Ephraim's Pneumonia (and Bath Time)

For the past couple of days I have been trying to eat right and do everything I can to keep my blood pressure low. This includes eating a little dark chocolate each day, squeezing my "stress zebra" and trying to eat right and rest enough. I also have borrowed a blood pressure cuff from Brenda so I can take my blood pressure at home. That way I can show the doctor that my blood pressure is actually lower at home. Hopefully this will all help me stay away from the hospital until it is time for the baby to come!

In the meantime, I have actually been back to the doctor's office, but not for me! As I mentioned earlier, Ephraim has had a cough since last Sunday night. We were treating his symptoms and he seemed to be doing ok. Then on Thursday I noticed that he seemed a little warmer to me and quite a bit more tired.

So Friday morning when he woke up and told me he just wanted to lay down on the couch, I knew something was wrong. Ephraim is not a sit-down kind of boy! So I decided to take his temperature and was more than a little concerned when I got a reading of 102.2 degrees. So I called my pediatrician's office to talk to a nurse. There is so much illness going around that I ended up waiting over 1/2 hour to talk to a nurse, but I didn't want to go to the doctor's only to have them tell me "it's just a virus, there's nothing we can do" and then send me home.

This time they told me to bring him in because a fever is an indication of a possible infection on top of the cold virus. So I dropped Jacob off at the Randalls (thank you Melinda!) and took Ephraim to the doctor. He was actually quite funny at first and told the receptionist and everyone he saw that he did not want to get a shot. It cracked me up! But he quickly lost steam. They were so busy that even though our appointment was at 10 am, we didn't see the doctor until sometime after 10:40 am. I know this because Ephraim actually fell asleep cuddled up on my lap in the exam room. Poor guy.

They took his temperature and it was 102.6 degrees, which is pretty scary if you ask me. Then when he got checked out they told me that it appeared that Ephraim had pneumonia. That scared me even more! Luckily he was breathing fine and seemed to be doing ok. I got a prescription for antibiotics and ran to Wal*Mart to get it filled. I ended up waiting for about 1/2 hour to get the prescription as well. What a long morning!

By the time I got Ephraim and Jacob home on Friday, it was lunchtime. Ephraim didn't really want to eat, but I did get him to take his medicine and some milk. Then all he wanted to do was sleep! Poor boy.

The antibiotics worked wonders though and by Saturday evening Ephraim seemed a lot better. He still has a cough, but no more fever. Jacob actually has a cough now as well, but we are watching him to make sure he doesn't get a fever and he seems fine so far.

Today we decided just to take the boys to sacrament meeting. The doctor told me that Ephraim was only contagious when he had a fever and he really wanted to go to his "big class" as he calls it, but we didn't want him catching anything else. It is especially hard to keep the kids from catching viruses in nursery where they play with toys and have their hands on everything. So after sacrament meeting this morning I brought the boys home and we all lay down to rest.

Since we have church in the afternoon, sometimes we give the boys baths on Sunday morning. They enjoy playing in the water and it helps pass the time for them so they don't get too restless. Here are some cute pictures I took of them in the tub.

Ephraim kept telling me he didn't want me to take his picture, and then asking me to show him the pictures I took. What a character!

When Ephraim sat up he had a bunch of bubbles on his head. I thought it was really cute. This is the only picture I got before...

he touched his hair with his hands. Oh well! He's still cute.

Jacob did the same thing and we were all laughing at the bubbles on his head.

I love my boys and I sure hope we can get them healthy before their little sister is born next month! It is not fun for them to be coughing and tired, and it is definitely not fun for their mommy either. Luckily I am feeling fine and hopefully that keeps up as well!