How we stay well during Cold and Flu season!

As many of you know this Flu season has been pretty rough. With 2 different strains that are only 10% covered by the vaccine a lot of people are catching the yuck! In this post I will show you my must have preventive measures that I am using like a crazy person!!

Hand Sanitizer Gel and Antibacterial Hand Soap!
     During cold and flu season my husband and I revert back to our NICU days in the sense of "gel in, gel out". Meaning every time we get in out out of the car we sanitize before touching everything! I have small bottles of sanitizer in both of our vehicles in easy to reach places for this!! We also keep a bottle of sanitizer in the house for in between hand washing! Also we love Dial Coconut Milk Antibacterial hand soap! it is much more moisturizing than other antibacterial soaps we have used and we love the fresh coconut scent!!

Clorox Antibacterial all purpose wipes

     We go through Clorox wipes like crazy in our house! Every day I make sure to wipe down door knows and light switches. Usually on the weekends I will wipe down nearly every surface in the house with these bad boys! I have also used these wipes to pre-sanitize toys before soaking then in a vinegar and water solution!

Wet-Nap Antibacterial hand wipes

     My mom bought me a box of these hand wipes and I will never go anywhere without them now!! They are great for both my hands and also Mel's. I also use them to wipe off tables, chairs and anything else we touch while out! 

Antibacterial wipes at grocery stores

     Many stores now have a little area at the front door with complementary wipes for your shopping cart. Before I had Mel I would see these stations and kind of laugh to myself thinking people were just germ freaks. Now that I have a child that has been through some pretty rough stuff I am that person standing at the door holding a baby, cart cover and sanitizing my cart for 5 minutes. And I am not ashamed! I don't have a picture of the sanitizing station at our local store because I am always too occupied with scrubbing the cart down! lol

Shopping Cart Cover

     Speaking of touching things shopping carts are disgusting! I can practically see the germs crawling around on them! When I go to the store with Mel I hate having her directly touch the cart. This is where our Floppy Seat cart cover comes in super handy! I also use the cover when we go to a restaurant for the high chair! on top of it making it more safe for Mel germ wise and also being freaking adorable it seems a heck of a lot more comfortable then sitting on a hard plastic shopping cart or wooden high chair!

Diffusing Essential Oils

     Yes, I use Clorox wipes and I wipes my kids hands with hand sanitizer but I do like the more natural route as well. I have been diffusing Young Living's Thieves essential oil and also their Orange oil in my Dew Drop oil diffuser. It smells so good and the Thieves has been proven to kill bacteria. So I feel like this is a win win!!

Black Elderberry Syrup, Vitamin D and Probiotics 

     I started Mel on Black elderberry syrup around November and I really believe it has helped her little immune system with all the nasty floating around in the air. The elderberry syrup I am currently using is purchased off Amazon, but I recently learned that elderberry syrup can be made at home so I will be exploring that option soon!! Vitamin D is an essential vitamin for all people. I personally have had Mel on a vitamin D supplement since she was tiny but I still keep her on it because we have not been able to go outside much and soak up sun. Finally probiotics. We use the Culturelle Kids powder packets and they are so so easy to mix in with her food and give her through her tube. I can really tell when she misses a day of probiotics because her poor tummy gets so torn up! I also purchase her probiotic from Amazon! 

Keeping our distance!

     The fact is that we can't trust that everyone who is sick is going to stay home from work or school. and obviously if we are going into a store that has a pharmacy you can bet that contagious people have walked around and shopped for things while picking up a prescription. Because of this we have tried try to stay home as possible lately. Sonic drive in has been our new favorite place lately because it gives us a chance to get out of the house without coming into contact with too many people. 

My mom recently came down with the flu and if you know us in real life than you know Mel and her Honey are inseparable when they are together. And my mom is my best friend so we are together a lot! As hard as it was for everyone involved we didn't see each other for 14 days from the day she was diagnosed. I know this sounds a little like over kill to some people but after seeing Mel go though everything she has we are very cautious then it come to things like that! 

Here are a few photos of Mel with her beautiful Honey!! Can I just take a second to say there is no way I could have handled everything we have been through without my mom. Seriously I would locked in a padded room of it wasn't for this angel of a woman!! Also say a prayer for my eye ball because she is going to poke me in it when she knows I put pictures of her on my blog! ;)

We try to protect Mel from all the nasty germs out there. But we are fully aware that these measures can only do so much. Mel has had her Flu vaccine and we know what to watch for and what steps too take if she does get sick. (Although I pray daily that will not happen) 

I would like everyone to remember. RSV is not just a cold to an infant. And the flu is not just an inconvenience for someone who has compromised immune system. So stay home if you feel like poop, sanitize the HELL out of EVERYTHING, and thank God for another day with those beautiful babies he gifted to you.

