Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Plague, Pestilence & Obama!

Election coverage in Alaska can make you feel pretty insignificant.  The polls are still open here when CNN declares the winner of the presidential election.  I'm pretty sure our big state will never make or break any national election, but voting still feels good.  And (the best part), you can watch all the live election coverage at a very decent hour and still get to bed on time.  Yay Obama!  But as this is a parenting blog, I digress.

I survived some kind of parenting rite of passage this weekend.  I took Porter to get his hair cut (no, not that).  It had been too long, but hey, it really worked with the werewolf costume.  The barber finishes up, I hand him the cash, and he calls me over to "show me something."  He parts Porter's hair, and three little black things scurry away onto another part of his head.  Oh good Lord.  It took me a second to sort of process what was happening, and the barber says, "I'm not sure what that is, but I think he needs to take a shower."  Completely mortified and put in my place as a horrible parent who doesn't bathe her pestilence ridden child, I got the hell out of there as fast as I could.

Back in the car, I realized that we had a full on case of HEAD LICE.  This was seriously my worst nightmare.  I never had lice as a kid, and it just never crossed my mind.  Even though I got a letter home the other day that it was going around in Porter's school, I never even checked him.  I just didn't think it could happen to us.  On the way home, I ran into the drugstore and bought the biggest bottle of chemicals I could find.  I also called Bryce and cried.  At home, I looked at Porter's head one more time, and really, it was the most awful thing I've ever seen.  And I've seen some gross kid stuff.  All four of us got the pesticide treatment, my good friend Google was consulted, a pile of laundry the size of my entire downstairs bathroom was amassed, and I was feeling sort of okay about it.

That night, Cedar just wasn't sleeping well.  I was feeling bad about the lice shampoo I used on her, as it said right on the bottle not to use it on kids younger than two years, and I thought her head might be bothering her.  So I let her sleep in bed with me for hours.  It was a fitful and entirely not restful night.  After we all got up in the morning, I did a check on each kid's head, and I found a live, living, crawling louse on Cedar's head.  On my baby!  That slept on my pillow all night long.  That probably couldn't sleep because she was itchy.  And my head started crawling all on it's own.  That's when I called Bryce in Petersburg in a hot mess of teary panic.  I needed someone to check my head!  I needed more lice shampoo and I couldn't drive my car, because all the car seats were inside being decontaminated!  Oh my God there were bugs crawling on the baby's head!  And I have to say that Bryce wins the good husband award, because he flew home.  He flew home to spend hours going through our heads with a nit comb (nothing on me or Molly!) and helping me while I washed every freaking towel, sheet, blanket, pillow, coat, hat, car seat cover, dress up costume and stuffed animal in our house.

It's not totally over yet as we all get another pesticide treatment this weekend, but I'm pretty sure that there are no lice or nits anywhere in our house right now.  My head doesn't itch every time I think about it anymore.  I had to take Porter to the school nurse on Monday morning, and he got to go back to class with a big pink post-it note with a zero on it.  I'm also an expert on all things louse related.  And it's not as scary now that we've been through it.  Knock on wood we never have to again.

8 comments:

  1. Sounds like us - Zoya was in Ohio for a week and the kids never had a bath and wore the same clothes everyday. They wear a uniform to school and I'd dig in the dirty laundry hamper to find their uniforms. Now we too have a lice scare. Zoya is back and the kids have both had baths and Zoya used hairspray on Nora in the hopes of keeping the lice away.

    Now let's hope we don't sound too much like you in a few days!

    Patrick

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  2. Glad to hear Bryce was able to fly home and help out.... I've been there and done that with the head lice (and it's not fun at all!!!). Seriously, if you EVER need any help please give me a call (957-0626), even if it's just to drop all the kids off and have a few moments to yourself! Karla

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    1. Thanks Karla!! It doesn't seem you can get out of Gastineau without dealing with head lice. Boo.

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  3. I gather lice can't live in Alaska away from body heat - so the easy thing to do for de-licing the house is to turn the heat off and leave for a few days. Stay at a hotel and put lice in their beds, and then go home to a house empty of live vermin. Patrick

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    1. Ha! That's what Bryce said I should do when I first called him. They seem to be gone (knock on wood), and I'm just really hoping they never come back. Good luck to you too!

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  4. Jessy- I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. It is so awful! We got it back in the summer and it is truly hell on earth.

    I couldn't get rid of it, so we ended up having to go to a special place to have it removed. I swear it was truly one of my worst nightmares.

    We got a shampoo with tea tree oil in it and that's what Carson uses. For some reason the lice hate it.

    Hugs, my sweet friend!

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    1. Steph, that sounds awful!! I read online about resistant strains in some parts of the country, that must have been you. The lice shampoo seems to have done the trick here, fingers crossed! I've been putting tea tree oil in our shampoo too!

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  5. Sorry this had to happen, but I'm glad it's over. Yay for Bryce being able to help! Every time we get a lice note from school (seems like it's 2 or 3 times a year) I'm thankful for my boy with his fine, short blond hair. Very easy to check. So far, I've been lucky. Hope you will be next time, too!

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