March

March was a ROUGH month around our home.  For everyone.  Sure, there were fun things too.  Ellie gave her first Primary talk in church at the very end of the month.  Mckayla showed her first real signs of potty training when she peed in the toilet for the first time on the 23rd.  I decorated the nursery in anticipation of our new little girl with The Very Hungry Caterpillar decals - which I still LOVE.  I also trained a new instructor to take over my Parent-tot classes at the pool and taught my last class at 34 weeks pregnant.  Ellie amazed me with her new ability to write her last name on the 15th!

However, our month began and ended it seemed with illness and was filled with dread for me most of the time.

In the beginning of the month, I learned that I would have to do all of my lifeguarding skills over the span of three Saturdays in order to keep my certification current.  Normally, I feel very confident in my lifeguarding abilities and don't really sweat recertifying.  However, with my Symphesis Pubis Dysfunction requiring physical therapy as it was, I was not hopeful that I would be able to swim my distance swim which required breaststroke, the most painful kick with my pelvis separating.  I wasn't sure I would be able to do two minutes of treading with only my kick.  I wasn't sure I would be able to perform the correct holds for a spinal victim with my big belly, let alone support myself and someone else during a deep water spinal using only my very painful kick.  I was terrified of failing, and even more terrified of seriously injuring myself.  So, Steve, my physical therapist, and I decided I would try - nothing more.  If I hurt, I was done, and it was time to let go of a certification I don't really use at work anymore anyway and am simply keeping as a safety net.  March 8th was my first Saturday, and I got through most of the water work fine.  I did attempt one water entry that made me cry, and was done with it, but it was good enough to move on.  As if I wasn't worried enough about how I'd get through the water skills portion of my testing, I started having an allergic reaction to the tape my physical therapist was putting on my back for extra support while I was swimming.  I had to go (extra nervously) into my final water skills assessment without my tape, and endure the itching, red, puffy spots on my back for a month or so before the reaction finally went away.

In the end, I was stiff and sore each Saturday evening, but I did it!  I was so relieved, so grateful that I had gotten through it, so thankful I wasn't injured, and honestly it showed me how strong my skills normally are that I was able to do them all 7 months pregnant.  I finished my final skills assessment and tests exactly 33 weeks pregnant, and very proud of myself.

In the meantime, while I was dreading recertification, things at home were rocky as well.  Ellie came down with some sort of virus that was bad enough we took her in to her pediatrician to make sure it was nothing more.  She looked so pitiful it was heartbreaking.  She had some kind of virus that acted like terrible allergies, making her eyes puffy, watery, and red, while she had bad cold symptoms on top of it.

It was a big deal when she finally started eating some again.  And it was so like her that the only thing I could get her to eat on this day was salad.  That kid loves her salad...

It also was not much fun that she passed that wonderful virus to Mckayla.  It didn't hit MG quite as hard, but still was no fun.  It mostly just turned her into a snot monster for a while.

But, we got through that illness.  Ellie got to return to preschool after a long hiatus, and we were happily moving on to fun things.  We had a play date with friends.  My sisters Jennifer and Julie came for a visit along with Jennifer's children Wyatt and Aubrey on the 17th.  We were having fun!

Them Mckayla started to get a fever, and I checked her mouth after cousins left and saw a couple of sores.  Bugger!  We had to call our play date friends and my sister and say we probably had some kind of virus with a fever and sores.  Why is it my kiddos always get sick right after a play date?  But still, Mckayla seemed to be doing ok, although she was getting grumpier.  These are pictures of the girls singing, dancing, and having fun just a few days later.

Sisters much?

And then, because we had a trip planned for the end of the month to begin Spring Break, things got ugly.  As I was dreading the end of my lifeguard testing, Mckayla got worse.  And then worse.  And then even worse.  Her mouth was COVERED in sores.  Her gums and mouth were bleeding constantly.  She couldn't eat anything hard, chewy, or acidic.  All she wanted was milk and her binky.  It just about made me want to cry when she'd come up in the morning with blood on her pajamas, caked onto her binky, and crusted all around her mouth.  She had trouble sleeping (big surprise) and was sweat soaked whenever she did sleep.  She wasn't even grouchy, just cuddly and so pitiful.

Our pediatrician gave us a prescription to try and help heal up her mouth as quickly as possible, since we couldn't do much more than control her fevers, numb the pain as much as possible with orajel on her binky, and wait for the virus to pass.  Poor Mckayla was beyond sick of medicine, especially since it seemed like the antibiotic burned her open sores.  Here is what one dose looked like, and she got several of these each day....

Yeah, March was rough.  And April didn't appear to be starting out real well either.  We survived it though, and were stronger for it.  I got recertified despite the stress and tears leading up to it, and we at least had everything we could possibly throw at Mckayla's illness.  So, we headed into April hoping it would simply be smoother than March.  And April did provide us with lots of fun things!