Nurse's Note: Bed Baths and Ode To Coban

Our family is having a hard time keeping the sickies away (thank you winter), and poor Little Miss has had it bad.  She spent a week and a half really moody with a nasty cough, fevers, and a terrible runny nose.  We exhausted our bag of tricks early with no luck and the poor baby ended up on her first round of antibiotics for her first ear infection.  She's taking it without a fuss and handling it really well.  It did give her some diarrhea though, which re-kindled a somewhat dormant quirk of mine.

One of my "things" is dirty bed sheets.  They totally gross me out.  I get these terrible mental images of developing nasty diseases or of things crawling on me in the night.  Gack!  I used to have a very strict "change at least once a week" policy.  Lately I haven't been so vigilant though, and Brinlee's sheets had been on for quite a while.  And then the diaper happened.  At first she was all tears and really upset about it.  That cleared up quickly.

This round of bed baths was more involved than my usual.  Brinlee sleeps with several "cuddlies" (blankets and stuffed animals).  We bundled all of her stuffed friends into pillow cases and stripped her mattress and it took two loads!  Why does she have so much stuff??

While her stuff was washing, Brin got to dress out of mommy's closet.  She was thrilled.  And adorable.

And she was fascinated with her stripped mattress.  She was perfectly content in there...

...until she fell and whacked her face, and then she couldn't get out of there fast enough.

When the laundry was all done I had her help me make her bed, and I could not have been a more proud mama.  I am a weird bed maker.  Poor Tim has given up trying in that department, I always strip it and re-make it.  I can't help myself, I have a system.  

And apparently Brinlee has a system too.  She spent forever straightening all her blankets until they were layered and flat and lying just so.  Like mother like daughter.

She was very pleased with her work.

Her friends didn't dry very quickly, our bathroom stayed occupied over night.  They smelled awesome though!  I love that smell.  I think I have gotten re-excited about doing this more often.  There's nothing more comfy than a fresh, clean bed.
Well... except for brand new socks... there really is nothing more comfy than that.

On a non-cold weather related note, I sliced my thumb off last week.

That was annoying.  I was trying to cut apple slices really quick to appease a hungry little girl while we waited on dinner, and instead I got trapped in the bathroom, without the tip of my thumb, getting nothing done. 

I really shouldn't be left unsupervised I guess.     

Quite honestly, it wasn't that bad.  Just dumb.  Naturally the ER never crossed my mind (I work with those people, how embarrassing!).  Besides, our cupboard is stocked with a few goodies that did the trick just right: sterile gauze, and coban!

I use this stuff all the time at the hospital, and I knew it was neat.  But it has officially gained a permanent place on our "must have for our first aid kit" list.  This stuff rocks!  No bandaid in the world will really stay on the tip of a finger.  But coban... it stays anywhere.  It doesn't use adhesives that leave nasty stuff on your skin, serious bonus.  And it comes in all kinds of cool colors.  With coban, you can keep your ouchies dressed without ruining the look of your outfit.  I'm sold!

Coban does not however take away pain, and that stinking thumb hurt like crazy for a long time.  I am happy to report that it is almost 100% better now though.  But I am tempted to keep up with the coban bandages anyway.  It's that awesome.