Rashes, bumps, and bruises

Both of my children have booboos on their faces right now; that's the first time that ever happened. Ironically, they fell in the same vicinity. Nadia got hers on Saturday night when we were coming into the house. She fell and hit her chin (just below her lip) on the cement step in the garage. Today she picked at the scab so it started bleeding again. Yesterday morning as we were leaving the house to go to the playground, Nadia didn't think Ian was moving fast enough. She gave him a little push, which caused him to fall off the step and hit his forehead on the concrete garage floor. Even though his wound is more recent, his is healing faster. The bruise already looks much better today.

This evening his right cheek and right ear became very red and hot to the touch. I took his temperature, and he had a 101 degree fever. I gave him some Ibuprofen, and the rash didn't go away. I called the Pediatrician on call since his rash didn't start until after their office hours were done for the day, and she thought it was strange that it's only on one side of his face. She said it might be an allergic reaction. If it gets any worse, we're to take him to the ER. Otherwise, we're to take him to the Pediatrician tomorrow. Just what Ian needs, one more allergy. Hoping it's nothing more serious than that, and that I can figure out what might have cause the reaction, if it's indeed an allergy. Oh how I wish Ian was as healthy as Nadia and didn't have all these physical issues to deal with. My poor boy.

Someone from the union emailed me yesterday saying that you can't take two FMLA leaves back to back. You have to work 1,250 hours before you can request another FMLA. The union thought that I should have a little bit of leave left because I am working 50% right now, but they weren't sure exactly how much. HR emailed me back today and said that I won't be eligible for any FMLA in 2012 because I didn't work enough hours in 2011 to qualify. They said I am eligible for childrearing leave, and that if I wish to take that, I need to contact my department chair and Dean. The key difference between childrearing leave and FMLA is that we'd be paying a lot more for health insurance under childrearing leave than we are now under FMLA. We're paying about $200 a month now, and I think we'd be paying about $600 a month if I was on 50% childrearing leave in the spring.

That's likely a moot point because the Dean said on Friday that the President isn't going to approve any additional childrearing requests for me. Although we're allowed to take up to 4 years off for childrearing leave, it's at the discretion of the President. I've used childrearing leave twice over the past 3 years. I took 25% leave in fall 2009 (taught 3 classes) and was on 100% leave last semester. The Dean told me last fall that spring 2011 (my second request) was the last that the President would approve, and she told me on Friday that he won't approve any more childrearing leave requests from me. I tried calling my Chair after getting the email from HR, but he had already gone home for the day. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to him tomorrow to find out if he thinks my request will be approved or not. I'm not sure why, but I cried after reading the email from HR.

I think my emotional response is partially because I'm feeling stressed out due to Ian. Feeding him has gotten harder now that milk has again been eliminated from his diet. He lost 13 ounces in the past 7 days. I am buying some Duocal on eBay. Thanks for telling me about it, Regina.