Well, after managing to dodge the Corona virus for almost two years, it caught up to all SIX of us this past week! In some ways, I can't believe that all six of us caught it in the same week and, in other ways, it makes total sense since it all started with our 2-year old catching it first who doesn't understand the first thing about germs and quarantining. Regardless, this is our story...
On the first day back to school from Winter Break on January 4th, there was still so much ice on the roads from low temperatures, that school was delayed by two hours. After Lia left for junior high, I made the impromptu decision to invite a brother-sister combo over to play with Logan and Ella since school was delayed until 11:15. When they arrived, Emmett followed Logan and his friend, Bennett, around like a little puppy dog the entire time. The very next day, I received a text from the mom informing me that Bennett had tested positive for Covid. Since we have had two other exposures earlier this school year (Ella with a friend in October and Lia with another friend in December) and neither one of them caught it, I kind of brushed it off hoping that our luck would continue and forgot about it within a few hours. However, when I went to read stories to Emmett the following Friday night, January 7th, I noticed that his body felt really warm. After giving him some baby Tylenol, I put him to bed hoping that it was just a little bug that toddlers typically pick up in the winter and hoped that his fever would be gone in the morning. I really hadn't even made the connection yet to his exposure to Bennett earlier in the week.
When Emmett woke up later that night crying and begging to come into bed with us, I was pretty confused. Since I was too tired to rock him for comfort (which is what I normally would have done), I reluctantly agreed, and brought him to bed with us for the rest of the night. Emmett ended up having a very restless night sleep and woke up many times crying and whining which is not normal for him. On the morning of January 8th, Emmett still had a temperature of 100.8 and also a runny nose. That is when I started to think we might be in trouble. After spending an hour on the phone and the computer that morning, I managed to get him signed up for a drive-through Covid test and also placed an order to pick up a pack of two, rapid Covid tests at the same clinic. After arranging for someone to take Ella to basketball practice, Emmett and I raced off to the clinic five minutes away to find an HOUR long, testing line. About four cars away from the end of the testing line, I started to feel a sore throat coming on. I couldn't believe it. When we got up to the front of the line, they reluctantly agreed to give me a test as long as I signed up for one before closing that night (or else my test results would be thrown out). I also learned that the clinic was so backed up with Covid tests due to the increase in the Omicron variant, it would take up to seven days to get the results back instead of the normal 2-3 days. Needless to say, I quickly parked my car and ran into the clinic with Emmett after being tested to pick up the two rapid tests. We then raced home to drop Emmett off to Lia for nap time so that I could meet Ron and Logan downtown for Logan's first basketball game of the season.
It was then business as usual for the rest of that Saturday. After attending Logan's basketball game, I came home and recruited the help of all three older kids to clean and vacuum their bedrooms (which is always a major undertaking after Christmas each year). In addition, I helped Lia clean the children's bathroom. We didn't finish until 7 p.m. that night and I noticed that my hands were shaking and I felt really tired. After dinner, dishes, and getting the kids to bed, I felt completely wiped out and more exhausted than normal when I crawled into bed.
When I woke up the morning of January 9th, my entire body ached from head to toe. It was like something I had never felt before. I could barely walk to the bathroom and back before collapsing in bed. In addition, my sore throat was raging and I had zero energy and zero appetite. That is when I was finally convinced that Emmett and I might actually have Covid. So after Ron fed the kids breakfast, he first helped me take the rapid, Covid test. After waiting 10 minutes, my results came back positive. He then had Emmett take his test next and his results also came back positive. Covid had finally hit our family.
Since I was so sick, it really was not difficult to quarantine in my bedroom while Ron played Mr. Mom all day on Sunday. The problem was that Emmett was already starting to act and feel normal and there was just no way that we could "lock" him into a bedroom to watch movies all day long. He just is too young for that sort of thing. In addition, there just was no way to tell him to be careful about his distance from others or to not to touch his siblings, etc. So, he basically ran around the house like a Covid tornado and infected everyone in the household.
On Monday, January 10th, Ron woke up with a sore throat. Since I was still on my death bed, he got the three older kids off to school before running into work to pick up a rapid test (that they have in abundance for testing athletes) and his computer since he was no longer allowed to be at work due to having a sore throat with an active Covid case at home. This turned out to be a massive blessing for me as I stayed in bed all of Monday and most of Tuesday due to no energy, no appetite, and a headache in my eyes. Emmett was basically back to normal by Monday (with the exception of taking a really long afternoon nap) and just would have been too much work for me. As a result, Ron juggled work from home while taking care of the basic, mom duties during these two days. By Wednesday, I felt about 50% and took back over the mom responsibilities although I still had one day left of my quarantine. We figured that there really wasn't any point in me staying in the bedroom for the fifth day since Emmett had never quarantined in the first place and Ron had prepared all of the kids meals for three days while being infected and not knowing it. Although his rapid test from Monday had come back negative, the test he mailed in from work that same day to a laboratory had finally come back Wednesday as positive.
