The chicken pox have been going through our extended family since the end of summer. We do not vaccinate, so we knew it would be best for Beth to be exposed to the chicken pox as young as possible. Yet, we didn't exactly want to expose her "on purpose". So, when the first round went through, we kept our distance and let it run its course. Then came round #2. The chicken pox arrived at the Walters house (my sister's children and Beth's cousins), and since we knew it would never be possible to keep our families totally separate for the length of time that it took for the chicken pox make its way through their large family, we figured we were doomed. So, we allowed Beth to be moderately exposed. This is supposed to be a "highly contagious" virus, right? Well, apparently not as contagious as we thought... It took a full month of increasingly direct exposure to her cousins for her to finally get the chicken pox. 
Poor babe. Here she is in her special "Pooh" nighty that we bought just for the occasion. (It had a large neck to avoid popping blisters when putting on and off.) This was taken on day 4. The first few days were more just body aches and fever. The blisters emerged very slowly for Beth. But by day 4, the blisters were coming like crazy, and she was overwhelmed. The itching was getting miserable by this point, and she knew that she had plenty of days of itching ahead of her. This was the day that I spent mostly laying in bed with her, tea tree oil dropper in hand. We watched movies together, and she would point, and I would drip...for...hours... Yeah, it wasn't fun.
If an area of skin would get too warm, the rash would spread like wildfire... Her poor little face had it the worst.
This was on Sunday, day 5. She missed her friend's birthday party, and so Daddy came home from church with a bag of party favors. These made a sick little girl's day!
This pock (pictured above and below) takes the prize for the biggest pock we've ever seen! It was the very first blister she got, and it grew with every passing day. It was HUGE. Putting ointment on it several times a day made Mommy very queasy...
Here is our arsenal of products that we used to manage the symptoms. If you ever get the chicken pox in your house, I now know what works and what doesn't. Tea tree oil and ASAP silver gel were our best weapons against the itch (and both have antiseptic properties as well). The expression on Beth's face the night I brought home "BUTT PASTE" was pretty priceless. Yes, Butt Paste. The zinc oxide relieves itching without crusting like calamine lotion--which is good on the face where you don't want scarring.
By this point, we're about a week into the chicken pox. Beth is feeling much better, and some of her sores are starting to scab.
All scabbed-over. She was no longer contagious at this point, and she was very excited that she could finally put on a cute hat and get out of the house. We're so glad to have the chicken pox behind us!
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