Thank you all for your responses, and for your understanding and compassion (for us and for our health aide). He actually doesn't work again until Tuesday because of the way the schedule works, so thankfully we have plenty of time to talk and process everything. I do hate the idea of letting him go, just to protect "us," but on the other hand he is making a decision to take a risk. I will post with a follow-up to let you know what happens!

Hi, I'm coming out of lurking to get the boards' opinion on a personal situation. Let's say you had a health aide who came to your home for 12 hours 4 days a week to provide in-home care for a family member. This morning, said health aide (from Sierra Leone) mentions to you that he has visitors from same country who have been here 2 weeks and will be leaving in a week, so they'll know before they leave if they develop symptoms of ebola. He frequently has guests staying with him from Sierra Leone. With the new cases coming out in the news, this is obviously on everybody's minds. This health aide also relies on this income as his sole financial support. How would you respond? Actually asked the pediatrician today because we were there for a well visit, and she said she'd get another health aide until he has been clear for 3 weeks (and impose the same quarantine any time he has visitors from back home). What would you do? I don't want to be ruled by fear, but I don't want to be foolish either! Thanks for feedback!

We went to the zoo in an (unsuccessful) attempt to see the new baby panda! We did see some other fun animals, though, and we're going to start watching the panda cam to see if we can find a pattern. Then we'll try to go at a time when she is awake and active. I'm hoping it's first thing in the morning, when the zoo is also the least busy!

I have 5 ages 1-12. My dh isn't home for dinner 3 nights a week also. I have an assigned kitchen helper (rotates weekly) and, especially on the nights dh isn't home, the 2 of us fix plates together at the counter/island and put them on the table. When dh is home, we generally have 1 main dish that he and I dish up and pass plates, and then we pass around sides, including any toppings. I think it's a nice mix, actually, and it teaches us all a little patience on the nights when we pass food around! Sarah

I have thought about that! Are they expensive?

This is my philosophy too. And I hope that you feel better soon! :grouphug:

Thank you. I really appreciated your response. You're right, it not "nothing" that's wrong, there's just nothing they can do that I can't do myself! And I am a FIRM believer in the power of homemade chicken soup! :001_smile:

I've been there, too. We waited a couple days (on 2 separate occasions) on both my dd and ds and it turned out they had fractured wrists! With my ds, he actually high-fived the dr. with his broken wrist, and even the dr. was surprised it was broken. Mostly, I am so very thankful for our good doctors and medical care, and that I can go get a prescription or advice!

Thanks for all of the input. Except for you lucky ones who have super-kids or something (I'm seriously jealous), I feel like I'm probably pretty normal then. Generally, I give an illness at least a week, but once a fever pops up at the end and they're getting worse, we go in. I've just figuring out with my baby that fever seems to be her "go to" and doesn't necessarily mean anything. After our $1000 ER bill for her ear infection though, I'm more inclined to just pay the $80 copay and take her to the dr. to rule out anything. And for peace of mind! -Sarah

wow! That's a new one for me. I would have brought him in too. I hope you can laugh about it now!

Hi, I was at the dr. this morning with my 14 month old. She's had diarrhea for a week and now a fever; no cold symptoms. She's also been grabbing her throat a lot. A couple of my kids had the stomach flu over the weekend. I didn't like the fever coming up now, so I took her in. She's also been REALLY fussy for this whole week. I had a feeling the dr. wouldn't find anything, but I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything. And there was nothing. Well, she took a urine sample to check for UTI, and those results won't be back until tomorrow. This is the 5th time I've been in to see them in the past 6 months. One time she had a double ear infection, and one time she was "fine" but we ended up in the ER a day later with a fever of 106 and an ear infection that popped up. So, I'm 2/5 basically. All this got me wondering if I'm "normal"? We have to pay for every visit (out of our HSA, which technically my dh's company pays half of) until we meet our deductible. I'd really like to know what your "record" is. FWIW, I have 2 little ones, ages 3 and 1, and 3 older kids (but the older 3 almost never go to the dr!). Thanks! Sarah

I'm sorry I don't have any ideas--I'm in the same boat myself with my dd (13 months). She has been consistently waking between 4-5 for about 6 months now! I was hoping to see some magical new idea here! CIO is not an option for us either; even if I wanted to, she shares a room with my dd (10), and we're all on the same level so I think she'd just end up waking all the other kids. She is starting to transition to just 1 nap and I'm hopeful that eventually she'll start sleeping longer now that she isn't sleeping so much during the day. I do try every morning to rock her for a few minutes and then put her back in her crib. About 25% of the time she does go back to sleep, and it seems more likely on the days when she only had 1 nap. I know that she's my last baby, so I keep telling myself to just enjoy the early morning snuggle time. Somehow that sounds more possible right now than it usually does at 4am! :) Hang in there! Sarah

double post~

I think it really depends on how your kids handle hot & humid, very crowded situations. It might be kind of neat for you to go down to the mall during the day for the festival. It really is something just to see all the people! I went down several times to see the fireworks as a child and it is something that I will never forget! They'll probably be better than you, honestly! :) Just on a side note, if you can get up and out on the 5th, that is a less crowded opportunity to visit some of the more popular tourist sights. If you go first thing, parking isn't a problem pretty much anywhere you want! We live just outside the city, so please feel free to ask me or pm me if you have any questions! Sarah

We LOVE books on cd. We check them out from the library, and most are listened to in the car. Here are some my kids have really enjoyed (like, let's go drive around in the car so we can listen to our story): Chronicles of Prydain Benedict Society Chronicles of Narnia Lemony Snicket series Sisters Grimm series Land of Elyon books Dark is Rising series (currently on book 1, but I can already tell they're going to be looking for the rest asap!) As you can see, we like the books that are series. Or maybe those are the ones I remember best since they went on and on! -Sarah