Day 4-5

DRIVING! That about sums up days 4 and 5. We did have one very nice break, we spent an hour in Cottage Grove, Oregon visiting Gina and Jared and their family. Those girls are so beautiful and the boys so cute. We had a great visit, although it was only for an hour.
It was about then that we noticed McCall getting sick. She had a fever and a rash, I thought it was probably a heat rash. So we took off her clothes and gave her motrin and when I tried to feed her, she refused to eat. She wanted to but every time she tried it hurt her. So we checked in her mouth and sure enough she now had blisters in her mouth just like Gage - who was not contagious we were told.
We then decided to drive straight through the night to get to our next destination - Vanderhoof. That is one long drive. We left San Fransisco at 8 am on Saturday and arrived in Vanderhoof at 3 pm Sunday. By the time we arrived McCall had not eaten for 24 hours. She had blisters all over the inside of her mouth and her rash was horrible and over her whole body. But she was so pleasant. She slept almost the entire drive and didn't cry at all. Gage was starting to feel better by this time, but could only eat soft foods and drink liquids. And he wasn't screaming out all the time! How refreshing! But he also couldn't talk at all, it hurt his mouth, so he got in the habit of pointing to everything he want.
We ended up taking McCall to the doctor that night as she wasn't eating and her rash was getting even worse. They told me she had hand, foot and mouth disease and there was nothing we could do because it was a virus. We had the option of admitting her and putting her on IV's because she is so small and can get dehydrated so easily. But without insurance up there we opted to take her home and feed her from a syringe to try to get her hydrated. That seemed to work just fine, she actually began taking a sippy cup and drinking juice and water. She turned out to be my easiest to wean, she didn't even try to nurse ever again and it has been 9 days so I don't think she will be going backwards. But I still can't get her to drink much of anything. She will eat anything I give her, but drinking is another story. We have tried juice, water milk, formula, soy milk, milkshakes, etc. But she will only take a few sips and then push it away. She has lost 3 lbs from this and went from 21 lbs to 18 lbs. Our once chubby little girl is kinda getting scrawny. But two good things came of it, she is now sleeping through the night and is weened.
Meanwhile, Tate and Connor were so excited to get to Vanderhoof. We didn't tell them we were going until after we left Oregon. They had no idea and were so excited. They were thrilled to finally arrive and "surprise" all their cousins. They jumped out of the car and I don't think we saw them again until we left Vanderhoof. The farm has so much to entertain them and they didn't slow down for a minute.
To be continued...