Flu

The flu has reached the Jenkins household.

I began on Saturday morning with Micah. He was complaining of symptoms like headache and fatigue, so I wrote it off thinking that he just hadn't gotten enough sleep (a condition whose symptoms I am infinitely familiar with). But by that night he had a fever and decided not to come to church on Sunday (which was a bummer, since he was supposed to be in 3 choir numbers and a duet for Sacrament meeting that day). Monday morning he went to the hospital at 3am because he measured his temperature at 104.5 (it was 103.1 at intake. Still high, but I suspect our thermometer is not very accurate). He was dehydrated so they gave him IV fluids and took an xray to make sure his lungs were clear and sent him home with a bunch of prescriptions. Aside from pain relievers and nausea medicine, he was prescribed tamiflu, a medication for treating the flu that is experiencing a nation-wide shortage (which surprised me, since I have hardly heard of anyone getting the flu this year), so I got to call pharmacies all over town to find one that still had it in stock. So around Monday, Natalie was starting to get a little crazy, which I mainly attributed to not sleeping. She refuses to go to sleep at night and was up past 10pm on Saturday and then was up in the middle of the night Sunday to take Micah to the ER. Combined with short naps and constantly waking up through the night as usual, I assumed that she was just a sleepy grouch monster. But then she started to run a fever and have diarrhea and refuse to eat anything, so she had clearly contracted it. The past few days have been watch-TV-and-drink-fluids type days. Yesterday we gave Natalie too much milk before her nap (since she's not eating anything, she needs sustenance from something!) and when she got into her bed, she threw up all over Micah. It was a good thing that he was there to catch the majority of it on his chest and stomach, as it barely got on her bedding, pillows and stuffed animals. Now those would have been harder to clean up.Micah is pretty much better, though he still has a lingering cough. Natalie's fever is gone, but she still refuses to eat anything (except for candy and ice cream, which she begs for constantly) and is very unhappy that we no longer leave the TV on all day long for her. As I type, she is downstairs screaming and crying and throwing a tantrum repeating over and over "Natalie watch TV!!!!!!"

Here she is zoned out on the couch the other morning clutching her sippy cup of gatorade watching Winnie the Pooh

I am surprised that I didn't come down with it (knock on wood) since I didn't get a flu shot and have been sleeping with and tending to flu victims for several days. I attribute my success to several factors: 1) Good hygiene practices 2) Good luck 3) Good respiratory health from all the awesome old-person-yoga classes I've been attending. It's a good thing, too. My brother an Mom are coming over in 5 days, so that will give us plenty of time to declare our home germ-free.

Yesterday, I had the 20 week ultrasound. When my Dr. asked, "Do you want to know what it is?" my first thought was "Um... A human, I hope?" Turns out, I was right. There is a human growing inside me. The baby appears to have two arms and legs, ten fingers and toes, four heart chambers and one vagina. Which is good, since this child will receive nothing but pink hand-me-downs. And bad, as Micah will probably one day insist on having more children so that he can have a son. 

Today, I got to go to the dentist for the first time in 5 years. I was just getting a basic exam, but of course they told me that I am in need of a deep cleaning that costs about $900. I told them I would have to wait until I have dental insurance and they warned me not to wait very long or all of my teeth will fall out. Which sounds truly lame. Fortunately, thanks to my vigorous brushing, I do not have any cavities. Unfortunately, I am experiencing early gum recession due to brushing too vigorously. Dang it! I just can't win with this whole teeth thing!

I've done a bit of holiday baking, but I'm finding it difficult to get much done in the kitchen these days as Natalie demands to sit on the counter at all times (often when I'm not even in the kitchen doing anything). I try to give her constructive things to help with (e.g. pour the cup of flour in, separate the muffin liners) but she always ends up getting into stuff on the counters and then I have to put her down and she throws a massive hissy. And no one likes being around a massive hissy-thrower.

In other news, I recently bought some pomegranates. I really enjoy pomegranates. My earliest memory of them involved going in to my dad as he was away in some room watching a football game and being amazed by the simultaneous beauty and hideousness of this strange fruit that he was ripping into chunks and gnawing away at to get to the hundreds of little sacs of edible fruit. I have since taken for granted that this is how pomegranates are properly eaten. And thus, I do not eat them often because it takes at least 30 minutes and usually makes a big mess of staining juice all over hands, clothes, furniture and floor. Before we got out the pomegranates this year, I looked up some methods online. And, lo an behold, there are many superior methods. This one in particular seemed fast and easy, so we tried it.

It took a few minutes, but then we had a fabulous bowl of pomegranate kernels to eat. Amazing. I could even feed them to Natalie one at a time on the couch without fear of a massive mess.