Thursday, December 8, 2011

I've been itching to tell.....

In my last post, I eluded to some things that were going on here at the Magic McCain's and that I would post about it later, so here it is.

Back in the beginning of October one morning I was getting ready to fix Lauren's hair for school. I looked down at her scalp and saw two tiny bugs. I had to do a double take and then immediately my heart dropped. One of my worst fears had come true. We had been invaded by the LICE!!!!! I immediately stopped, told Mark, called the school and called my mom. Needless to say I panicked, starting checking Claire's hair, drilling Lauren if her head had been itching, had anyone in her class had it, etc. I sent Mark to the wally world and he dropped about $50 in lice treatment and we started our decontamination journey. We all were treated except for Brooke and I spent the whole day picking nits. I felt like a monkey picking out bugs like you see on the National Geographic Channel:).

Later that night, I called my best friend to get Lauren's hair cut. We had put so much treatment on her hair that I couldn't comb through her ends. Lauren's hair was almost to her waist. (Now, can you understand my nightmare? Claire's hair was about the same length.) We had about 4 inches cut and while we were cutting, dog if we didn't find another live one. So I immediately got on the phone with our pediatrician's office because obviously the other stuff wasn't working and they suggested using mayonnaise, olive oil and cetaphil as treatment. So that night, Lauren went to bed with a head full of mayo. That is the best treatment by the way.

While all this was going on, I sprayed her bed, washed all of her sheets, vacuumed the carpets, etc. The only thing I didn't do was bag up her toys because she didn't really play with them.

I felt like we had done everything we could to get rid of the nasty buggers. So the days went by, we checked her head and kept an eye on things. About two weeks later, I was doing a periodic check and noticed she had more nits then she should. I told her we would be treating her hair that night. We had a very busy day that day, so by the time we got home it was about 11pm. We decided to wait to treat her hair. We got them ready for bed and I had gone to the bathroom to get myself ready and was just checking out my hair. Now, let me say, I have dandruff and itchy scalp so I see little white flakes in my hair all the time. I looked and saw something that wasn't normal and tried to pull it off my hair and it didn't come off. I HAD THE LICE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got so mad!!! I rushed and got the leftover hair treatment and put it in my hair, woke Claire up and checked her head and sure enough, there were live ones on her head. So that night, they went to bed with mayo in their hair and I stayed up until 5 the next morning washing and drying all the bed linens.

This time we took no chances. We bagged everything, and I mean everything in their rooms and Mark brought home the work trailer and we put everything in there. We deep cleaned both of their rooms, bought new area rugs for their rooms, bought new pillows, deep cleaned our bedroom, you get the drift. My house got a full cleaning it hasn't seen since before I was pregnant with Brooke last year!!

This was a perfect opportunity, as well, to put Brooke in her crib and to move Claire into Lauren's room on the top bunk.

I will have to say I hate the fact that we had the lice again and this time all 3 of us girls got it but I now know you have to stay diligent with that stuff and not be lazy at all. I can safely say that at this moment we are now lice free and I can tell you I am an expert at lice decontamination!!!! We have tried so many remedies and I know what works and what doesn't.

What I hated the most about this experience was how it made me feel. I had lice in middle school and felt so ashamed and dirty. Those feelings came right back. I tried not to let that happen to my girls but I will say during this time of cleaning, I almost lost it. Between constantly cleaning, treating, de-nitting, pumping, feeding a baby, driving back and forth to numerous places, pumping, blowdrying, washing clothes, hormone shifts, pumping, I felt like I was about to lose it. I didn't though, thank the Lord. It was during this time that I realized that I don't need to worry about these things, they happen all the time and that I'm not a bad parent or a dirty parent. I can only do so much and that's all I can do.

I'm praying, PRAYING, that we don't get this again, however, being a mom of three girls who I know will have long hair for years to come, its inevitable. At least now, I'll be ready to kill the nasty things!!!!!