FireGirl is sick and It's Hot this week (yes, they're related. Sort of)

Last Friday FireGirl started coughing. A little. No biggie.

She's prone to coughing fits. Got it from her momma. Poor baby. But it really wasn't bad, and was her only symptom.

By Saturday night the coughs still weren't bad at all, and were fairly infrequent, but we decided to turn the thermostat up to 72 degrees (because that seems to be the magic temperature that eases her cough), and give her a cough suppressant before bed.

Last night her nose started running. A little. Cough still wasn't bad. But she didn't sleep well, even with the thermostat up, and came into our room just after midnight.

As I put her back into bed, I thought she felt pretty warm, and she actually refused the blanket for being hot, so I gave her some children's acetaminophen.

She slept the rest of the night, although fitfully.

This morning, her nose is running like a faucet, cough is still not bad. And by 8am, she felt warm again. I gave her another dose of acetaminophen and sent some along to the sitter's.

When I got there, all the other kids were coughing too. At least they're all sick at the same time, I guess. And it answers my question as to where she got a cold-type virus this time of year.

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Today it's supposed to be 75 degrees. Eighty tomorrow. 85 the following two days. Roughly. Hot. For me, anyway.

And I'm sensitive to the heat. Something I get from my daddy. Definitely not my mommy's Southern roots. I get some things from her, but not my heat tolerance. I absolutely melt in the heat.

As in, if I get too hot, especially if there is limited air flow, I get physically ill. Sick to my stomach.

And really whiny. Ask FireMan.

I'm an absolute wimp.

And... anyone guessing where I'm going with this?...

We don't have air conditioning yet.

As part of our home renovations, we knew we needed a new air conditioning unit. But since we started renovations in the Autumn, we decided that A/C could be postponed until Spring and paid for with our tax refund. Then our tax lady's husband ended up in the hospital for weeks on end, and we didn't get our taxes done until April. Then it was really cool for April in our area, we had bad storms, lost five trees in the bad storms, and... have I ever told you how FireMan & I are world class procrastinators?

So... it's finally getting hot, and we have no A/C. I've actually considered spending a night or two with my daddy, since my mom's out of town anyway.

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How are these related? At all?

Well, the nights are supposed to be cool. Like in the 50s. So, the relatively easy solution to the heat issue would be to do the old open-the-windows-at-night trick. Use a fan or two to suck in the cold air, close the windows before we leave in the morning, and... wa la! Cool air keeps the house tolerable thru the heat of the day.

But... with FireGirl's cough, I can't afford for it to get too cool at night. We've found 72 degrees to be the magic temperature with her cough - the minimum temperature for her cough to be tolerable for her at night.

So... momma will be hot. And probably sick. Because I would rather be sick 100 times over than for her to be sick.

But (hopefully) only until Thursday. When the A/C guy comes to install our new unit. Thank goodness.

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Random, related note - I'm calling the pediatrician this afternoon. Not for FireGirl's virus though. Pretty sure that'll just have to run it's course, and it's really not that bad. Yet anyway.

But she's had a diaper rash for over a month now. It'll flare up horribly, we get it calmed down, but it never goes away. Then she'll have a bad diaper, and it'll flare up again, horribly. Like painfully bad. And of the six different over-the-counter and prescription creams we have for her diaper rashes and skin conditions, we still can't get rid of it.

I thought it was a combination of eczema, plain old diaper rash, and one pimple of staph infection, and treated each area with the prescription creams for such, but still to no avail. So we decided it's finally time to take her in and get an official diagnosis. If I remember to I'm going to take all of the creams with me, and say, okay... which one? or do we get a new one now?

Poor baby.

The good news is her potty training has finally picked up. With bribes of toys and promises of Dora panties and Elmo training pants. She wants to be grown up so badly, and has told me several times this weekend that "I grown up now".

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Thanks for checking in.