spring schludge

Well, for about 10 days I've been suffering from somewhat polymorphic allergy/sinusitis symptoms. Andrea has succumbed to something similar but different, the usual 3-6 day lag behind/before me(this case behind) and Felix has two bottom teeth, so he's been wearing his crankypants pretty much off an on all day and definitely all night for the past week or so. And along with the super drool, he's also got some nose crusties and he's been doing this super cute (but I'm wondering if it is due to congestion or him possibly feeling some other sort of sinus irritation) thing where he scrunches up his nose and cheeks and blows through his nose in short bursts. It looks funny, like he's happy, but maybe he's just trying to blow his nose? And we're also worried he might be harboring an ear ache too, since when things start to go cranky for any reason, the first thing he does is starts going for the ears.

For me, I started out dealing with hard-core post-nasal drip and the occasional (sometimes frequent) uncontrollable spastic coughing. In the morning this coughing brings up a good deal of crud, but during the day it seems mostly to be a dry cough. I can't control it because what triggers the cough is a dry tickle/itch that feels like having a hair stuck in your throat and it only gets worse as you breathe and try NOT to cough. And the coughing causes headaches and is generally irritating to everyone around me. Starting this past monday the coughing has lessend a LITTLE, the post-nasal has tapered off a bit (but I still cough crud up in the morning, just less), but now I've started with come and go congestion and runny nose with the occasional sneezing. So it SOUNDS a lot like allergies...of course the OTC loratadine (10mg) doesn't seem to do diddly. Also, now it feels like my jaw NEAR one of my lymph nodes is tender... so who knows. We're at about day 10 or 11 so I'm wondering if it was viral it would be on its way out by now. I hope so. I've been sleeping on the couch so my coughing won't keep Andrea up more than she has to be (due to Felix's teething).

Andrea is congested, sore throat, body aches, fatigue, and in general out of commission due to her already grueling regiment of being Felix's milk maid. So, add to that the lack of sleep due to my coughing and Felix's frequent wakeups at night... This morning she hit the wall and I'm staying home to take care of Felix while she tries to rest up and regain.

Felix, with his super drooly mouth and little nubby teeth, has become very clingy in the past week. Sometimes he doesn't want to be put down. He actually seems to be giving us hugs sometimes and not just hanging on for dear life. He's almost completely mastered the stairs (he goes up and down but still has trouble getting starting going down) and his favorite thing is to crawl UNDER the furniture now, including going after toys that have rolled into hard to reach spaces. We've also seen him trying to climb into his pack-n-play, which is impressive and frightening at the same time...once he is able to master climbing up and over something like that, we're screwed.

So, it's the sick tending the sicker and minding the young here at casa de premidlife.