Nothing is original about parenthood, I’m learning.
Everyone warns about the winter months for kids in daycare, the ways that sickness is never ending and infiltrates every immune system in your household again and again. Turns out they were right!
We were all knocked out by various illnesses two weeks ago. I thought we were through the worst of it for the season - and then the Bug threw up twice on Friday and a new round of stomach issues began this weekend.
Seriously - how do people handle this? Do I just stop making plans in advance with any of my friends in fear that I’ll be vomiting as a result of the bug my Bug brings home from daycare? Will I be sick every weekend for the next two and a half years? Should I just go ahead and plan to make chicken soup every week for the rest of winter so that when one (hopefully not both) of the adults in our family get knocked out, we at least have food? How do people ever have more than one kid??
We had a middle of the night screaming poopy diaper change, rare these days, but apparently deeply horrifying for the baby who was in fact the one who was awakened by and the one who would not go back to sleep with a dirty diaper. It took me a while to go back to sleep after settling her down, partly because I was so aware of the fact that I would be awake in just a few hours and tired all day as a result of the wakeup (funny how used to sleep you get again so quickly after the baby days). So when I rolled over in the morning and saw my alarm clock said 8:23 am I was shocked - the Bug has had a few later mornings recently as we test out one nap versus two, but nothing like this. I immediately sent Dylan in to get her up so our whole day wasn’t ruined - he brought her in and she immediately went limp in my arms and fell hard asleep again. Sleepy sick cuddles are the only good thing about this new cycle. However, it also increases the odds of spreading all of her lovely germs into my body - lo and behold, two hours later I was in the trenches too.
All rules were off for the day - we finished all three of the Disney movies we were halfway through. She slept for another almost three hours, and only ate pouches for all of her meals.
Around 5:00, we were both feeling a bit better, and in hopes of giving Dylan 20 minutes to himself she and I ventured into the chilly evening air - me in uggs, sweats, no bra under my favorite sweater, her bundled up in her oversized fleece with mittens peeking through the too long sleeves, determined to get some of her (thankfully) returned energy out after a day of too much screen time and sleep and to get me some fresh air. She waddled ahead of me, watching two older boys play soccer with their dad in front of the school next to our house. The longer we were outside, the better I felt, and the Bug was smiling and waving to anyone passing by. As we turned a corner around the block, I suddenly heard her let out the loudest toot.
It didn’t phase her at all, and she proceeded to alternate stepping and tooting, sucking on her pacifier and toddling, the rest of the way home. I guess that’s how we get through this.