Sickness Lives Here
It all started one week ago. I woke up around four Monday morning feeling slightly nauseous, but I figured it may be due to my consistent lack of sleep as a new mother. I went to the gym, even taught an aerobics class, and made my way to Portland for work. By the time 7:30 rolled around, my head was in a toilet at work. Let me just paint the picture further by adding this was a public bathroom early Monday morning, and our janitors did not clean over the weekend. Enough said.
Later that evening, the chills, the fever and the tears arrived. The tears were not for my own misery-- but for my heart-wrenching fear that I had brought something horrible into my home and endangered my six-month old daughter Rosa. Before I go on, I must give a disclaimer to explain my paranoia. At eight months pregnant, I lost my own mother to complications of the flu. One Monday, my mother Robyn was healthy and planning a hiking trip. By the following Sunday, she had died at Maine Medical Center. Every new mother is slightly nervous when it comes to illness; I am absolutely petrified.
I made the neurotic call to the on-call doctor, asking what I could possibly do to save my child from the flu. As I heard him roll his eyes over the phone, he explained there was nothing I could do, because I had already contaminated the house days before my symptoms arrived. I would have to wait and see.
Rosa never did come down with the flu, thank God! Instead, a different virus was brewing inside of her: the common cold. You see, my flu just happened to coincide with another parenting milestone -- the beginning of daycare. Rosa has just started daycare the week before and came down with a nasty chest cold, which she quickly passed on to her father Matt.
Looking back now, it is my belief that Rosa was the one who brought home the flu and passed it straight on to me. Within a week and a half of daycare attendance, all three of my family members were sick for the first time since her birth. I don't find this to be a coincidence. Daycare is known to be an infectious churning pot for bacteria and viruses, but everyone tells me, it improves her immune system for the future. We can't keep our children in a bubble forever, whether it be daycare, pre-school, kindergarten or college, our children will be susceptible to illness at some point.
Both Rosa and Matt are on the down-slope of their colds. Rosa has stopped coughing in her crib, and is sleeping soundly, just in time for her to return to daycare this week. And it's a good thing that she is getting healthy again, because on Friday, my daycare provider warned me that chicken pox has reared its nasty head. Seriously now, can I just have a break?
Later that evening, the chills, the fever and the tears arrived. The tears were not for my own misery-- but for my heart-wrenching fear that I had brought something horrible into my home and endangered my six-month old daughter Rosa. Before I go on, I must give a disclaimer to explain my paranoia. At eight months pregnant, I lost my own mother to complications of the flu. One Monday, my mother Robyn was healthy and planning a hiking trip. By the following Sunday, she had died at Maine Medical Center. Every new mother is slightly nervous when it comes to illness; I am absolutely petrified.
I made the neurotic call to the on-call doctor, asking what I could possibly do to save my child from the flu. As I heard him roll his eyes over the phone, he explained there was nothing I could do, because I had already contaminated the house days before my symptoms arrived. I would have to wait and see.
Rosa never did come down with the flu, thank God! Instead, a different virus was brewing inside of her: the common cold. You see, my flu just happened to coincide with another parenting milestone -- the beginning of daycare. Rosa has just started daycare the week before and came down with a nasty chest cold, which she quickly passed on to her father Matt.
Looking back now, it is my belief that Rosa was the one who brought home the flu and passed it straight on to me. Within a week and a half of daycare attendance, all three of my family members were sick for the first time since her birth. I don't find this to be a coincidence. Daycare is known to be an infectious churning pot for bacteria and viruses, but everyone tells me, it improves her immune system for the future. We can't keep our children in a bubble forever, whether it be daycare, pre-school, kindergarten or college, our children will be susceptible to illness at some point.
Both Rosa and Matt are on the down-slope of their colds. Rosa has stopped coughing in her crib, and is sleeping soundly, just in time for her to return to daycare this week. And it's a good thing that she is getting healthy again, because on Friday, my daycare provider warned me that chicken pox has reared its nasty head. Seriously now, can I just have a break?
posted by Jennifer at
10:12 AM
2 Comments:
I totally hear ya Jen. There's nothing worse then your little one being ill. There's been many times I've begged for me to be sick instead of my child. But you can just do the best you can do to keep them healthy and it sounds like you're doing a great job.
Hope you and your family feel better soon.
OK-- So reading through this blog again, I have no idea why I wrote that Matt and I haven't been sick since Rosa was born-- we've been sick a million times!!! Rosa hasn't been sick. Baby-- healthy. Mom-- not so much.
Post a Comment
<< Home