Cold Sores...The Bane of My Existance!

For as long as I can remember, I have been plagued by periodic cold sores (aka: fever blisters) If you look back on photos of me as a child you will see them in nearly every school photo (you know the ones with the cheesy backgrounds and the photographer that smells like moth balls?)...they have always been a part of my life. I break out with cold sores at least a couple times a year. Usually in the fall with the change of the weather and anytime I have an increased amount of stress and/or fatigue, I will get a sore. They are consistent enough that I even have a prescription to halt them in their tracks once they start (that is IF i have had the prescription filled and the pills at home to take...)


Usually I'm the only one really affected by it (except the fact that I can't kiss my cute husband...so therefore he's affected too), but this time, it has gone beyond me to affect my precious little girl. She's two weeks old now and within hours of her delivery, I broke out with a cold sore. As the first one went away, I got another...then a THIRD! arrrrgggghhhh!!! I've been super careful not to kiss her during this time (which was really difficult, let me tell you) so that I wouldn't spread the virus to her. BUT nevertheless, last Sunday I saw what I thought looked like the beginnings of a cold sore on her cute little lip! I felt horrible, of course, and then I went onto the internet to see if it was something i needed to worry about.


Well, I found lots of horror stories about babies gettting the Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV...which is the technical term for cold sores...and yes, it is a form of herpes and it is contagious.) It kinda freaked me out, but at least by reading one of those stories, I knew to take it seriously. I called the pediatrician's office and since it was a weekend, I talked to the nurse on call. She said I needed to take little Aliyah to the ER to have it checked out because HSV in infants can be very serious. So off to the ER we went.


Doc checked her out, didn't see any other lesions, there was no fever and she seemed alert and all, so he said he thought she was ok but to watch to see if the sore blistered or if other spots showed up. Yesterday, I noticed that although the first sore went away, there was another spot on the inside of her lip. We had a pediatric appointment scheduled already so I talked to Dr. Peterson about it and he proceeded to call someone from Infectious Diseases. They said that it should be taken very seriously and that she needed to be admitted at Children's Hospital in Seattle. So we took her up there last night and watched her go through all kinds of tests, pokes and prods (including a spinal tap the poor thing...she was such a trooper too). Now we await the results of all the cultures to determine if she really has been infected with HSV or not. If not, we go home, if yes, then we could be here for another week...or more i guess.

Wow, right? Well, here I sit in Aliyah's room thinking once again how much I HATE cold sores! They have plagued me since my earliest days and now they extend their reach to my sweet little baby girl. Personally, I would like to banish them to the depths!


My heart hurts for my little munchkin. She is so cute and so sweet and seeing her with an IV in her hand and all the monitors attached at her little arms and legs just kills me. Never imagined that we'd be holed up at the hospital so early in her life...AND on Thanksgiving Day no less. But IF she does have the virus, this is the place to be. They know what they are doing here and they are taking good care of her and of us. Thank you Jesus for good, smart doctors who really care about their patients.

Motivation

Joey and I have recently begun a weekly tradition of getting up on Friday or Saturday morning and having coffee at Starbucks together. We are loving these weekly times together and it's been so good for our relationship. Sometimes we go on these dates with an agenda (talking about the monthly budget, goals, dreams, etc). Today, we didn't have an agenda at all and with the birth of our daughter coming any day, it's no surprise that our conversation turned to raising her and what kind of parents we want to be.

Usually it takes a while for men to really engage themselves in a pregnancy and all that it entails. The mother's life is immediately affected with the morning sickness and the fatigue and all that. But Dad doesn't really get it...until they either feel the baby move or see an ultrasound. That's when it becomes real. For us, because of the difficulty we had maintaining the previous pregnancies, it took a while before he allowed himself to get excited about it (once you've lost one...let alone three, it's really had to get your hopes up again...I felt the same way). But let me tell you, once it happened, he got excited...and motivated!

He began to think about being a dad and all the things that role entails. He started looking for books to read to prepare his heart and mind. When he read (well, listened to the audio book) of one called called Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Dr. Meg Meeker, he began to really engage with our unborn daughter and began to make some serious changes in his own life and thought patterns. I think that this book has really changed my husband's life!! And we both think that every father who has daughters should read it!! SERIOUSLY!!

Anyway, my amazing husband has become incredibly motivated to be a good, successful and effective, loving father to our daughter. He has a driving desire to protect her from the crazy influences of this world and to raise her in such a way that she becomes a confident, strong woman; able to make good decisions and to follow the Lord. And he realizes that HE is the one that will have the strongest impact in her life...for good or for bad! And he's taking it very seriously!

One of the results of this motivation is that Joey has become a new kind of leader in our household. He is thinking constantly about what he can do to be a better man and a better husband today and thereby be a good father in the years to come. He started out by losing weight (35lbs so far...way to go honey). Then he began to be motivated to get us out of debt. He is working incredibly hard to provide for us and to make it possible to dump LOTS of extra dough onto credit cards and our seemingly unending medical expenses. He's working 6 days a week, sometimes 10-12 hours a day, but somehow it seems that we are spending more quality time together than we ever have. I love seeing this in him...I love seeing the leader that I know that God has created him to be. It makes my love and admiration for him skyrocket!

I have so much respect for my husband in this time. He is sacrificing his time and his energy, and the things that he would LIKE to do, and doing the things that he NEEDS to do to make our family better. And at the same time, he is more fulfilled and feels more confidence in himself than he ever has.

Thank you Joey for what you are doing for us. You really are an amazing man! I'm so glad that I married you! Thank you for leading your family well and for loving our daughter. She will be so blessed to have you for her dad. You're gonna do a phenomenal job.

I love you!

Entering the Blogging World

So my friend Melodi started blogging recently and it inspired me to jump on board with her into this world of writing and thought consideration that I have only once before attempted to enter. My first excursion into blogging didn't last long...I think I submitted a total of three posts and then got bored. I mean, who really wants to read my random thoughts about...whatever? But when I started reading Melodi's blog and realized that I'm pretty much trapped in my house and need something to do anyway...I decided to give it another whirl.

Let me start out by telling you a little about myself. I am a thirty-something soon to be mom (soon as in like the next couple weeks....hopefully sooner than later...in fact, today would be good) who loves Jesus and loves people...well most of the time. :) I have my own business as a massage therapist, however I am on maternity leave until the beginning of January so I have some time on my hands. I have a husband whom I love intensely and two very entertaining cats. Our sweet daughter will be join our lives here soon and after the long road of waiting to get married, then waiting to have a pregnancy that stuck, my honey and I are VERY excited to get to meet her!

At the moment, the anticipation of this little bundle of joy is causing me to become a little impatient. I tell her every day that we are ready for her to come out now!! And what I really mean is... NOW!!! Of course, she doesn't really listen to me. She just snubs her nose and replies, "Well, I kinda like it in here. It's warm and cozy and I'm never hungry. Yeah, it's a little cramped, but I'm used to small spaces. Although I am a little tired of you poking at me all the time. I think I'll just put my foot under your rib here and push really hard to you know how it feels! How's that?" Then she rolls over and stabs me with her adorable little toes! OUCH!

At any rate, I'm ready to be done now. She's fully cooked, she would be perfectly healthy joining us in this great big world and I just simply don't want to be pregnant any more. So, Aliyah...mommy (and daddy and gramma and everyone else) all want you to come out now...so can we get on with it??? Please??

Well, those are my thoughts for the moment. Maybe I'll post some more later today...if i get bored which is pretty likely since I've been sequestered to my house to avoid the stupid Swine Flu epidmic. But that's another post all together.

Hope you enjoy my blog. Hope I actually write on it. :)