It's the wee hours of the morning, and Dave is finally asleep, so thought I'd better pop on and say hey.

It's been an exciting couple of weeks! As if a newborn in the house wasn't exciting enough, poor David wound up being admitted back to the hospital last week. He wasn't eating, was having trouble waking up, and when he was awake, was really spaced out. These were all thing I'd been told to look out for, because I was Group B strep positive - a harmless and common infection in pregnant women, but can cause serious complications for newborns.

So anyway, we took him in to the children's hospital as a precaution. I was expecting to be sent straight home, but the next thing I know, he's being admitted and prepped for a spinal tap, to test for meningitis! As a testement to how groggy a little guy he was, he fell asleep during the procedure. He also fell asleep while an IV was being put in.

The thing about infections is, they can move pretty fast in newborns, but it takes two days for te cultures to finish growing. The baby could be dead by then, so in these cases, they treat it as a positive until they prove otherwise. So for two days, Dave was hooked up to tubes and sensors, on a steady diet of fluids and antibiotics through his IV.

The stress of waiting aside, it was actually a pretty nice couple of days. Dave was so groggy for the first day, I was able to get lots of sleep myself. But by the end of the second day, he was back to his usual perky self, and all of the cultures had come back clean, so they sent us home. They figured he was just battling off a virus that the other kids had, but because he was breastfed, wasn't coming right down with it.

Well, he's got it now! Not nearly as bad as the other two, who've been plagued with fevers and vomiting for what feels like forever. He's just a bit congested. But it can't be fun to be sick right out of the gate.

Coming home was a bit rough. Mike had taken an extra couple of days off to take care of John and Joan. He had intended to "show me up" by being some kind of superdad, but wound up getting sick himself, so let the kids run amok for two days.

He tried to prepare me for the mess, by saying "imagine Lord of the Flies, but with a four and two-year old."

It was bleak, indeed. I'm not going to say anymore about that.

One interesting thing about Alberta is that Public Health is actually a something here. I had my first visit from a public health nurse the day after I got home from giving birth to Dave, and for the first time, i wasn't allowed to turn it down. And now, because Dave was in the hospital, I've been barraged by calls from nurses to check up on us, and make sure he's getting to all his follow-up dr's appointments. They make me feel like such a first-time mom, as they chant about the virtues of breastfeeding. I don't bother telling them I let my two others self-wean, and both breast-fed until they were nearly two. I'm already every lactation consultant's dream patient, but I think it makes them feel like they're making a difference to tell me all of their stats, so I just let them talk.

But they do have a few good tidbits of info. Apparently, there's a bug going around, which matches the description of what the kids have, and it lasts THREE WEEKS!!! Fun, fun, fun. I'm only halfway to the finish for this one.

Anyway, Mike just woke up to get to work, so I'd better get going.

Just quickly in other news - we aren't moving just yet. Our lease has been extended to july 31. So we no longer have to move in the winter with a two-month old.

I'll check in with more soon!