It’s been a rough couple of weeks.

Bea’s been whiny. She hasn’t been sleeping, eating, or wanting to do anything other than hold my hand. Solly has been cheerful as always, yet somehow not acting himself – running a little warm, not eating great, just a little off. I’ve been exhausted. More so than usual. We’ve been struggling to get anything done other than keeping ourselves fed, staying cool in the summer humidity, and getting in bed at a reasonable hour.

Something just hasn’t been right.

Then, last Monday, Bea started sticking her fingers in her ears. She was jumpy at any noise, crying unusually hard when Solly spoke too loudly or when the dogs barked. She threw a fit – a full-on two year-old’s meltdown at only 16 months old – immediately when she didn’t get her way.

Something wasn’t right.I whisked her away to a back-up pediatrician (ours was on vacation) who checked her out and blamed a natural developmental phase. I thought, well, ok, this is my first child who has developed typically, so this is all new to me. Maybe he’s right.

And, yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling: something wasn’t right.

We took her back several days later and a different pediatrician suggested it was a seasonal viral crud. Ok. But still, it doesn’t seem right.

I got a crippling sore throat during these pediatrician visits that wouldn’t subside with any amount of rest, hot tea, or pain medicine. Again, I suspected something wasn’t right. On my hunch, I went into a walk-in clinic and tested positive for strep throat.

Today, I packed up both kiddos with the help of our wonderful nanny and headed back to our regular pediatrician (home from vacation) where I filled her in on the past couple of weeks. I requested strep tests for both kiddos.

The result? Solly has strep. Bea does not, though, pending results from a culture, I suspect she’ll be in the same boat as me and Solly.

See, I knew something wasn’t quite right. Although I figured that Bea’s test would immediately come back as positive, the experience showed me that Solly definitely doesn’t always show when he doesn’t feel right, or, at least, his signs are much more subtle. (Could this be a “CP thing”? Or is this just how Solly is? The jury is still out on that one.) Oh, and Mama’s intuition always wins.

I’ll be back to updates and musings in a few days. Until then, we’ll be taking a pause, taking our medicine, and focusing on feeling better.