloria and she already keeps our beautiful niece, Annagrace and my wife’s little and rambunctious cousin, Grant. She is everything we want in a caregiver and because she keeps the children at her home he is less likely to contract sickness from other little wicked chilrun’s… (no-offense to those who use commerical care, it is just not the path we chose to take.) Although, I am sure he won’t be immune to disease, but just less likely to be sick ALL the time. Please Mauldin, don’t be allergic to everything! Gloria currently keeps six children and most of which are boys. I have seen her in action and have no doubt in my mind Mauldin will be in the best care possible. (That is other than his parents ;) )If it were where we could, my wife, Laura, would stay home and keep him, but since we are not in that position we are glad he can be somewhere with other kids so he can mesh into society with no problems! LOL! Gloria’s will be a way for him to begin to make friends and learn how to be “nice” and “share,” that is while he is away from us and until he enters school. By which, I hope he has learned to be “nice” and “share” before that time!

We could of sent out an advertisement or as they say in England “Ad-vert-TIS-ment”… and I guarantee she would of flown in with her umbrella in hand!

It would probably of sounded something to the effect of:

Wanted a nanny for one adorable baby…

[Sung]
If you want this choice position
Have a cheery disposition
Rosy cheeks, no warts!
Play games, all sorts

You must be kind, you must be witty
Very sweet and fairly pretty
Take him on outings, give him treats
Sing songs, be sweet

Never be cross or cruel
Never give him castor oil or gruel
Love him as a son; not a daughter
And never smell of barley water

If you won't scold and dominate him
He will never give you cause to beat him
He won't hide your spectacles
Because he can’t walk
Put toads in your bed
Or pepper in your tea

Hurry, Nanny!

Many thanks...

Sincerely...

Laura and Eric Skates.

Thank you Gloria! We are really glad to have you!

The search is on...

The search is on…

For what, you ask?

Child care, of course! We would, certainly, love to have a personal Mary Poppins, but now-a-days… we really cannot afford that. We certainly want what is best for our little man-child so we decided we would start the interviewing process to weed out the ones we like and the one’s we’d like to see fly off on their broom sticks.

We did have a potential lead, but sadly, for that Mary Poppins, the wind changed directions and we are unable to secure a spot. Thus, the pre-aforementioned “search.”

After Laura’s maternity leave, she will have the summer to spend with “the baby” (Laura’s trade is a kick-ass teacher) and not be going back to work, full-time, until the fall. With that said, we need to find someone who will not charge us for the summer months when Laura is out for break.

We decided we’d be pro-active and start looking for potential care for Mauldin. I mean someone has to watch him while “mom and dad” are at work. We certainly can’t ask our parents to drive an hour every day to watch his little booty.

Our main goal is to find an “in-home” facility and not commercial day care. Why? It’s our personal choice.

My wife, Laura, is the smartest woman I know. She went to the state website and did a search for “at-home” day cares in the local area. Low and behold the first one we called she sounded “practically perfect in every way.” Although, just because she sounds great on paper, we need to meet her to make sure she holds up to our expectations.

I figured we needed to do this systematically and so what did we do…?

Busted out the manila folders, of course. We printed off each applicant and wrote all the supplied information they gave us and the ones that did not pass the phone interview got a BIG BLACK “X” on their page. Laura, I am sure, felt like Miranda Hillard from “Mrs. Doubtfire” when she was talking to some of these ladies.

Some were so loud it reminded me of the scene from the movie:

“Laylaaaa! Get back in your cage before I have to get the hose!”

So, at the moment we have two potential choices and luckily our “practically perfect” choice takes deposits to hold a space for our little bugger… We hope to meet this nice lady, to confirm she is a nice lady, this weekend.

Wish us luck!