As I started to feel a little better on Wednesday, Ron's sore throat worsened and a bad cough developed. In addition, Lia told us on Wednesday evening that she had started to get a sore throat and Logan reluctantly mentioned that he had had a stuffy nose for like one hour that evening. Although I was a bad mom and sent them off to school on Thursday, I took all three children to be tested at their doctor's office that afternoon. At this point, Lia looked and felt really sick and Logan and Ella were totally fine. After keeping Lia home from school on Friday (which was a half day), I received a call from the doctor's office after Logan and Ella had gotten home from school informing me that ALL three kids had tested positive for Covid. Although Lia's test result came back as no surprise, I was a bit surprised about Ella and Logan since they acted and felt 100% normal. In fact, when Ron told both of them that they tested positive, Logan just looked up from his computer screen and said, "Hmm, okay," and Ella flashed Ron a big smile and said, "I'm happy!" Silly kids.
So although we had already postponed Emmett's birthday party indefinitely, we had not cancelled anything else that week due to the older three children being vaccinated (which now allows them to go to school as long as they are symptom free). After getting the test results on Friday, we had to pull both Ella and Logan out of their basketball games on Saturday and cancel our big ski day that we had scheduled for MLK Day on January 17th. I had already bought everyone's tickets and reserved a 2-hour, private lesson for Ella. This was the biggest bummer of them all as we have so few opportunities to take the two middle kids skiing/boarding this winter due to Ella and Logan playing basketball. We then just hunkered down for the 3-day weekend since the three older kids were technically in the midst of their 5-day quarantine. I was feeling about 90% at this point and was able to get some things done for the first time in over week. Although Ron still had a cough, he felt pretty good energy wise and completed some projects that needed to be done. The kids just stayed at home and watched lots of TV and played with each other.
On Tuesday, January 18th, I called both of the kids' schools early in the morning to get in touch with their Covid coordinators. Since Lia and Logan both had "symptoms" on Wednesday night, that counted as their day #1 and were allowed to return back to school on Tuesday since it was their day #6. Since Ella never had any symptoms, the day she was tested for Covid counted as her day #1 and so she had to wait one more day to return to school. So, she happily stayed home with Emmett yesterday before heading back to school today. Although it wasn't very lucky that all six of us caught Covid, it is very lucky that it happened when it did as our school district had just changed the 10-day quarantine to a 5-day quarantine on January 7th! How is that for amazing timing?! As a result, Lia only missed a half day of school, Logan missed no school, and Ella only missed one full day of school which is incredible compared to all of the students who missed 10 days or even 14 days which was the quarantine time up until this past October! So, I would say that we definitely got off easy compared to others. In addition, I am so grateful that none of us had severe or life-threatening symptoms--especially little Emmett who is not vaccinated. I am also so grateful that Ron was forced to work from home all last week as I just did not have the energy on Monday and Tuesday to be a mom. And, lastly, I am so grateful that Covid did not strike our family during the holiday season when we had so many wonderful activities and events planned OR right before or during a big vacation like our one to North Carolina last summer or our upcoming trip to Disneyland. That would have been so disappointing and a huge financial loss!
So, with all of that said, I am grateful for the tender mercies that did happen during this Covid storm that hit our home last week and am so thankful for the fact that all six of us might be a little more protected and immune from catching this virus again...
The cute sign that Ella immediately put up on her door on the morning of January 9th after learning that Emmett and I had tested positive.
The "Get Well" card that the three older kids made for me and placed on my lunch tray that same day.
The message inside the card which perfectly sums up the personalities of my three older children:
Lia wrote a sweet and sincere message
Logan was uncomfortable with expressing any emotions so he just drew a picture
Ella who loves any attention from me just wanted to know when I would get better
After days and days of trying to stay away from Emmett, it was a bit of a relief to find out that all three older children tested positive for Covid on January 13th. As a result, this news was met with a big hug from Emmett.
And then Ella joined in on the hug!
And then Lia jumped in to make it one big, official, group, Covid hug!
Lastly, here is a picture of Ella enjoying some TV time with Emmett on her one day that she was forced to stay home from school on January 18th when Lia and Logan were allowed to go back.
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