"It's the Most _____ Time of the Year"

Today's fill-in-the-blank? Sickly, perhaps. Illness has once again stricken the Bishop household.

Kate had something stomach related Sunday. Jack started sounding like he was getting a cold on Tuesday. Last night, Kate woke up screaming in the middle of the night with a horrible, barking cough. I suspected she might have croup, and I was right. We took both kids to the pediatrician today. Jack seems to just have a cold. They checked for RSV, but it was negative. Kate has croup and her strep culture was negative today. Oh and my throat is sore and my nose is running. Lovely. They sent Kate home with a prescription for a steroid and albuterol (and, thank you, spell check, but I don't mean butterball).

Back to the Kate waking in the middle of the night story: We came home from church last night to find out that the electricity was out. We lit a few candles and sat around hoping it would come back on. We were sure Kate wouldn't go to bed without any lights on. We were right. We finally decided to make Kate a bed on the loveseat and Kraig would sleep with her on the couch. Once everyone was settled in, it was at least 10:30. And right when things were calming down, the lights came back on. Eventually, though, we all fell asleep. Then around 1:30, Kate woke up and didn't go back to sleep. I don't know if she was scared because of the way she felt or what, but she was nearly inconsolable. She'd ask for something, get it and then scream that it wasn't what she wanted. A minute later, she was begging for the same thing again. She was a mess. She decided she wanted to play, so we played. When she was done with that, it was clear she wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon. We finally turned on Super Why and she laid down like she might settle down. I headed back to bed to be near Jack and quickly fell asleep. Kraig was not so lucky. He dozed off and on, but was constantly awakened by a little girl who didn't want Daddy to be asleep. What time did Kate finally fall asleep? 6 a.m. Did she sleep in this morning? Not really. Did she nap extra long? Not at all. Did she go to bed early tonight? Absolutely. We'll see how the night goes.

Situations like this are so difficult. Kraig and I both need to be at church on Sunday, but I can't leave the kids in the nursery if they're sick. Jack hasn't been in the nursery for a full Sunday yet. There's always a willing hand to take him. Kate's not so easy (or easy to keep quiet). I'm praying that she'll be feeling a lot better for Sunday. She can always hang out with the teens in the teen service;) I think she'd rather be there anyhow! I'm very thankful, though, that Kraig was able to go to the doctor with us. It's not fun to drag both of them in there when they're not sick. It's December 1st and I'm already ready for winter to be over. I haven't even seen any snow yet!

In other news, Kraig and I started a diet on Tuesday. I'm actually finding it difficult to get in all the calories I need to eat. It's already starting to show on the scale, which is great, but much too quickly since I'm thankfully still breastfeeding. The goal is to lose 10lbs by Christmas and I don't think either of us will have any issue with that. The hard part will be to not gain it all back during the Christmas travels and celebrations. I'm guessing eggnog is terribly full of calories, fat, and everything else you don't need to binge on. That being said, I need to eat!

Happy December 1st!

P.S. The power was out again today from around 5-7p.m. It made making dinner impossible, but Subway was still open!