Recently in Illnesses Category

Evelyn has been poorly all weekend!

Getting up on Friday morning, Evelyn told Jilly and I that she wasn't feeling very well, and that TEN of her schoolfriends had been off school with swine-flu the day before. Convinced that Evelyn was 'pulling a fast one', Jilly checked her temperature (which was, essentially, normal [36.6^oC]) and made Evelyn understand that she would be going to school.

As I was on a training course on Friday, I returned home to find Evelyn looking decidedly sorry for herself, and amore than a little sleepy (Kieran had collected her from school...she hadn't just made her way home on her own!). After collecting Jilly from work, we tested Evelyn's temperature again to discover that it was 37.7^oC, and Evie had started with a very bad cough.

Evelyn hadn't improved when she woke yesterday and, with a temperature around 37.7^oC most of the day, Evelyn was constantly pestering Jilly and I for hugs and cuddles. Evelyn has managed to eat a little throughout the day, but without her usual enthusiasm...she must be ill.

Evelyn's temperature increased, slightly today [to 38.3^oC], and Jilly and I have been trying to keep it under control with regular doses of Paracetamol. As I'm typing this, I have just had to break off to go and console Evelyn (who I have just put to bed). Her (rather violent) coughing woke her, and she became really disoriented in her semi-consciousness. Jilly and I have decided that she will definitely not be going back to school in the morning.

On Tempy's [Kempy's] advice, Jilly has placed the Calamine lotion in the microwave (to warm it slightly) before applying it to Evelyn. This seems to have worked a treat! Evie's lovin' the application now, and has just assured Jilly,

"Oooo! I like that now, Mummy"

Cheers Tempy!

I think that Jilly and I each expected things to get worse, before they got better...and we were right.

Evelyn slept terribly again last night with both Jilly and I getting up at least three times to see to Evie. Most of the time, Evie was simply crying/shouting in her sleep, but I got up to her twice (at 12:30 and 01:45) and Evie was obviously in a lot of discomfort and wanted to go downstairs (believing it was time to get up).

Evie's spots have got much worse and, since I took this photo (her tummy and chest are almost as bad!), have got worse still. What makes matters even harder to bare, is that applying the Calamine lotion/cream to Evelyn seems to be causing her more distress than the spots themselves which, in turn, upsets Jilly and I. "I've had enooooouuggghhhh!", Evelyn begged, as we applied the lotion/cream at bed time.

It broke our hearts.

The nursery told me that they needed to exclude Evie until Thursday, but I can't imagine that all Evie's spots will have gone by then, so it's as well that Jilly's booked Friday off work too.

Oh dear!

Evelyn has chicken pox. Evie had a poor night's sleep on Thursday night (Jilly even allowed her to sleep with us), and was obviously unsettled all night. Evelyn had a little hot head, but Jilly and I both put that down to Evelyn being hot beneath her quilt. She seemed fine on Friday morning, with no signs of any spots or the pox, so I took her to nursery. Just before lunch, the nursery rang to say that Evelyn obviously had chicken pox and wanted me to come and collect her. When I arrived at the nursery, Evelyn seemed quite happy (if a little tired), and did have a bout half a dozen little spots on her tummy.

Evelyn (and, therefore, Jilly and I) had an appalling nights sleep last night, and Evelyn woke up absolutely covered in spots. The spots are all over Evie's little torso, face, head and even in her mouth and ears. Actually, Evie's being very brave about the whole thing, and rarely complains. She isn't doing a lot of scratching. When she does try to scratch her spots, and Jilly or I tell her to stop, she immediately denies scratching, and claims to be, "...just rubbin'"!

As I'm typing this, Jilly is applying more cream to Evie's spots and trying to sing her to sleep. Our liddle angel's not very happy at the moment...

I've just sat through Morgan Spulock's Super Size Me. Now, that's something I'm not going to forget in a hurry!

Jilly rang me at 4:00PM today to tell me that the nursery had phoned to report that Evelyn was ill with a high temperature and has been sick. It turns out that several of the toddlers at the nursery have had Chicken Pox in the last week, so we immediately feared that Evie had become infected.

Evelyn was clearly very unhappy when I arrived at the nursery. She was bright red, very hot indeed, and still has a slight rash! As Jilly passed Evie to me, she was entirely silent - which is unlike her - and very 'clingy'! During the drive home [in torrential rain] Evelyn was silent and, when we got home, Evelyn simply lay in my arms and went straight to sleep.

We managed to get an appointment at the G.P.'s this evening, and we were told that Evelyn appears - at the moment - not to be 'poxy', but that the infection may well become apparent in the next few days.

It's at times like this that a parent realises how truly fragile their precious liddle baby is.

Last night - after I'd put Evie to bed - Kieran and I were up in the loft, while Jilly was on the phone in our bedroom, when Evie began coughing (quite horribly, as she has been doing for the last couple of days!) in her cot. As she has been doing these last few days, Evie soon stopped coughing, and all was quiet again. A minute or so later, Jilly had finished on the phone, and checked on Evie to discover that, when she'd been coughing, the helpless little beaudee had been sick in her sleep, leaving her with a 'beard' of semi-digested weetabix on her chin!

Consequently, Jilly and I hardly slept a wink last night as, every time there was even a suggestion that Evelyn was about to start coughing, one of us sprang out of bed to be with her. Every ninety minutes one of us was up with the liddle beaudee, right up until it was time to get up. Evie never complained, there were no tears, there was no screaming, just a lot of coughing and spluttering followed by the most beautiful sound in the world...Evie's SNORING!

Evelyn has developed a bit of a cough over the last few days. She doesn't appear to be very bothered by the coughing, or in any pain, but is coughing loudly and often enough to wake Jilly and I two or three times every night. We have bought Evelyn some baby cough medicine [which Evie seems to really like!] and are keeping our fingers crossed that it will clear up before long. Obviously, we've locked the medicine up, in the drugs cabinet, away from Evie...