From Los Angeles to Singapore, Santa Barbara to Great Britain, from mommy blog to mommy blog I heard/read the same complaint: “Worst cold/flu I’ve ever had! Lingering fatigue! RELAPSE! RELAPSE! RELAPSE!”
The Winter holidays were a total bust for many. My son and I were hit the week before Christmas, suffered runny noses, but felt chipper enough on Christmas, then were hit with that virus right after and well into the new year. It is the worst cold/flu I’ve ever had, complete with relapses and certainly the worst illness poor T has experienced in his little life so far.
My husband and I fought the urge to scream in terror and rush our baby to the ER every hour with our heads twisting around on our necks and instead consulted books and Babycenter.com and Dr. Sears.com and Google (I from my sick bed, S from his laptop a safe distance from the rabid-Hydra that was me) and we pestered the 24/7 advice nurses when middle-of-the-night crying weirdness happened. We purchased a—you know, the thing filled with water that bubbles and the hood attaches and steam comes out—vaporizer, yes a vaporizer. We squirted saline drops up the little guy’s crusty nose. We plunged his crusty nose. We made the bathroom a steamroom and sat in there with him. We added OJ to the water in his sippy cup. We tucked him in the car at 1am and drove around NoHo avoiding drunks and road rage (mine) until he fell asleep. We kept in touch with our doctor. We came close to harrassing the 24/7 telephone nurses, but that eased off, it did. I nursed T whenever he wanted, which turned into four times during the night, all previous OMG-baby-sleeping-through-night miracles and pipedreams of weaning out the window along with the stupid piece-of-CRAP expensive ear thermometer.
In short, it took two weeks, but we’re still married and mother and child are better, despite the mommy’s two disgusting relapses and embarrassing behavior as she writhed and moaned on the king sized bed forever dominating the living room, calling for Advil and OJ and a shotgun.
In short, we made it.
And although it was often a total nightmare and a complete pain-in-the-ass always, part of me is glad we went through it—because now we know even more about our baby, his FOR F’S SAKE I’M SICK, PEOPLE, DO SOMETHING cries, that when he’s sick he is going to wake up in the night, frequently, that he can have repeated fevers and not need instant medical attention, that longer naps during the day don’t mean he’s going into a coma, but are actually helpful to his psyche and recovery, that he can NOT eat much, but drink more and still be on the road to recovery, that an extra Baby Einstein DVD viewing is okay, it’s just okaaaaaay.
In short, our baby is a trooper in diapers.
My husband and I learned so much and although this might sound elemenatary now? At the time, when S and I were covered in baby’s vomit or baby’s snot and T was beyond uber-unhappy? We wondered…
A la votre! Hope you’re feeling better, wherever you are.
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