Sick Days

You remember when you were young and you got sick. It was bad, but you secretly liked it because it meant you didn't have to go to school and you could relax all day in front of the TV and snuggle with your mom. Ah, those were the days. As an adult being sick is not that way. In fact, go ahead and think back to your childhood. Can you recall a time that your mom was sick in bed all day? I bet you can't. And do you know why??? Because parents don't get sick days.

I love that Vicks commercial going around lately. The one where the parent knocks of the door of his toddler's room to tell him that he will be taking a sick day tomorrow. Hilarious. It draws on that irony that as a parent and caregiver-- you cannot take a sick day. You have to care for this tiny human who cannot care for themselves. And in that is the challenge. I would dare to say that the only thing worse than having a sick child, is being sick with a child.

Last Monday, P had a little stomach bug. It started at about 4:30 Monday afternoon, and it was horrible. I felt so helpless for my little girl. However, I did get to enjoy the whole Frozen movie uninterrupted as she laid motionless on my lap. I got to play with her hair (which is so stinkin long now). I just rubbed her head and her tummy until she nodded off. Then I put her to bed. The next day she seemed better. We continued to battle diarrhea until Thursday, but she seemed fine.

I was meticulous about cleaning everything up so that her dad and I wouldn't catch whatever it was she had. But Thursday morning at 4:30 am I was awakened with awful stomach pain, a pounding headache, the chills, and crippling nausea. Then, I really felt bad for P--knowing that this was how she was feeling on Monday hurt my heart. At the same time--the thought of standing up and walking around was daunting to me. There was just no way I could work, and take care of her together. I was beginning to think I couldn't do either. So J stayed home for a few hours and went into work for his two classes. He wasn't gone too long, and P slept most of the time he was away to make it bearable.

But when he returned--he had come down with the stomach bug too. So here we were, both of us feeling like death--and P, she just didn't understand why we didn't want to play with her. We felt so awful that we couldn't interact more with her, but things as simple as rocking her to sleep took maximum concentration and deep breathing to keep from vomiting all over her. It was one of my worst days as a mom.

I wish I could tell you that we were the only victims of P's stomach bug, but J's parents who had been at our house to see P on Wednesday afternoon caught it as well. They are still dealing with it, and I wish them the best. I wouldn't push that sickness on my worst enemy.

This experience just further assured me of all of the ways that my life has changed since P was born, and all of the ways that I have changed as well. Moments where you feel you cannot give your child 100% are hard to bear. Parents get sick too, but we push through because there is no other way.

What do you do when you are sick and you have to care for your little one?