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!!!

My son wants to catch the worm...

It sure is an eye-opening experience when you’re sitting at your desk pretty content on doing your job when you receive a phone call expressing that your wife is on the way to the hospital because she is having contractions!!! Five minutes apart, no less. I was not sure how to even react to this news…

“It can’t be time yet,” I thought… “we are only 33 weeks along! He can’t come yet… he still has some cookin’ to do…”

I received this phone call at 4:02pm, on Thursday afternoon, and all in the next 30 minutes, I was able to call my boss, explain the situation and meet my wife, and mother-in-law, at the elevators of labor & delivery! Yes, I think I broke a few speeding laws on the way, but my mind was going 1,000 miles a minute and I almost broke down into the fetal position, ironically the very position my son is in, and swayed back-n-forth while saying… “not yet… not yet… not yet…”

However, that didn’t happen… I was able to pull myself together and be calm and chill as a 1999 bottle of white wine… (in which I was needing a glass of, bad!) That was until I got to the hospital...

On the way there...I made sure to contact my mom and sister to make sure they were aware of what was going on... "Is she okay?" my mom said in a rushed and motherly voice...

"Yes, mom, as far as I know, but when I find out exactly what is going on, I will call you back!"

I made it! Finally, after I parked, I made it inside and there were the elevators and to my right I heard...

“Hey baby,” my wife, Laura, said when greeting me at the elevator. I took a deep breath and looked at her belly. She had on a mint green shirt and gray sweatpants. I know this wasn’t her first choice of attire, but with the need to be comfortable, over chic, she obliged to comfort.

“How are you feelin’, you okay?” I quickly interjected during our embrace.

“Yeah, I’m fine, the doctors just felt I needed to be monitored…” she said, “That’s all!” How is she being so calm, I thought... she could go into frickin' labor!?!?!

I glanced over to my right, there stood my mother-in-law, Carol, she seemed as calm as could be, but I knew inside she was pretty much freaking out, but would never let her daughter see this because she knew deep down as soon as “she” looked nervous Laura would lose it. So, I took this as a cue that I should calm down as well… and honestly, how could I even really freak out because I truly could not imagine Mauldin being born on this day.. this day of days when I only had a caramel macchiato, from Starbucks, for lunch. This is Thursday, February 5^th, this isn’t a day for my child to be born… this is the day BEFORE he is 33 weeks… I will not freak out because this is not the day my son will arrive to this world in his birthday suit. Besides, this isn’t the day I picked for the “pick-a-date” pool…

We walk in and are put into “triage,” which by just that word sounds scary… like we are on M.A.S.H. or something… Triage, I have only heard that word whenever we are watching a disaster movie where there has been mass destruction!!!!

After being hooked up to numerous machines, Laura is monitored as to make sure Mauldin doesn’t arrive… her contractions are still in full force, but from what I can tell she isn’t in a lot of pain. The nurse comes in to let us know Laura should be drinking atleast eight glasses of water a day… and they will be giving her a “shot” to lessen and hopefully stop said contractions. Although, they do warn, my wife, this shot may cause her to feel a little “different” for a short while. Oh, and that is certainly what happens… she starts shivering and shaking as if she hadn’t had her heroine today! (NOTE: My wife is not a junkie by any means) I had to hold her cup of water to make sure it didn’t shimmy out of her hand… There was nothing I could do, but stand there and watch… I wrapped my arm around her shoulders trying to hold her to show some sort of comfort, but she still shook…

What we do for our children.

Okay, fast forward three and a half hours and we are finally allowed to leave… her contractions have ceased… the shivering is over and her blood pressure is back to normal. So, now all we can do is wait… We certainly do not know how soon he will decide to grace us with his presence, but lets hope and pray that the lil’ guy has a little more patience than his dad because as the nurses say…

“White boys are whimpy!” He needs to wait until ATLEAST the first week in March.

Please, oh please, let him be somewhat punctual and not an early bird!!!