We've had a few unseasonably cold days of late, as if to remind us that spring is not an absolute, but rather a transition. And that unseasonably cold weather has been accompanied in our household by a spring cold. At first, we thought/hoped that both kids were just struggling with allergies a bit more than usual, but over a few days it became clear that there was something else going on. As is now typical in our house, Lime has a runny nose and a bit of a cough, but is feeling fine and eating everything in sight. Lemon, of course, has much more of a cough, especially at night. As we were reminded in dramatic fashion on Thursday night, night-time coughing and night-time tube feeds are not compatible. So, we've had to dial back from our usual 3 cartons of formula a night to one. That, in turn, has had the inevitable consequence of weight loss. It is still amazing to me how fast Lemon loses weight. He normally weighs about 38 lb now, and as a result of cutting back his tube feeds for 4 nights, he lost almost 2.5 pounds. Just like that. Poof. Gone. Some of that was surely water weight, but some of it wasn't, and now we will once again have to fight our way back to where we were before, once this cold is over.
Another thing we've noticed with this cold is that Lemon's behavior has been kind of off the hook. Probably still within the normal range of behavior for a 3 year old boy, but rather to one end of the continuum. I kind of think it's because he's hungry all the time, but it's hard to say. We've done our best to offer all kinds of tasty things in the hope of getting him to eat by mouth during the day some of the calories that he isn't getting through the tube at night. For instance, we offered him chocolate ice cream, which he generally likes. But, this time, he decided to use it to make a mural. With his feet. On the kitchen floor. In about 0.74 seconds. Anyhow.
Early tomorrow morning, I will depart for a two-day trip to Denver, my first two consecutive nights with no children in about 3 years. I'm a little nervous about it but I'm sure the boys will be fine. Papa Bear has the Domino's Pizza number at the ready, and knows the boys' routine inside out and backwards. The rest of our care team is standing by to help make sure things stay more or less on the rails. With any luck, I'll come home Thursday night to a couple of boys who have kicked this spring cold, and a husband who doesn't try to make a break for it the second I walk in the door. In the mean time, I'm looking forward to seeing my coworkers in person, having some grown-up conversation, and getting a couple of nights uninterrupted sleep. Who knows, I may even get to go running in the mornings--now, that would be truly decadent.
