Hibernation Redux

This is a quickie, since none of us have much energy around here right now (except for Hallie, of course, who seems to have no difficulty surviving on 120 calories a day).

Anyway, ever since the day of Hallie's birthday party, it's been back to square one where congestion/vomiting is concerned. Is it teething? a virus? several viruses? crawling? a reflux flare up? allergies? something else entirely? Your guess is as good as mine, and apparently as good as our (very excellent) pediatrician's. In any event, this is not only messy (gotta love cleaning pediasure off of all possible surfaces; we are sending Hallie a bill for all new furniture when she turns 18). It is also disheartening. We had just gotten to a place where we had the evil cooties of vomit/congestion of May that did in our Vegas trip and very nearly drove us insane beaten. Hallie was eating really well--better than ever. She had been taking at least 20 ounces of pediasure a day, two or three meals of baby food a day (very happily), and a few snacks of frozen yogurt or iced pediasure. Things were grand. The kid had put on about a pound in a month. She was back close to the 25th percentile for her adjusted age, which is her personal curve. We were getting to sleep early (like 2am, which is sadly enough early for us).

Now this.

We have been back at the pediatrician's office again for another sick visit, spent five hours at the ER at CHOP getting her dosed with decadron to maybe blow out the congestion (marginally if at all helpful) and have another sick visit on Wednesday. We should get our own waiting room or something.

I wish that someone could help explain why this seems to go in three or four week cycles, where we have two or three bad weeks, followed by one or two good weeks and then back all over again. We're driving ourselves nuts here...

Anyway, just on the off chance that Hallie is picking up every illness known to mankind (or children kind), we're back to hibernating. Which means no more commune. Hallie misses Karina and Ethan, and the feeling is quite mutual. The closest Hallie and Karina have gotten over the past few days is Hallie riding in her excellent new roadster from Aunt Laura, Uncle Bryan and the kids and Karina riding in the Snugli backpack on Vanessa's back. They waved and squealed at each other frantically but no touching was allowed. And they are not the only ones suffering; Sharon and I miss the company and the support, too. Not to mention all of the tasty dinners served up by Josh and Mark/Vanessa.

Well, I'll leave you on that terribly uncheerful note. Except to say that there are no new pics of Hallie because we don't even have energy to upload any pictures.