Having our kids stay home with our very awesome nanny, Mary, for their first couple of years was amazing for for more reasons then I could count.

Unfortunately there is a not-so-amazing side- the kids (relatively) immature immune systems. Mary took them a ton of places while she watched them- play groups, parks, museums and every place in between- but none of them can mimic the cesspool of germs that is a 3 year old Pre-K classroom. The Bean’s teachers (and the school’s janitorial service) do a great job keeping the classroom clean, but when you have twenty 3 year olds in the same room for 7 hours a day / 5 days a week things are just nasty.  And the Bean, bless her sweet heart, has picked up every one of those germs.

In 19 days, the poor child has had strep throat, an ear infection, a wicked cold and now an stomach bug. She just can’t catch a break.  We’ve done two different kinds of oral antibiotics (that was fun) as well as a shot of antibiotic for the ear infection. She’s recovered really quickly from everything except this tummy bug- this has laid her out for the past 29 hours which is a record for my Bean.

While most of me is thrilled we had such a mild winter, I really wish we got a long enough cold snap to kill off some of these germs. *sigh* It can only go up from here, right?

The ongoing saga of getting medicine into Bean continues…

Last we left off, the Hubs and I were trying to get the powder from the capsules into her food so she’d ingest it. We were, at best, minimally successful, so I called the doctor’s Monday morning to see what else he could recommend. Honestly, I was hoping he’d suggest a shot of antibiotic because frankly, it would have been easier on all of us.  But, he didn’t- instead we decided on an antibiotic that could be easily flavored in the hopes of at least getting her to choke it down.

It took her 45 minutes, 3 meltdowns, countless threats of being held down so the medicine could be squirted in her mouth*, a half a bag of M&M and some cheese balls for her to take about 3/4 of it.  I promised her I’d get her more goodies if only she’d take her medicine.  That is why I found myself at a gas station at 6:30 this morning, sweaty and yucky from working out, stocking up on soda, M&Ms, and munchkins from Dunkin Dounuts. And even after all that, we only got 1/2 of her dose (which is only 1 tsp mind you) down her.

So I did what any desperate, out-of-ideas parent would do.

I took the Bean’s medicine to school and begged the school secretaries to give her her medicine at lunch time. I stressed that she probably wouldn’t take it and for them not to stress out about it, but if they could give it a try I’d be eternally grateful. I left the school convinced this was going to end badly for them and the Bean.

When I went back to school that afternoon to get the medicine from the office, the secretaries told me she took it all without a fuss.

Of course she did- because she’s out to give me a nervous breakdown and to make me look like a fool in front of the school staff. The Bean is so lucky she’s so darn cute.

The Bean has had a rather rough weekend.

She woke up Saturday unhappy- her PJs weren’t comfy, she didn’t want to watch anything on TV, she didn’t want to play a game, she had to go potty put didn’t want to get up and on and on and on.  At first I chalked it up to her not getting enough sleep and being mad at the Hubs and I for leaving her with a sitter Friday night but about an hour after getting up, she laid down on the kitchen floor, burst into tears and told me her throat hurt.  We were at the doctor’s an hour later to confirm that the Bean had strep throat.

The Bean sobbed the entire 15 minute car ride home because strep throat meant missing her best friend’s birthday party that morning.  A party that promised her closest friends, bouncing in bounce house and cake- all before noon.  She was heartbroken to miss out on the fun.

To add insult to injury (or in this case, illness), the Hubs and I have spent all weekend long trying to sneak the Bean her medicine. I’ve chronicled our complete failure at getting the Bean to take liquid medicine , so her doctor and I agreed that getting her antibiotic in capsule form may be easier. This way I could just break apart the capsule and sneak the powder into her food- easy peasy.

Hahahahahahaha….clearly, I’m overly optimistic.

First, no matter how we pulverize the damn powder, I can’t get it fine enough to blend into her drinks- it floats on top. She doesn’t like the consistency in her food even though we’ve tried everything- including the brilliant idea of crumbling oreos into her pudding to mask the grittiness.  We’ve managed to get a lot of the meds down her, but it’s been a battle- the poor Bean doesn’t want to eat anything we give her anymore because she’s sure we put meds in it now.

She finally lost it before bedtime and just cried and cried. She’s normally a tough cookie, so I was feeling horribly for her. I laid down next to her and we were having a sweet little conversation about how I’m glad she felt better and the importance of medicine and how proud I was of her for being so brave. During the talk she’s cuddling against me- a rarity in itself- when she snuggled her head in closer to my shoulder. I asked her if she was getting comfortable and she said, “nope, I’m just wiping my boogers on you.”

Of course she is. So glad she’s feeling better and back to her charming self.