…and we’d teach all the babies this tune *UPDATED*

(Credit where credit is due: This post was inspired by Circus Kelli’s CD list.)

When I was pregnant with The Drama Queen (gasp!) nine years ago, Natalie Merchant appeared on the Rosie O’Donnell show, promoting the CD “For Our Children Too!”, a collection of children’s songs performed by big name artists, which benefits the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Natalie Merchant sang her contribution to the CD, a waltz-like lullaby called “Come Take a Trip in My Airship.” I was so enamored with this song, I decided then and there that I MUST have that CD so I could learn that song and sing it to my baby. I had the CD within a week. The lyrics (Click on the link to sample the song on Amazon’s site.):

I once loved a sailor
Once, a sailor loved me
But he was not a sailor
Who sailed on the wide blue sea
He sailed in an airship
Sailed like a bird on a wing
And every evening at midnight
He would come to my window and sing

Come take a trip in my airship
Come sail away to the stars
We’ll travel to Venus
We’ll sail away to Mars
Noone will see while we’re kissing
Noone will know as we swoon
So come take a trip in my airship
And we’ll visit the man in the moon

One night, while sailing away from the crowds
We passed through the Milky White Way
While idly drifting, watching the clouds
He asked if I’d name the day
Just by the Dipper, I gave him my heart
The sun shone on our honeymoon
We swore to each we never would part
And we’d teach all the babies this tune

Come take a trip in my airship
Come sail away to the stars
We’ll travel to Venus
We’ll sail away to Mars
Noone will see while we’re kissing
Noone will know as we swoon
So come take a trip in my airship
And we’ll visit the man in the moon

I’ve mentioned this briefly before, but did you know if you sing the same one or two lullabies to a baby from the time he’s born (or in utero, even), that singing (or even humming) one of those songs will often have an almost instantaneous calming effect on the baby? It’s true. I’ve sung this song to all three of my children, though it worked best with Big Boy*. When he was younger, I could sing it from the driver’s seat of the car when he started fussing in the back seat, and he would calm down almost instantly, often going to sleep. This song will always make me think of rocking and cuddling my babies.

* Updated to add: “Come Take a Trip in My Airship” is Big Boy’s naptime lullaby. I sing “Brahm’s Lullaby” at bedtime. When Deputy Dad is on naptime/bedtime duty, I think he usually sings “The Dance”.

I don’t know what’s worse…

…the fact that I know all the words to all the songs in Blue’s Big Musical Movie, or the fact that I actually like some of them.

(In my defense, they are pretty catchy, and one of them even features the late, great Ray Charles.)

I can sum up this post in three words: Wah, Wah, Wah

Disclaimer: This blog entry will most likely be filled with whining and venting. Proceed at your own risk.

Okay, so I’ve been wanting to post…needing to vent, but I thought, Geez, no one wants to hear me whine. I shouldn’t blog that. Then I remembered, hey, one of the main reasons I started this blog was to have an outlet…to have my own space to get my thoughts and feelings out. So. Feel free to skip this entry. You won’t hurt my feelings. I just need to vent, to get my thoughts organized, to…make a list!

