Swine Flu and a new camera

(I'm going to preface this by saying pictures from my new camera will be all throughout this post and may not go with what is being talked about) :)  Well, around midnight early Sunday morning, I checked on Cara, and she was burning up.  So Eric and the kids stayed home from church and she seemed to feel fine all morning after a dose of motrin.  That evening however, she kept saying she was cold and sat on the couch and shivered for awhile.  Then got up and played.  We were confused, but knew we wanted to take her in Monday morning before the doctors office closed for Christmas.  She spiked her fever again (102.5) overnight, so we were in the doctor's office at 8 am. 

(love the tongue action)

My girl yesterday

They first tested for strep, because she had no other symptoms besides a fever (no cough, lungs clear, no runny nose, no sneezing, however she did say Monday morning her stomach and legs hurt, aka ached) and it was negative.  Dr. Khan came in and we talked for awhile and she said we needed to test for flu.  So we did that and it came back positive for Influenza A.  She said 70% of the time it is H1N1 and it is most likely what Cara has.  She said the bad part of H1N1 is that it is so highly contagious (for up to 24 hours after the fever breaks), and the good part is that it is pretty mild, and shortened with Tamiflu, so that's what our girl is on. 

And motrin/tylenol rotating every 3 hours to get her fever down (it always goes down during the day and spikes at night, last night to 103.5!).  And her red puff puffs (albuterol inhaler) and orange puff puffs (steroid--kind of like a pre-emptive don't get inflammed med) 3 times a day, until the fever breaks and she starts feeling better.  I was worried about the still high temp today, so I put in a call to the doctor and she called me back.  She said it is normal, we usually spike at night because we are resting and our body is trying to fight the virus.  She said with tamiflu, hopefully by Friday we should be down to 101, yuck!!  She is still worried about her breathing, but praise God that seems to be fine still.  I don't know if I could handle my baby girl in the hospital for Christmas (I know I could, but still, not what you wish for your baby) on breathing treatments.

The doctor called in a prescription for everyone else for Tamiflu, but said not to start it unless we start showing symptoms.  So we are waiting and hoping and praying that no one else gets it.  It is hard in such confined spaces, but so far so good, no fevers or achiness in the family.  Micah is still having teething (1 new tooth (his 7th) popped through the other day on top, so now 4 on top and 3 on bottom), bad diaper rash and frequent diarrhea, though it seems (sometimes) to be subsiding.  

(what's not to love about that face!!!)

We put up new (to us) bunk beds and played room switcheroo on Sunday.  The bunk beds for Cara (and Micah when he is old enough to sleep in a twin and not a crib, probably next summer), went into Micah's old rom, as well as her dresser and toy shelf Eric built, and dress up bin.  Micah's crib and changing table went into Cara's old room along with some of his toys.  We left Cara's twin bed in there, assuming that when baby #3 comes along Mommy might want to rest in there between night time feedings, and now we have a place for my mom to sleep (besides the couch/blow up matress) when she comes to stay.  I really love rearranging, it's like FREE new decorating fun. 

And I love organizing, so today has been rearranging the closets, moving clothes over from one to the other, making space for toys and baby clothes that are no longer in use, storing all the summer clothes and hand-me-downs that are too big still for both kids.  I'm weird that I love organizing so much, and it always gets me in a cleaning kick, so after the kids went to bed tonight, I went into my room and cleaned off the dresser and bed side table, dusted, organized, etc.  Yes, I admit, I have an (ocassional) cleaning problem! :)

Cara is just so sweet.  Yesterday she wanted to cuddle on the couch and watch the Little Mermaid all day.  After about showing #4, we got tired of it, so last night, we showed her a new movie that I had gotten for her (for her stocking), and said she could watch it today.  It's two short stories with Jasmine and Sleeping Beauty in them. 

We watched that probably 10 times today.  We are not a TV family, but that's what my girl wanted to do, and so that's what we did.  She does love playing in her bunk beds, so when she wasn't on the couch, we were playing in her new room in her 'tree house' as she calls it.  Micah was just crawling around playing all day, oblivious to all the organizing, sickness going around :). 

Anyways, our Sony Cyber shot point and shoot digital camera of 3.5 years (we got it the day before Cara was born) died recently.  I took it to the geek squad to look at, and they said it was going to be $275 to fix, so we decided originally that we were going to just get a cheap digital camera to last us through Christmas and save up for a DSLR. 

So we got a 10 megapixel camera for $60, plus a 4 GB card for $15 on Saturday (side note that we paid over $400 for our very first digi camera in 2003 that was only 2 or 3 megapixel and the cards were almost as much as the camera for way less space!!). 

We went to the show at 2nd baptist, and played around with it all day, and I hated it.  It was poor quality and poor resolution, and took AA batteries, so I knew we'd just keep flying through those, so I returned it.  Here is a picture with it of me and my girl at the show.   

So, I started researching DSLRs.  I didn't want to spend $200 on a good digi camera, just to replace it shortly with a better one.  I asked all 'my Jens' (3 friends who named Jen who love their DSLRs) which brand they liked, etc.  Thank you all for the great links and reviews you sent me!! 

We decided on a 10 megapixel Canon EOS Rebel XS with lens kit.  Merry Christmas and Happy 30th Birthday to me (and 31st) :).  We decided to splurge, since I was the only one with no gifts under the tree and nothing in the stocking, because I refuse to shop for myself and wrap gifts for myself!!  That and Eric hadn't bought anything yet, so I told him not too.  I'm so excited, I've been playing with it a lot, mostly when the kids are asleep. 

I first pulled it out Sunday night after they were in bed, and it's just not as fun to play with it with the dogs or Eric and I!  So anyways, I'm super excited about Christmas, and all the Surprises it brings!! :)  I will post again probably Christmas morning....and I hope you all have a very Merry Christ filled Christmas with your family!

My girl with her rosy red cheeks.