What precautions do you take for your family during the winter months? I would love to hear your strategies in the comments!

Love until another day,

 Shelbi

Simple Emergency Go Bag

We have had 2 trips to the ER that turned into admissions and I was not prepared in any way, shape or form for either stay! I hope that you learn from my experiences and ALWAYS have your go bag packed and ready God forbid you ever have to run out the door in the case of an emergency!

This is what I keep in our go bag!!

Clothes for YOU:

  Both times we were admitted I had nothing but what I was wearing and the diaper bag. I don't know about you but being stressed out and trying to explain to your stressed husband over the phone where you favorite pair of sweat pants are located at home does not work out super well! I keep a pair of comfy pants, a tee shirt and a set of under pants and socks. Our PICU area has a washer and dryer you can use and that was SUPER helpful for me during our stay!!

Toiletries:

   At the beginning of our stay I didn't have anything in the way of soap or bathroom essentials. I was given some by the PICU staff what is donated to them for parents. I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way because I appreciated it SO much, but I hated the products. they left my skin filmy, my hair greasy and the bristles of the tooth brush fell out while I was brushing. I went to the store during our stay and bought good stuff. My daily shower time was the only time to myself, and my decompression time. I wanted to enjoy this time and I wanted to feel CLEAN! After I got my Pantene shampoo and conditioner (because i'm super fancy) and a razor for my legs I felt like a new woman and I actually enjoyed going to the locker room and locking myself in a shower for 10 minutes! I now keep a bag of all of these items in our go bag!!

Medications and Vitamins: 

   During our admission of 43 days I literally went outside probably 3 times. I lived in those hospital walls with my little nugget and I got 0 vitamin D! I keep a small container in the go bag with 1 or 2 days of my vitamins. I only keep a small amount because if anything did happen someone could go get more or I could. But it is nice knowing I am covers for a day or two if it came down to it! I have also started keeping a little supply of Mel's meds in the bag. I do this because I look at the bag more now as just a go bag vs. a hospital bag. Its nice knowing that is a case of any emergency I can grab this bag and we would be good for a little while! I need to refill our meds and vitamins for the go bag, I recently used what we had in there because they had been in there for a while! 

Cash & Quarters:

  I have a small pouch in the go bag with about 10.00 in 1 dollar bills and a few dollars in quarters. Pretty much no matter where you go and at what time there is a vending machine somewhere, and sometimes when you make a late night ER run some cheese crackers and a DP sound like a gift from the heavens. Also my husband always goes to the vending machines when everything calms down. Its his time to get away for a minute and so something helpful AKA get this mamma some damn food! Because I have been known to get hangry and this is not a pretty sight! The machines at out Children's hospital take debit/credit cards but it is just nice to know that that extra stash is there! Our bag came with a cute little matching change purse! it is pictured below with mt Journal and pen!

Journal and Pen:

  I am a note taker. Every time a doctor would come into the room or a nurse would teach me something new I would grab my notebook and take notes! Some times I would get funny looks for writing down the most trivial things that I "Should" remember, But there have been SO many times I have refereed back to those notebooks! I also would try to journal daily about what happened with Mel and what was said that day. There are many days that I missed due to being busy or falling asleep but I tried. 

Mel's Things:

  In addition to a few days of meds for Mel I also keep a clean outfit and a blanket from home. When we went to the ER the first time and were admitted to the PICU they cut Mels onesie off of her (I still have it). I didn't have any other clothes with us, since we were there for 43 days I was able to get other clothes for her but if we would of gone home that evening I wouldn't of had anything for her to wear. I keep a blanket from home because Mel loves muslin blankets with satin tags. every night when she is going to sleep she finds the tag on her blanket and holds it for comfort. Hospital blankets are stiff and scratchy, during our PICU stay I actually had a couple muslin blankets and she would get a fresh one each day and night. This was another reason the washer and dryer in the PICU were extremely helpful! A couple diapers and wipes, Just in case! I included the tag to one of Mel's muslin blankets!

So this is what our Go Bag consists of. Pretty simple but would make us more comfortable if we ended up in another emergency situation! I feel that a bag like this is a good idea for anyone, you never know when you may have to leave your home unexpectedly and its such good peace of mind knowing that if you grabbed nothing but this one bag you would be okay! I pray that no one will ever have to use their go bag, and that everyone is staying well through this nasty cold and flu season!

LOL I just had to post this! Cracks me up every time!! for real though, go wash your hands have some wine and thank God for Lysol and Clorox!! Ohh and kiss those sweet babies!

Love until another day,
Shelbi