Sick of Sickness!!

This winter has been awful for Ethan. Since he was born, this is by far his worst winter yet. When we were in the hospital with him, they kept telling us that the first winter would be the worst and to expect that he could get sick. We did what they said and we kept him in until Easter. It was his best winter and ours too! The next year, he did pretty well, but at the end of the winter ended up with asthma. The year after that we were dealing with ear tubes and reflux, which caused him to cough for 3 months. Last year, he had a pretty good winter and only picked up colds here and there from school.

This year, however, has been awful. The other years had their moments, but this has been non-stop. I've starting thinking that everyone is going to think we have been lying about his sickness to get out of going to stuff. I wish we were! Since he started school in Sept., he has been sick every 2-4 weeks. Some of it has to do with the fact that he is with other kids that also have low immune systems, so they easily pass things to each other. But, I also think his ears may have something to do with it also. He has had 3-4 ear infections since mid-Dec, which means antibiotics each time. For the last 3 or 4 times he has had a cold, he has also needed to go on prednosone, which is never fun. Thankfully, we have possibly avoided it this time though.

Unfortunately, we did not avoid the antibiotic. Matt took Ethan to the doctor today to find out why he was having so many fevers this weekend. The doctor confirmed what we were thinking, that it was another ear infection. He also told us that Ethan's lungs sounded good even though he has been coughing like crazy. The poor little guy just looks sick and has for much of the last several months. We are hoping that we will finally get him past all of this.

Both Matt and I have suffered at different points with colds that we have probably caught from Ethan, but luckily Micah has not really had too many problems. He has had a stuffy/runny nose off and on for a few weeks now, and he has coughed and sneezed. We are thinking some of it has to do with his teething, but he may also be getting little colds too. It is such an amazing thing to have a kid that actually makes it through a cold without much assistance! We just hope it stays that way :)

Matt and I both feel like we have been so busy lately and we could really use a break. Of course, that won't be coming anytime soon. It would be great to just get away, but we know it would mean more work when we come back. For me, school has been stressful. There is just a lot going on and it doesn't help that I have not been able to dig myself out of the piles of work I have. Everytime I seem to get a little ahead, there are about 5 emails/memos/students/parents, etc. giving me more work to do. I know it is part of the job and it really wouldn't be bad, if I didn't have all of this other stuff to do on top of it. Hopefully, someday I will be back on track with my daily routine.

With school giving me so much work, I barely have time to spend at home with the kids. I get home, we rush a dinner and I get right back to work. I don't have time to exercise, which I know would help me to feel less stressed. I have also had a lot of pain in my back and my feet, so I know the exercise would really help that too. Hopefully, if Matt and I can get Ethan on track and get ourselves feeling better, everything else will start to get better! I really hope that will be true :) We are all feeling so run down that we need some good, positive things happening at home and outside of home :) Please join us in praying that Ethan starts to feel better and gets back to normal (well, normal for him).