Weekend Update Edition

Yeah I know, all you ever get from me lately are weekend updates. It's going to be that way for a while.

• I am sick this weekend with a flu-like virus. I say flu-like because I don't really know if the doctor knew what was going on when she diagnosed me with the flu. The office swabbed my nose (this was very uncomfortable, they crammed the swab way up inside my nasal passages, think eyeball level people) and then tested for influenza A and B. The doctor said it's not seasonal flu (those are the A or B options) but could be H1N1, but they don't have a test at their facility for that. I'm not sure if they're sending the sample off to be tested somewhere else or not. I got two different answers from two different people when I asked them. So I am stuck at home until my symptoms subside. The doctor gave me tamiflu to help beat the virus and it's helping with my overall feeling of yuck but it's making my stomach more upset (which she explained could happen). You can only be given tamiflu within the first 48 hours of symptoms so see your doctor early if you start feeling like you have the flu. My first symptoms were a general feeling of malaise, loss of appetite, fever, and dizziness/lightheadedness. We have had a ton of help through the past couple of days so THANK YOU to everyone who has provided for us in one way or another!
• I really hope that Eliza doesn't get sick with my yuckiness because she already has a cold.
• Oh and she jammed her upper teeth into her lower teeth today causing one of the bottom teeth to be knocked crooked. Poor girl has only had teeth for 6 months now, still only has 9 when she could have around 20 by this time and appears to be missing her top two bicuspids altogether. I can't do anything about this so I'm moving on.
  
• At the doctor's office last night (yes, last NIGHT, because I didn't call my PCP during the day and I decided that I needed a diagnosis if I were to require more time off from work, so I ended up with an 8:40 appointment at a night time clinic) Eliza pooped and I hadn't brought along a diaper or wipes. I thought I would just take her to the bathroom and dump the offending mess in the toilet and clean her up as best as possible with wet paper towels and have her wear the slightly dirty diaper until I could get her home. Don't judge, in my defense-the poop looked solid from all outward appearances so it should have come off easily with very little residue. This is what actually happened: I removed the poopy diaper to find a raisiny poop mess. The diaper fell poop side down on the floor but with just enough overlap on my foot to cover my right big toe. I knew immediately, before the diaper even fell, that the diaper could not be reused so I set to wiping her off with toilet paper and the planned wet paper towels and then I had to wipe down the changing table and the floor. Then I cleaned her hands, my hands and my right foot and shoe. I put her pajama pants back on, reminded her that she needed to tell mommy if she needed to potty and just hoped that she wouldn't pee before we got home. Fortunately, I mentioned the incident to the nurse and she gave me a diaper. Problem solved. This was especially fortuitous considering that I ended up at a 24-hour pharmacy to pick up the tamiflu and I did not get home until 10:45. Again, don't judge, Eliza had a 3 1/2 hour late nap earlier in the day. I'm sure people would have babysat her but I didn't want anyone else to get sick. Next time I'll call my PCP. :)
• First week of cardiac rotation went well. Lots of fun things, but I'll wait and put everything together in a rotation recap at the end.
  
• Brian is doing well. He has two more months in his current location before coming home. Those two months can not pass quickly enough. Refer to bullet points 2, 3, 4, and 5. I wish he were here and I know he does too. Also, it appears that we'll be staying in Maryland indefinitely. This is not exactly what we wanted, but we'll make it work out. We've found a couple of areas where we can afford homes that aren't compromising safety or school quality so I think it's doable.
  
• Eliza HATES naptime at daycare. Picture this: her teacher puts her in her crib around noon and Eliza has to stay there until 3. The teachers won't pick the kids up at all to calm them down, won't give them any quiet toys, will barely let them have comfort objects like a stuffed bear (and I had to fight to get that), and will not budge on the three hour timeline. So Eliza gets so upset that she cries almost the entire time. She will sometimes fall asleep but wake up again to cry some more. She cries enough that her bed sheet is soaked with tears and the teacher will flip her to the other side of the bed so that she ends up soaking the entire sheet. If I arrive near the end of naptime, Eliza's hair is still wet from her laying in her own tears. It's so sad! We're working on getting her into another center but they don't have any current openings. I checked on their naptime policy and it's 2 hours with quiet activities provided for those who don't want to sleep. So much better. For now, I have to deal with a child who is suddenly so afraid of being put in her crib to the point that she cries at bedtime every night whereas before she never had a problem falling asleep on her own. I now have to lay on the floor beside her or hold her to get her to sleep. So much for her sleep training. Nearly two years of work and good results have gone down the drain in three weeks. The blanket in this picture is our sneaky way of circumventing the no stuffed animal rule. This is now the blanket she will be taking to use at day care.
• We were getting ready for church last week and Eliza watched me put on my glasses and then my pearl necklace. She then left the room and came back looking like this:
• Last but not least...the University of Maryland just did an audit of employment and found that I am not a University of Maryland student despite working on a contract through them for nearly four years now in a student classification. The person who hired me didn't do anything sneaky to get me on a contract and nobody ever thought anything of me not being a student there until now. Upon finding out this fact, my office had to terminate my contract immediately. So as of yesterday, I am unemployed (from a job that actually pays anyway, believe me, my internship is a job in and of itself, I'm just not paid). It really couldn't have happened at a better time. I had no outstanding projects, no outstanding hours to submit to payroll and no plans to work during my internship unless I found extra time. I think it's pretty awesome that I made it through the four years where I had time for the work without any issues. I will be reapplying in a different category, but I have to go through a new hiring process and I'm not going to do it for a while since I won't be working again for a few more months.