Wiggins World!!!: Really Rough Week

I gotta say this has been one of the toughest weeks for us, and very emotional for me as a mom. Sunday afternoon after Asher woke up from his nap at Disney he felt a little warm to me, so I checked his temp. It was a low fever, only 100.2. No biggie. We really enjoyed our day at Disney with the Sali's and Juan's sister and her hubby, Dawn and Ray. This day will be my next post. :) By the time we stopped for dinner on the way home Asher's temp had gone up to 101.7. I gave him Advil and he napped on me while we ate dinner. He perked up once the Advil kicked in and we made it home without any trouble, thankfully.
It was really great on Monday to have Jayme home. We stayed home all day (Jayme and I each ran an errand), nursing Asher's fever, which went up to 103.5. Then came the dots. On Tuesday he broke out in a rash, but thankfully his fever was gone. I thought we were in the clear....until Tuesday evening when I went to my exercise class and Jayme texted me that Asher was really having a hard time going to sleep and that his feet seemed to be itching him. We tried everything to help this little guy be able to get some sleep. Cold compresses, lavendar oil, hydra-cortisone creme, Caladryl lotion and Benedryl. I thought for sure the Benedryl would knock him out and he'd get some sleep but no go. Jayme got him down from 1030-11pm then he woke up screaming. So I just kept him up- we watched lots of TV which was really the only thing that seemed to distract him a bit. His little feet kept moving back and forth the whole time, using one foot to itch the other. I tried to itch for him since he was miserable, taking one foot at a time and rubbing to hopefully give him some relief. He refused a bath as well, and we just stayed up literally all night until he finally was exhausted enough to go to sleep at 5:45am. It was so frustrating, watching him roll around and cry off and on becuase he was so uncomfortable. I thought about taking him to the ER, but he wasn't having any trouble anywhere else except his feet. Truly heartbreaking.
I grabbed a couple hours of sleep with him and then we had to get up for Hannah's swim lesson. Right after her swim lessons Jayme and I divided and conquered. He took Hannah to her ENT appointment to get her lip tie checked out, and I took Asher to the doctor so I could get an answer about what was going on with him.
Asher perked up and was extremely pleasant to the doctor that examined him. I told him what would be happening at the doctor, and he did really really great. When she walked into the room and introduced herself he said "Hi! I'm Asher!" I had a feeling that the rash meant hand foot and mouth disease (a nasty contagious virus that has gone around Asher's school a couple of times) but really wanted to be wrong! However, almost as soon as she walked into the room the doctor said "Yep, that's what this is." There is nothing to do for them except give meds as needed and keep them comfy. The third component to this virus is mouth sores. Asher had a few but they didn't seem to be bothering him, thankfully. Kids are contagious for awhile, until all sores are healed (i think just having the pink dots isn't contagious but any open ones are).
About this time Jayme texted and said Hannah felt warm to him and was running a low fever. Well there's really only one thing that meant - Asher had shared his virus. Just great. We were on day 3 of being basically homebound, and this meant not only would poor Hannah have a tough week ahead of her but we wouldn't be seeing another soul except for when Jayme came home from work.
By the time I got her home Hannah's temp was 102.3. I just tried to do my best and make both kids comfy. After his bad, itchy night Asher has really been pretty good, thankfully. His mood gets better each day, he just, as he says "I have pink dots." And his sleep is really off, so we are working on that.
Poor Hannah got the mouth sores in full effect. Thursday her fever went away but by Thursday evening she was really having a hard time swallowing and eating much of anything. All day Thursday I'd make her any food she pointed to, only to have her reject it before taking a bite. She was hungry but afraid to eat. We did go grab some milkshakes and she did drink some of one of those, which was great. Jayme made her a smoothie that night when they got really bad.
In addition to feeling badly (or because of it) Hannah has been really really irritable and cranky. Nothing makes her happy, she wants held all the time (hard to do) and doesn't want to go to sleep (cries inconsolably when you take her in her room). When she doesn't get her way she gets really mad and throws things! I try to accommodate her but really, when you want to grab my hot coffee mug I have to say no!
Last night it took us until 11pm to get Asher to sleep and then Hannah was up from 1245-3am. I am spent, and really emotional. I feel like a failure of a mom this week because I can't keep them happy (where did this come from- Asher's school or was it something like a shopping cart?), and have gotten really frustrated with Hannah a few times, which is unusual for me. It's been really isolating to not be able to go out because they are very contagious, and obviously nobody wants to come over/hang out with your kids when they are sick! I wouldn't either. Asher cries when I try to put him down for bed, and unless he is rocked to sleep he just cries and cries when we put him in his crib. He started having another round of separation anxiety a few weeks ago, so we've been rocking him to sleep, but this takes a really long time and then by the time that is done it's time for us to go to bed and we get no time together, just fall into bed exhausted. I know this is all par for the course as parents, but just pray for wisdom for me/us to know how to handle getting back on schedule. Part of me thinks it's time to switch Asher to a big boy bed (maybe he would feel less "trapped") but know that will also be a process. He has been sleeping in because of being up all night Tuesday night and a few days before was up at 445am (the day we went to Disney), then napping late, thus going to bed late, and even later when he doesn't go down easily.
Thankfully Hannah slept in this morning and woke up with a few smiles. I have not had to give her medicine yet today and she is doing pretty well. She keeps pointing to her mouth and making a "yuck" sound, and is also very interested in her other spots on her feet and hands, she keeps pointing to them.
Hopefully the worst is behind us, and I know there are worse things in the world than sick kids, but as I've said before I live in a baby bubble and when this was my world this week, it's just been tough. Thanks for reading and here's a few pictures of the kids this week.