A Horrible Plague Has Struck...

Way back in my teens, I played a text adventure called "Hammurubi", which was vaguely based on a Babylonian king from way back when (way, way, way back when.)

It was of course a simple game, because that was a long time ago.  The point was to be a good ruler and help your people multiply and be healthy, so the player had to manage resources well.

Every once in a while, the random calculator in the game would hit the following "bad event":  "A horrible plague has struck, and half your people have died."

I guess it is a symptom of my warped sense of humor that I found that amusing. In one turn, the game firmly wiped out half the population.

Which, oddly enough, reminds me of the "Frozen" movie.  In that movie, it was an important plot point that the parents of Elsa and Anna die.  So early on, the parents leave on a diplomatic trip somewhere, by sea, and their ship sinks in a storm.  End of parents.  In less than 30 seconds :-).

Anyhoo, we've got a very mild illness (not a horrible plague) and about half the people have it, including me. It is just a cold, as far as I can tell.  Lydia had some asthma symptoms yesterday, which are normal for her during respiratory illnesses.  Miriam's nose is running enthusiastically. I'm a little sick, though feel better today than I did yesterday.

So far, praise God, Rose is healthy. I'm still breastfeeding her and I hope my antibodies are helping her fight this off.  Illnesses in little ones are so challenging and miserable that I really hope she doesn't get sick.

Speaking of breastfeeding, Rose is 3 months old and yes, I'm still exclusively breastfeeding her. That really is an accomplishment.  I've been drinking a great deal and eating like crazy.

This week, she broke out in eczema on her front. Ugh, that means, almost certainly, she is allergic to something I've been eating.  My best guess is chocolate, or almonds, or peanut butter.  I have been eating lots of Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate with Almonds, and also Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.

I dropped those items from my diet and her eczema cleared up most of the way.  Yesterday, I added back plain dark chocolate and we'll see how she does.

Besides the fact that I LIKE chocolate, dark chocolate is an easy source of calories when I'm running around being busy. I've had so much trouble with milk supply issues that I've been working hard to eat enough.  Just in the few days I dropped chocolate, I lost 2 lbs and dropped below 150 lbs.  As I've said before, losing weight is not a problem for me so while I feel a little weird being 15 lbs over my normal weight, I'm firmly working on maintaining my weight, not losing weight. I hope this plain dark chocolate can come to rescue so I don't lose my milk supply.

But regardless, I'm very happy I made it 3 months with Rose.  I ran out of milk before that with Daniel.