• The new antidepressant seems to be working. My emotional health has definitely improved. I knew the meds were working when Big Boy was in the hospital, because I totally kept my shit together. I never flipped out. I didn’t even cry, which I think would’ve been completely justified, depression or not.
• However, since the new meds have kicked in, I am so. tired. all the time. And absolutely, totally, completely unmotivated. I have no motivation to do…anything. The house is a wreck. The laundry is never finished. I’m not very productive at work. I haven’t written Big Boy’s monthly newsletter yet. I can’t even get motivated enough to go to bed at a decent hour, even though I’m exhausted. I end up wasting away the evening, staying up late because I have so much to do, but not really doing anything at all. I definitely need to visit with the doctor about this at my appointment next week.
• The Drama Queen is suddenly filled with teenage angst…or she’s possessed, I’m not sure which. She’s only eight (well, technically, 8 and 10/12ths), so it had damn well better not be puberty. I only know this……we have a loooooong road ahead of us with that child.
• I’ve been really down the last few days, because I realized there’s no. way. I’ll be able to do any Christmas shopping this weekend. Mother-In-Law and I get up at 5:00AM every Friday-after-Thanksgiving, and head to Wal-Mart for the 6:00AM Day After Thanksgiving Sale. It’s silly, I know; but it’s our little tradition. We go every year, we fight the crowds, we see everyone we know in sweatsuits and no makeup, and we get a little rush from the combination of cold morning air and low, low prices. We really enjoy that time together. I’ll probably still go this year, but I won’t really be able to do any shopping, because…
• We are so freakin’ broke, it’s not even funny. Between the work days Deputy Dad and I both missed when Big Boy was in the hospital, and the doctor/hospital/prescription bills, we are flat broke. I don’t mean gee-I-only-have-a-hundred-dollars-in-my-checking-account broke; I mean today-is-the-twenty-second-and-my-mortgage-was-due-on-the-first broke. I’m thinking of auctioning off my internal organs on eBay. I figure I can sell one of everything I have two of…kidney, eyeball, lung, boob (heck, I can spare 1 1/2 of those!). But until I find a surgeon who’ll operate on commission…flat broke. So, yeah, shopping is pretty much out.
• Even though I’ve been down the last few days, I’m happy to say it’s more of a ‘normal’ type of down than depression. That is to say, I’m just feeling down, and not depressed, which I think is…well, it’s fantastic. (I know it’s weird…Hey, I’m feeling down, isn’t that fantastic?! But it does feel good to know that I can feel normal highs and lows, without the dark clouds moving in again.)
• The weather was beautiful today, worth mentioning, even with all the venting. It was 72 at 4:00 this afternoon, so I took the kids to the park for a little while. I haven’t done that in a long time.

Mother of the Year Award

There are worse things, really, than letting him drink his bath water…

…right?

And The Lord Spaketh Unto Eve… *UPDATED*

…”Lo, thou shalt craveth the nectar of the cocoa bean, and thou shalt have searing pain – OH, the pain – in thy womb, and thou shalt bleed from thine unholy orifice, and thy face shall be covered in blemishes so the WORLD may know that thou hast partaken of the apple, AND I DONE TOL’ YOU NOT TO, BEYOTCH!”

Updated to add kalki’s contribution, copied and pasted from her comment:

“And then the devil didst overtake Eve, didst possess her, so that she spake harshly to Adam in her time of pain and suffering. And Adam didst respond sternly to Eve, reminding her that GOD had commanded her to respect and obey her husband. And then Eve didst reach behind Adam’s leaf and twist his balls until Adam fell to the ground and repented at her feet.”

Just in case you were wondering….

I forgot to mention in my previous entry that Big Boy’s pediatrician said the herpes test had come back negative, as did the strep test. Which means Big Boy’s erythema multiforme was most likely a reaction to the virus he had.

What do you mean we’ve been more than a week without a list around here? I shall remedy that posthaste!

We are continuing to welcome Cold and Flu Season with open arms at the LadyBug house. I am currently living my days with a DayQuil buzz, and my nights in a NyQuil-induced coma.

In addition, I have some sort of infection in the cuticle of my right index finger. So I’m on antibiotics (which will most likely bring on the purchase of Monistat in the next few days), and my finger is wrapped in a huge bandage (mostly for padding/protection, since the damned thing is SOOOO freakin’ sore and sensitive), making my attempts at typing largely laughable. (Seriously. You wouldn’t believe how long this is taking me, since my middle finger is doing double duty, taking on the typing tasks of my index finger. I’m afraid I may wear out my backspace key before my finger heals.)

We took Big Boy to the doctor yesterday for his post-hospital-stay follow-up appointment. He got a great checkup, and appears to be completely over the scary rashy illness.

Even in my previously-mentioned NyQuil-induced coma, Deputy Dad’s snoring woke me up no less than four or five times last night. I mentioned it to him this morning:”…I kept jabbing you, and you were STILL snoring.”

