6 and 1

That would be, Influenza 6 - M Family 1!

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It has been quite a week here on the home front!

Biggest Brother came home from school with a terrible cough on Friday.

As the weekend passed and the week began, the kids were dropping one by one. And by Tuesday, all five children (and me) had the full blown flu.

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This one was particularly nasty; fever, terrible headache, chills, body aches, congestion, and of course the community favorite when managing a house full of small children...vomiting.

Tuesday just might be the most challenging day of group illness I have had to date. I begged J to call of work! But he couldn't.

By yesterday, the oldest three had started to turn the corner, and I was able to take a break from the continuous 5 gallon bucket sprints up and down the stairs, to snap a few pictures of my group on the mend.

"Boy Camp."

Little Sis and Princess A did not get sick initially, so I gated off the boys' room and made it the designated "hot zone."

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Younger Brother has asthma. So the flu is a particularly big deal for him. Once they tested him and determined it was true Influenza A, we were able to get him on Tamiflu early enough to help. And other than feeling crummy, he did not have any complications, praise God!

"Girl Camp."

I won't lie. I was feeling a bit envious. Mama's don't get to curl up in blankets and lay on the couch when they're sick.

Perhaps those many months of morning sickness serve as conditioning to operate under these circumstances.

And I'm also thankful that, while he couldn't call off, J is extremely helpful with getting up with the kids at night! So Princess A and I did get to sleep for a bit.

Little Sis and Princess A are the most recently ill. But our wonderful Pediatrician had mercy on us, and called in Tamiflu ahead of time to treat them early just as a precaution. So even though they still got sick, it doesn't seem to be hitting them nearly as hard.

Princess A's biggest trouble is that she can't breathe.

She doesn't feel good, so she wants to nurse.

And it's awfully hard to nurse when your nose is boogered up!

I'm going to put the humidifier in her room to help that hopefully.
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Big Sis looked so pitiful.

She really does handle being sick with an incredible amount of grace though. At one point, her fever was 104.2 even with Ibuprofen. And she was such a trooper! It's much better now, but her cheeks are still rosey pink. I'm pretty sure she likes that part.

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So that's what's been going on here for the last 6 days. I decided to be nice and post sweet kid pics rather than nitty gritty Lysol canisters, buckets, haven't gotten to shower in 48 hrs pics. But, you get the point. :)

Moral of the story: I think we won't be waiting so late to get our flu shots next year!