Wiseman Weekly Wrap-Up: *Cough-Cough* Everyone is Sick Here!

This week has been rough. Everyone has been sick (except Kathryn) to a certain degree at some point this week.

Sarah was down early in the week. She was feverish and wanted to lie on the couch or sleep all day. If you know Sarah, this has never happened! We took Joseph to school, then after napping all morning, she couldn't wait to get back into bed fast enough for an afternoon nap. I thought for sure she would be up all night after all that sleeping during day. Nope--by 6:30pm she was sound asleep again and didn't make a peep until 7am or so the next morning. She took another nap that morning and has been doing well since, aside from the cough. Sarah is prone to coughs and they last a long time whenever she gets one. Too much coughing causes her to gag and vomit, which she did once this week, on the couch.

Joseph has "the" cough too, a runny nose, and slight fever. He has good days and tired days. Twice this week he has fallen asleep around 5pm, woken up around 7pm to nibble a few bites of food, then gone back to bed for the rest of the night.

Baby David is cutting teeth, at least 4 of them to be exact. He has had a fever too. Last night he woke up every 2 hours starting at 8pm until 6am. He decided he didn't want to nurse anymore and will only take a bottle, which was the only thing that got him back to sleep those 6 times he woke up. All day today he would wake up for 30 minutes for so, then sleep for 2+ hours. David put him to bed at 5 pm and he hasn't made a peep yet (it's 11pm now as I write this--I did check on him, he's still alive). Maybe he's getting better too?

David is really sick too -- coughing (sounds like a deep, dry, hacking cough), fever, achy muscles, dizzy. He looks worse than ever. He's probably down to his lowest weight since we've been married. Finishing that dissertation really took it out of him (waking up at 5am, going to bed at 11pm or later every night). Getting him to eat 3 square meals is almost impossible. He frequently eats only dinner, with maybe a small piece of fruit for lunch. He is starting to look like a holocaust survivor--and I'm not being trite or exaggerating! He must be under 130 lbs now. Anyway, he's totally swamped with work still and we both feel like we're trying to dig out of a huge hole. We finally called the home teachers around 9pm and they came to give him a blessing. I was thinking the whole family needed one.

Me, I'm not feeling too great either. Between his coughing and the baby crying last night, I didn't hardly sleep at all. I've got the cough and runny nose, etc. too, but thankfully I'm well enough to be able to take care of everyone else. Why am I awake at 11pm? I've been busy taking kids "potty", changing wet bedding, and administering medicine to all the sickies.

On the bright side, it's been nice and toasty warm here this week, compared to the rest of the country. I'm grateful that we didn't have rolling blackouts or frozen pipes.