Week 25

The baby is sick, I'm sick, Ian's (slightly) sick, Aunty Caylin is sick. The only person in the house who is not sick is Granny Ev who seems to have some super human immune system (or maybe it's the fact that she's been through so many bouts of colds she's built up a resistance to just about all strains). Around Tues we noticed that Liam was starting to cough and didn't want his rice cereal which he usually loves. On Wed I carted him off to the doc for a check up as he had gotten worse - apparently he has a virus and there is not much you can do except give infant Tylenol and use a humidifier to help with the enormous amounts of snot. By Thurs Aunty Caylin came home from school sick and Liam had progressed to a nastier cough & more snot. By Fri I was looking after both Liam and Caylin while nursing my own progressing virus. Yesterday & today just sucked. I thought the past couple of weeks were rough with the lack of sleep and broken finger - it was nothing compared to "virus week". Liam has been just miserable - his cough has gotten worse each day, he keeps sneezing large green boogers out his tiny nostrels, his eyes are red and puffy and to add the cherry on the top he has lost his voice due to inflamation of his vocal chords. It's heartbreaking to see him fuss and cry and nothing coming out of his mouth except a flat wheezy noise. 9am this morning we were back at the doc for another check up - can never be too paranoid in my opinion. The humidifier has been cranked creating a greenhouse effect in the house - Friday night our room was so tropical water was dripping from the walls, everything was damp and Ian was lying butt naked on top of the bed covers like a glistening starfish. We've had sicky poo propped up on an angle sleeping between us - both Ian and I wake up alternatively throughout the night checking on his breathing which gets quite shallow. There was no doubt that we would get sick, there's not much you can do when your child needs to be held and clings to you like a little mollusk for comfort. Everyone said it would suck when your baby first gets really sick and they were right. It sucks BIG TIME. Plus sources say it can take up to 2 weeks for a baby to get over a bad flu. Lovely. Plus my doc happened to mention that the next 5 years are the worst for colds. Even better. Bring on the snot I say. I'm stocked with extra tissue boxes and snot bags as I call them (for disposing of snotty tissues). There are several around the house since all of our noses are running and we keep sneezing. I've noticed my mom hasn't complained about the cold since we've created a Dominican environment in the comfort of our home thanks to the humidifier. The plants are going to start multiplying at this rate and creating their own jungle like Little Shop of Horrors.

Not much else to report - this week has been all about snot and tears. In the short moments when I've managed to peel sicky poo off me I've managed to get him in his jolly jumper for a bit of bouncing. He loves the jolly jumper and is an accomplished little bounder - gets some good air time. He's like a little russian dancer - does one foot at a time and then just gives her with both feet when he wants to bounce higher. Jolly jumping gives me at least half an hour of time to get a few things done which is fabulous. Another thing that Liam loves that buys me time is stuff that crinkles - everything and anything crinkly he goes for - right down to a simple water bottle. Forget all the expensive stuff - a $10 Winnie-The-Pooh crinkle book (his favourite toy right now - has crinky pages with all the characters & the ends of the pages double as teething pieces) and a $2 empty plastic water bottle (yummy to squeeze & gum on) and we're good to go.

I've had a couple of therapy sessions with the postpartum councellor - this week we talked about my inability to relax and my constant strive to have a perfect house. I'm always cleaning or running around doing something housework related and yet I never seems to be satisfied - there always seems to be something else that needs to be done. She informed me this gets worse as kids get older and that I need to learn to let things go - not an easy task since I've been anal for as long as I can remember. The fact that I never relax or take time to rest when Liam is resting is the reason I am so exhausted (plus the fact that I've been having crappy nights of sleep for 3 weeks now). My mind never stops racing, day or night and I constantly worry about everything - no wonder I have lots of meltdowns. Basically the therapist has given me some coping strategies and exercise to put into practice to address the thoughts I have. I also got a book she recommended called "Women Who Worry Too Much" which is amazing. It's like looking at myself in a mirror - everything the book describes about being a person who worries is me to a tee. By facing the sources of my worry and working through them I'll hopefully be able to get my worry under control in time - of course I'm worried about how I'll be able to do that but I'm sure I'll figure it out!