Well, the rash turned out to be an allergic reaction to penicillin, which I took b/c DH thought I had strep. After starting the penicillin, I felt tons better from my strep- and I think I had strep b/c I had the fever and all the other symptoms. DH was on call, and so I decided to go ahead with the antibiotics b/c I needed to be able to deal with life... After about 3 days of penicillin, I had a lot of trouble breathing. I kept taking albuterol, like 20 times a day. I think the breathing was due to inflammation from an allergic rxn to penicillin. After about 7 days of penicillin, I broke out in a rash on my arms. My fingers were swollen- luckily I took off my wedding band or else it would've needed to be cut off. I called my dad because DH was on call, and I hadn't seen him for days anyway, and described my symptoms. He thought it sounded like an allergic rxn to penicillin, especially given my breathing issues. He told me what to take, I went to bed, and by the time I woke up in the morning my entire forearms were swollen (no longer hives-- they had all coalesced), and I was going crazy. It burned, itched, blahhhh. Anyway, DH was off of call, and so he wrote for some prednisone. I took prednisone which broke up the rash by about 80% the first day, and took care of the rest over the next couple of days...

Anyway, the prednisone is pretty trippy... At one point I felt like throwing the computer across the room because I couldn't download the Avery wizard to help make labels. :huh: It makes me jumpy and antsy and anxiety-ridden, but I'm done with the taper and so I think the computer is safe... Maybe...

DH didn't have to work over President's Day Weekend. This should have been a great thing, but it was one of the worst weekends ever. A large reason for the crappy weekend was that I was dealing with the prednisone and the anxiety it provoked in me. I felt stress like I haven't felt in ages. And since DH is working every other day of February, the stress was magnified because there are projects that have been put off that just can't wait. Foremost of these: assembling Josie's crib. She's been in the bassinet this whole time, and she's starting to move a lot and gets all scrunched up... Plus, she's still in our room which is a *huge* problem. Sleeping is generally speaking a total nightmare.

So... To assemble the crib, DH needed to first get the crib out of storage. The storage space is accessed through the closet in Kate's room. This meant that Kate needed to clean a path to the storage space. We use every square foot of space in our house. Every singe one... So every time we have to rearrange furniture it's a logistical nightmare. Ultimately, there was a lot of moving of furniture, a lot of rearranging of storage space, and a lot of me trying to keep the kids out of DH's way while I was feeling on the verge of driving away to nowhere the whole time.

Additionally, Josie decided this weekend to stop sleeping through the night. She decided to wake up at 12. I won't feed her until 3, at the earliest. I just can't handle it when DH is on call if I have to feed her at 9, 12, 3, 6, etc., etc. She is after all almost 6 months and enough is enough... So, I started doing a more formal CIO plan. We did let the other kids CIO, but much earlier. They were all sleeping through the night at 4 months old-- and the CIO process was relatively painless (as in at most 1 hour of crying). However, they all were separate rooms at that age... Josie is a special, stubborn little girl who is quite aware that her mother is in the room with her... Anyway, CIO has not gone well. But I'm sticking to it b/c I know if I don't now, she's going to be in bed with me for the next 3 years and DH and I will possibly never sleep together again! (Incidentally, that was a big motivational factor for him to get the crib assembled!) So, now the crib is assembled, I finally got the sheets and stuff washed for it, and I'm ready to move her over this weekend... Isabel will need to sleep in the boys' room for a while, but that's OK. I hope that in 1 month Josie will be a decent sleeper! Just decent! I dont' care if I have to get up with her at 3 am and feed her and put her back down-- as long as I get 10-3...

Anyway... it was a bad weekend. Just... bad... Things will look up I'm sure. I still have 1 day left of prednisone... DH works every other day of February, but then this rotation is OVER and....



HE ONLY TAKES CALL 6 DAYS ALL OF MARCH PLUS HE TAKES 1 WEEK OF LEAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!


So, I think I can make it... I think I can...