“I remember you jabbing me. I kept thinking, ‘Why is she jabbing me?’”

“It was because I couldn’t sleep! If I hadn’t been so out-of-it from the Nyquil, I would’ve gotten up and gone to the couch!”

“You need to just learn to tune that stuff out, and sleep anyway.”

“This, from the man who claims he can’t sleep in the afternoons [when he's on night shift] if the dogs are barking, or the kids are playing outside, or the light is too bright? Well, try sleeping with a chainsaw running next to your head!”

I don’t know what makes me more proud…

…the fact that neither of my daughters own any Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson CDs, or the fact that they sing along to ABBA and Queen.

Home. Exhausted.

We arrived home early this afternoon, but this is the first chance I’ve had to update.

Big Boy is MUCH better. The antiviral medication they were giving him in the hospital – and which we will continue to give him for the next three days – seemed to really turn this illness around. The angry red bumps have – for the most part – weakened to a general blotchiness. And, more importantly, Big Boy is feeling better. His fever was down yesterday, and gone today. He’s almost back to his normal, happy self.

Final diagnosis: erythema multiforme (EM). According to the literature the nurses sent home with us, “The cause of EM is not completely understood but appears to involve a hypersensitivity reaction that can be triggered by a variety of causes, including bacterial (germ), viral, or chemical products.”

It’s unlikely that Big Boy’s EM was a reaction to the antibiotic he was on for the ear infection, since he had been on the Amoxycillin for eight days before the rash started. If it had been an allergic reaction to the medicine, it probably would’ve started much sooner. It’s more likely that Big Boy had a reaction to whatever virus made him sick last Thursday. They ruled out strep with a throat swab, and, although the herpes simplex virus is the most common cause of EM, they ruled that out, too, since he didn’t have those herpes-related sores. (That was a relief to me, since I won’t have to start questioning Big Boy’s after-hours activities with the local Ladies of the Night now.)

A few pictures, to let you see what we’ve been dealing with the last few days:

Saturday. The bumps started out looking like mosquito bites, then got wider and flatter.

Monday. (I didn’t get any pics Sunday. I was too busy freaking out, because my baby had just been hospitalized.) This was the weirdest rash I’ve ever seen. After the bumps got wider and flatter, they got dusky red in the middle – sort of target-looking. (You can see some of those on his inner right thigh.) Then, as the redness faded, they left purple bruising under the skin, which also eventually faded. Of course, as some faded, more were appearing. They were never open lesions, just red bumps on the skin, progressing to the multi-colored phenomena under the skin. Strange.

Monday. Close-up of arm and swollen hand. The orange stripe on his right wrist is a stain from the popsicle the nurse gave him.

Monday. Poor widdle swollen foot.

This morning. Much better. And it’s faded even more since then. Pardon the dirty feet. We kept his socks off, since his feet were so swollen; and he did a lot of toddling about, once he was feeling better.

Thank you all again SO MUCH for your thoughts and prayers. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. Love and hugs to you all.

Google at your own risk

Okay, ieatcrayonz, you asked for it.

Big Boy most likely has erythema multiforme, which is probably caused by the Herpes Simplex Virus. Where he got THAT, we don’t know; but we’ll be questioning all the local ladies of the night.

The rash covers his body, but – so far – has not developed on his mucous membranes. If it does, it may be erythema multiforme major, also called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Now, look, I’m just warning you…if you Google that, the images are SCARY. And that is NOT what Big Boy looks like right now. He does not have the rash in his mouth or on his lips; it just covers his body. It looks bad, but not anything like those Google images.

The doc looked at him this morning, noted that his symptoms are basically the same as yesterday – which is a good thing, at this point – and said he’ll keep him here one more night. If there’s still no change tomorrow, we’ll probably go home and wait it out. It’ll take 1-2 weeks to go away completely.

So, anyway. That’s where things stand right now. Thank you all so much for your love, prayers, and support. We really do appreciate it.

I’ll try to update again when I know more.

Love and hugs to you all.