Just yesterday I was messaging back and forth with a friend (who has a new babe I would very much like to meet!) about not being able to come see her this week because I was home, tending to various illnesses for various children (RL had our family’s first ever -EVER!- ear infection last week that turned into a drainage-induced cough this week; LT is leaky-faucet faced and a little cough-y, but seems to be due mostly to the very belated arrival of his I-teeth; and HD had to stay home from school yesterday because what started out as a gradual fever turned into a knock-a-kid-out-all-day one instead).

Anyway, in the course of our electronic conversation, Dear Friend wished me good healthy vibes and I had to laugh a little because I could already feel the scratches in the back of my throat that were saying, Nope – you’ve wiped one 50 too many noses and been coughed on directly in the face one 50 too many times in the last week – you’re good healthy vibes are totally numbered. 

The scratches were right; so was my friend who pointed out that kids really do have the best timing when it comes to sneezes/coughs – always when you are buckling them into a highchair or carseat or helping them put on a coat or shoes. Always, always, they get you right in the face.

By the time I got home from teaching my yoga class last night (in which I did not touch or breathe on a single soul!), I was already having trouble swallowing. During the course of the actual night, the throat-on-fire also became sinuses that would not stop which naturally resulted in a lovely amount of peaceful, healing rest.

Ha.

Thank, thank goodness for Family Sick Leave which allowed B to stay home today and take care of the herd, so I could take care of me. Or, at least so we could divide and conquer with him taking the littlest/healthiest Littles outside and me staying indoors, tending to myself and the totally-thought-mid-day-was-getting-better 5yo who still had a rough morning and not great, feverish evening. The sick-tending-the-sick is pretty much the-blind-leading-the-blind, but at least I wasn’t home alone all day with all 3.5 of them.

As it stands tonight, I’m still pretty much worthless and my symptoms are running like a Nyquil add right now (I don’t even feel like reading, if that tells you anything. Netflix recommendations, anyone?). The biggest kicker at the moment, though, is that I can’t actually take any blessed Nyquil because of Lil’ Peanut in my tummy (this is always, always the biggest kicker when I’m sick during pregnancy & nursing, which has been, you know, pretty much the last 6.5 years straight).

Even though it sounds like Mommy Martyrdom to say this, I don’t mind making these sacrifices. OK, I do mind (rather a lot at this exact moment), but I still wouldn’t change anything about it because it is all part of the process, part of this season of life, and I know that my days of good sleep and cold medicine (good sleep because of cold medicine?) are eventually going to return, even if as a mom I know I’m never ever going to get a true “sick day” until my babies are all grown and gone.

I am also well aware that the days are numbered in which my babies will say to me, either sick or healthy, “Will you snuggle with me? I like it when you snuggle with me.” which is what came out of Harrison last night as the other kids were at the table, eating supper with Ben. I had half an hour to spare before I had to head out the door to teach, so you bet that snuggling my toasty little guy is exactly what I did on the “two-couch” for as long as I could before leaving.

Is it any shock that my own neck/back are warm and achy tonight? Nope, not really, because germs are the one thing kids share best. But HD and his siblings are my heart, so of course I will always do whatever I can to ease any suffering they have.

Now. Since I can’t take anything to make this virus go away, or even alleviate its symptoms, can someone please find me some spiffy aviators to go with my mad helicopter skills and lift (oh, gawd! the pun!) my spirits? Many thanks!