the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week(s)

September has not been kind to the Lecaque family.

First of all, Jamie was very sick last week. He had had a cough for a while, then on Tuesday afternoon he came down with a fever and ended up going to the ER in the middle of the night when it hit almost 105 degrees. He was diagnosed with walking pneumonia and put on antibiotics. We were also instructed to give him breathing treatments 3x a day as long as he was taking it. The next day, we continued to struggle with keeping his fever down, he had a very difficult time taking his medicine (particularly the antibiotic but he certainly wasn't a fan of the tylenol and motrin either!), and he threw up, which is extremely unusual for him. In the evening his fever once again spiked to 105, and when his medicine and a cold bath didn't seem to help, Thomas took him back to the ER. By the time he finally got in to see a doctor, his temperature was down (thank heavens), but they gave him shots of the antibiotic to get it working more quickly and did some blood work to make sure they hadn't missed anything. Poor guy. The next day he threw up again. Finally his fever seemed to get under control at least, though we continued to have a LOT of trouble getting him to cooperate with taking the medication. So glad when that was over with! He seems to be perfectly healthy now, and hopefully he will remain so. He had been sick a lot on and off over the summer with fevers and bad coughs; hopefully all that has been cleared up!

On Friday or Saturday that week, Thomas stubbed his toe so badly he thought it was broken, and he hobbled around for several days. It seems to be better now so perhaps it wasn't actually broken, but he was definitely in a lot of pain.

On Sunday, I came down with a fever and was out of commission. Thankfully it never got as high as Jamie's and only lasted one day.

We were so thankful when that awful week was over. But the next week also had bad news in store for us. On Thursday, our car engine started to overheat. We had had some issues with that in August too but had made sure our coolant was at the right level and everything and hadn't had problems since. This time it was overheating worse, and when Thomas checked the coolant, it was completely empty though he had just filled it a month ago. Thankfully our friends and neighbors let us use some of their coolant to fill it back up so Thomas could safely drive the car to the mechanics. It turned out to be a much bigger problem than we thought. Apparently the internal computer of the car has stopped working, which was causing the car to burn through the coolant faster than normal. (I don't know much about cars, so if any of this doesn't make sense, that's why. I'm just reporting what Thomas said the mechanics told him.) In any event, the cost of replacing it combined with other more minor repairs the car needs would be more than the car is worth. So turns out we are going to be buying a new car. We were really hoping for our Malibu to last at least through grad school, but it didn't quite make it. So close, though!

Then on Friday, I noticed that Jacob had suddenly developed a rash all over his arms, legs, feet, and torso. He also had several poopy diapers that day when he usually only poops once every few days. I was really worried he was getting sick. Thankfully yesterday his rash had vanished and he doesn't seem to be sick after all.

On top of all of this, Jacob's nighttime sleep has gotten significantly worse in the last week or two. It was already bad, but now it is just off-the-charts horrible. His naps have actually been getting better recently; at night, though, he can't seem to stay asleep for more than maybe 3 hours at a time and usually much less than that. We are up and down all night long, every single night. Thomas and I both feel like we are just about to collapse with exhaustion every day. Jacob has teeth that feel like they'll be coming in any day, so I'm sure that's part of the reason. Hopefully when they come through he'll be able to settle down a little more. And hopefully at some point he'll start sleeping on his tummy. He's been rolling over for several weeks but never does it at night. If he would just start sleeping on his belly, I think that would make a huge difference, but we'll just have to wait for him to figure that out on his own.

September is usually my favorite month. Hopefully the rest of it will go better.