Stop, Drop and Blog

Just when you think you get the hang of things, it all goes to heck in a hand basket.

FireDad brought home a cold last week. He just had a sore throat. And the sniffles. We didn’t think much of it. Until BigBrother caught it. He’s not often sick. But man, when the kid gets sick, he goes all out. He had a temperature of 103.7 (yes, I took him to the doctor for that one) and wouldn’t get off the couch at all on Day One. Oh, and by the way? The doctor? FireDad was working that day. So I had to take both boys to the doctor’s office. By myself. And BigBrother? Fell asleep on the way there. So I had to put LittleBrother in the Mei Tai and carry all thirty-two pounds of BigBrother upstairs to the fourth floor office. Good grief. (And yes, that picture is from the doctor’s office. My camera? I don’t leave home without it.)

Day Two was somewhat tolerable. Until my throat began to hurt in the evening.

By Day Three, I was down for the count. But as I wrote, Mommies don’t get to be down for the count. So, with a tissue stuffed up my nose, I tried to wrangle two kids. Did I mention that by Day Three, BigBrother had his energy back and was zooming around the house, leaving a trail of snot while I just wanted to collapse on the couch where he had previously spent two days? Oh, yeah. Perfect timing!

Thankfully, and knockonwood, LittleBrother didn’t catch our grossness. In fact, LittleBrother slept through the night almost all of last week. Do you know who didn’t sleep through the night through this mess? Yeah. Poor BigBrother. He coughed himself awake six times one night. Six times. I haven’t been up with LittleBrother six times at all. But six times it was. During a three day period (that’s seventy two hours, folks), I had nine hours of sleep. Interrupted sleep, mind you.

I’m happy to report we’re on the mend. FireDad is all but healthy. I’ve still got a tickle in my throat. BigBrother’s nose is still kind of snotty. But, oh, glory be, he slept through the night last night. As did LittleBrother. So I got eight full hours of uninterrupted sleep. (Well, it was briefly interrupted by FireDad’s alarm clock, but you get my point.) And it couldn’t have come at a better time. I hit the proverbial brick wall last night. If I wouldn’t have caught some quality Z’s, today (alone with the kids) would have been rather… impossible.

And so, while they both weren’t sick, I’ve learned a new lesson in parenting two. When illness ravages your household, make some coffee and prepare for some sleepless nights. Invest in tissues. Purchase the entire cold medicine section at the drugstore. And take advantage of snuggles. Because those are kind of nice.

Even if you do end up wearing snot on your shoulder.