Hellobee

I think this title only slightly exaggerates what it’s like when your twins simultaneously come down with a severe case of Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease (HFM).  The thought of living through the last four days ever again makes me actually shudder.

HFM is a virus that causes a rash that is generally around the mouth, hands, feet, and sometimes the bottom, a fever, and blisters in the throat and mouth.  It’s highly contagious and is generally spread through nose and throat secretions (coughing, sneezing, etc.), blister fluid, and feces.

Friday everything seemed peachy.  They boys had just the tiniest bit of a rash on their faces, but they were drooling like crazy, so we didn’t give it a second thought. About 2 a.m., Finn started crying. I went in and noticed he felt pretty hot. I took his temperature and it was 100.6 degrees. Not terrible, but the boys aren’t super fever prone, so I knew this didn’t bode well.  We gave him some ibuprofen and a bottle, but he just could not settle back into sleep. After about an hour and a half of both Mr. Blue and me giving it our best efforts, he finally fell asleep. The next morning both boys’ rashes were looking notably angrier, and they both had a fever of 101+. Having seen some pics of HFM on Hellobee, I predicted that’s what it was.  I posted a picture on Instagram of Elliot’s sad little face, and Dr. Instagram agreed with my diagnosis. We decided to take Finn to the weekend clinic just to be sure it was just a virus.  If it turned out to be something that needed treatment, Mr. Blue would bring Elliot to the doctor at that point.

The doctor confirmed that we were looking at HFM and said he had a pretty severe case.  The back of his throat, tonsils, and his mouth were covered in painful blisters.  She mentioned that some doctors give a mixture of a few things plus lidocane, but that she didn’t recommend it for babies this young if they were still drinking their bottles. They had been refusing all finger food but had still been drinking about 3/4 of their bottles, so she wanted us to only give them something for the pain. She recommended just using ibuprofen or Tylenol, rather than alternating, so they would still have a bit of a fever to help fight off the virus.

Naturally, after returning home from the doctor, they started refusing pretty much their whole bottles. Saturday night was a disaster. Finn woke up throughout the night. Elliot just never went to sleep. He slept for 30-45 minutes once or twice, but mostly he just cried, whether he was being held or not. He would toss and writhe regardless of how we held him and would cry if we tried to sit while holding him. By 1 a.m., we were all exhausted. At that point, I figured we had two options: put him in the little stroller and push him around the kitchen hoping that would get him to sleep or load him up in the car and try that. I opted for driving around.

He fell asleep almost as soon as I pulled out of our driveway. I went by Starbucks for some coffee, started an audiobook using my headphones, and drove around the loop until 3:30 a.m.  About then, he needed Tylenol, so we headed home and tried to lay him down again. He slept for about an hour. Mr. Blue got up so I could get a bit of sleep. Elliot went back to sleep, but woke up again in another 45 minutes. At this point it was about 5:15, and both boys were up at the same time. After we tried to get them to eat a little bit of their bottles, I loaded both boys up and drove around for another hour and a half.

When they started to wake up, I headed home.  Mr. Blue watched the boys, while I slept for about an hour and a half.  Sunday was equally terrible. They were so listless and miserable.  They wouldn’t eat or drink, so we called our doctor’s nurse line. They said to go back to alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol to help manage the mouth/throat pain and the only other thing that we could try was to mix an antiacid medicine (like Maalox, Mylanta, etc.) and some baby Benadryl, but that it’s difficult to use with babies that are too young to understand to swish it around their mouth to coat all the sores.  We decided to try it and swab the mixture around their mouths with q-tips. This did seem to help some, though it was by no means a magical cure. My mom offered to make the drive down to help us, which we happily accepted. She arrived Sunday afternoon. Grandma Blue and Mr. Blue watched the boys while I snagged another little nap. The boys both ran fevers throughout the day in the 101-102.9 range.

Sunday night was more of the same: Finn woke about every hour.  Elliot just couldn’t relax enough to sleep. I tried driving, but it didn’t work this time. We assembled the old swing and gave it a try. It kind of worked for small bits of time, but eventually we had to resort to just holding him. The good thing Sunday night was that at least once he went to sleep in our arms, he would let us sit down on the couch with him. We took turns holding him. Even though we weren’t getting much rest, at least he was finally getting the sleep his body needed to be able to fight the virus.

Monday morning dawned, and Mr. Blue got ready for work since I was the one staying home that day.  The boys seemed to be feeling a bit better, but their faces looked even worse.  Elliot had rash blisters pretty high up on his face and some even back by his ears.  The rashes were bright red and just looked sore and awful. Throughout the day, though, we had signs that maybe the boys were feeling a little bit better. They still weren’t sleeping or eating great, but they weren’t as listless and their fevers were down to almost normal.

Monday night we laid them down in their cribs . . . and they actually went to sleep! Sweet mother of all that’s good, hope sprung within me. Elliot slept until about 12, but he went back to sleep quickly under Mr. Blue’s care. Finn woke up about an hour later and I got up with him. He had some of his bottle and went back to sleep. A bit after that, Elliot woke up again and Grandma Blue was on deck. This time, Elliot just struggled to go back to sleep and Mr. Blue and Grandma Blue both weren’t having much luck. I eventually pulled myself from a sleep that easily could have shamed a bear in hibernation (with about the same attitude, too). It was my turn to try, and Elliot must have finally been sufficiently worn out because he fell asleep in my arms as I walked with him. Eventually, I sat down and a while after that, I was able to lay him in his crib.

Tuesday was better in the sense that they were obviously beginning to feel better.  They both ate about half of their bottles, and in the evening, they even ate a little bit of finger food. We didn’t have any fevers. The downside was it was a harder day overall because they were at that point where they didn’t feel good enough to play, eat, & sleep like normal, but they felt too good to just lay around and be held, which resulted in some seriously cranky Baby Dudes.

Wednesday they were back at daycare, I was back at work, and all was mostly good.  They’ve been much happier, though their little faces still look so sad covered in scabs.  Upon arriving at daycare today, the teacher told us that “every member of the Breakfast Club” (the same group of little ones that sit and eat their breakfast together in the morning) were out on Monday and Tuesday with HFM.  Further evidence on how contagious this hateful little virus is.

We all survived our first (and God willing, only) round of HFM, but I can’t say we survived it with a lot of grace and style. It has been our worst illness to date, and I wouldn’t wish it on a soul. During really terrible rounds of the sickies, I just try to remember to be thankful that the Baby Dudes are only temporarily sick and aren’t dealing with anything chronic or life threatening. In the middle of the night when you’re on hour 3 of driving in circles to get your kiddo to sleep, it’s good to hang onto whatever perspective you can get!

Has your LO had HFM?