What a day so far!

It all started about 4 am. Brody woke up crying and I couldn't calm him down for anything. I did notice that he started crying worse every time he peed. Well finally about the fifth diaper change at about 8 am I decided to put my glasses on and was quite surprised at what I saw. Poor little guy had a really bad rash all over his thighs, diaper area, chest, chin and even on his lips! So I called the pediatrician and we got ready and headed to Gainesville. On the way there I realized that I started taking grapefruit seed extract on wednesday and started to worry that I may be responsible for the mess on my child. So I called my friend Angela, a lactation consultant, to ask her about it all. She couldn't find any info to point to anything i'm taking so I felt a little better about things before I got there. (read the post below about the whole tooth infection thing) She made a good point about not telling the doc right away about the supplements so that I didn't steer her towards an easy answer and away from investigating things further. Didn't take her long though once she looked at him. Turns out he has hand, foot and mouth disease which sounds horrible but is almost like chicken pox. It's just a virus that has to run its course. The bad thing is that it is painful. He has sores all in his mouth and that's why he keeps refusing to nurse. The doc said to give tylenol for the pain and keep him hydrated. I've been giving him water with a straw and he seems to really like it. He sucks it down. The tylenol seems to have helped him some too. I went to Target on my way out of town to get him some tylenol and some disposable diapers (to keep the wetness off the rash, we usually use cloth) and some disinfecting supplies since the doc gave me the wonderful news of how contagious it is and that we will be lucky if we all don't end up with it. So looks like we will be spending the weekend alone, in hopes of not spreading this any further. We were just at the doctor on monday for Brody's 4-month check-up so that is probably where we got it from. They said it's been going around and they have seen several cases recently. That's the second time in two months we've picked up some sort of crud from the pediatricians office. So much for "well baby" check-ups huh? They should call them "hope your baby is still well after this" check-ups.

Oh and my favorite thing of the day besides the constantly crying baby and lack of sleep and hearing about the possibility of us all getting the crud? After I drove away from Target and was about to get on the interstate I reached for my phone to call Brett and guess what? I didn't have my purse anymore! I turned around and high-tailed it back to the Target parking lot and found my purse in the buggy in the parking lot!!! Holy cow man, what a day. At least I didn't leave a kid in there! Luckily I parked way out in timbucktwo in the parking lot so as not to get a dent in the pretty new car i'm driving around so my purse was out there by itself. Well that and the thing is pretty big and i've realized i'm not that good at parking it yet. I've come out of some places to get back in the car and looked at where I was between the lines and thought "now who in the heck parked that thing?". The extra walk is good for me too since my body seems to be resisting losing the baby weight this time around. I've been going to the gym three times a week and watching what I eat and I can't seem to lose a pound. Okay well that's not completely true. I've lost about two pounds in two months. That's pretty ridiculous. I never even went to the gym after Houston was born and I lost almost all my baby weight by this point. I still have 15 pounds to go. Everyone keeps telling me it will come and I guess I just have to go with that. I'm really getting tired of wearing the same four outfits I have that fit me though. Something has to change. That milkshake I decided to get as stress relief on the drive home after the Target fiasco probably isn't going to help me any but it sure was good. I got one of those Smores Halloween Milkshakes from Steak 'n Shake ... yummy. It actually has marshmellows and graham crackers in it that are small enough to fit in the straw. What an invention!

Okay ... that's enough rambling for now. I have a killer headache. I think i'll go take some tylenol myself and try to rest my eyes for a bit. Yeah ... like that's gonna happen.

One other thing i've been meaning to share with you all ... if you ever have pee, dog, kid or otherwise on your carpet and can't seem to get rid of the smell I found a wonderful solution. Wet the carpet and pour some Borax on it. Work the Borax into the carpet with a broom and let it air dry. When the carpet dries vacuum it up and the smell will be gone. We had some dog pee in the boys room (don't ask, long story) that I was sure I was going to smell until we ripped up the carpet. I had a box of Borax for flea control (natural flea killer/repellant also) and I noticed something on the box about using it to get urine odors out of matresses. I thought i'd try it on the carpet and I am amazed. I can actually put my nose IN the carpet and take a big whiff and I don't smell any pee anymore. YAY!!!