Why Does January Always Suck?

 Well, after thinking this January couldn't be any worse than last January, fate set out to prove us wrong. 1 hour into the new year, Teddy woke up burning up and coughing like a seal. It was a LLOONNGG night as we tried to give him medicine, get him cool, and make him as comfortable as possible. His breathing was so loud and scary sounding. At 2 am he had the first doctor appointment of the day at Urgent Care. I was  reminded of when Leah got a high temperature and we rushed her into the ER at 3 AM when she was about the same age as I drove Teddy in the next morning. He had a bad case of croupe. He needed steroids and a breathing treatment. They weren't happy with his breathing even after the breathing treatment, so they sent us home with our own machine.

We watched Teddy carefully that day. The next night I was watching his oxygen level on his Owlet and was very bothered by how much lower his oxygen readings were than they typically are. I put him on me chest to chest (he cried if he was put down and needed to sleep pretty much vertically due to his congestion) and I tried to sleep, while waking up often to check on him and his oxygen level. In the middle of the night I put him down to use the bathroom. He rolled onto his stomach and within a minute the alarm went off. Save for one false alarm the very first time we tried to use it, we've never heard the alarm. It was so scary. He was slow to wake up, which he almost never is. He's usually very perky and eager to play (even at 3 AM). We gave him a breathing treatment and he was just letting the treatment happen and not fighting with it at all, which didn't happen any of the other times. The treatment worked, and by the time we all went back to sleep his oxygen level had rose back to normal levels. I could kiss the Owlet. That monitor has greatly helped my mental health and credit it with giving the ability to sleep again. It's likely that Bear would have been okay without the monitor. Maybe it was too sensitive or whatever. But what if he wasn't? It had never gone off before and gave consistent low readings all night.

2 days after the croupe, Juliet came down with a fever. Then Leah. Then strep for Leah. Then another fever for Juliet. Then Bear got a ear infection along with a 102 temperature. Then ANOTHER ear infection with a 103 temperature the DAY after finishing antibiotics from the last ear infection. Then Leah got a 102 temperature again along with another sore throat. Now Juliet is complaining about her stomach.

So, yeah, I think last time I counted we had made 12 trips to the Doctor in January between well visits, urgent care visits, follow up visits, and office visits for sickness. Between Juliet, Leah, and I we have missed so much school this month. January sucks.