No mother enjoys cold and flu season, but for one who is a slight germophobe and she herself is a magnet for all things microscopic and highly contagious this season of the year is dreaded on so many levels. In years past with only one little girl who wasn’t emerged in the germ filled environments that school age kids are we’ve been able to minimize exposure, only picking up a few things here and there. This year’s Fall seems to be a whole different animal and with a new little baby this is far from encouraging seeing as the roughest time of year has only just begun.
After surviving our first round of cold tag only a few weeks ago, I was treated this morning to an unusually late wake up call. As wonderful as the extra sleep was the second I took a look at the video monitor in my toddler’s room and caught a glimpse of her still suspiciously fast asleep I knew something wasn’t right. Nonetheless I decided to let her rest a little more while I peacefully got breakfast together for both girls and treated our furry daughter to some one-on-one petting time. Once I cracked her door open and heard that familiar stuffed sniffle and first through-the-mouth breath I knew we were in for it. Buckle up because we were about to start the second round of colds this season. Can I just say something? It’s OCTOBER. it’s only October and we’re starting our second round of cold remediation!
Hearing those first sounds from your sick little one is a horribly horrific way to start any day. All it took was one glimpse of the dried snot trail across her cheek to make my stomach drop just thinking about the week or weeks ahead of us. And then the oh too familiar “Mommy, I don’t feel good” followed by a “Mommy I’m sick” as she points to her nose really hammered it in, making this mommy want to run out of the room and grab a face mask and gloves. That’s not too extreme right? Just with those few words and sniffles I felt that pit in my stomach get bigger and bigger as I pictured a worn out version of myself nursing my toddler back to health while spending the week worrying and hopelessly attempting to prevent passing it along to everyone else, baby sister included.
This part of mommyhood is torture, watching your kids sick and suffering, granted this time it’s just a cold, but come on any mom would cower at the first signs of the highly contagious cold that puts mommy smack dab in the middle of a pool of dirty tissues and runny noses. And nothings worse than after a long bout of sickness with one or both of your kids when you start feeling your favorite cold symptoms knowing now it’s your turn to enjoy the same fun your kids had. To make matters worse for your turn though you get to tackle a cold while taking care of two fully energized, almost 100% well kids and to boot, if you’re in my shoes still trying to nurse your baby so meds are off limits.
As you can tell I’m not a huge fan of germs, but hey what mommy is? I worry about my girls and seeing as I’m a sponge for anything that comes into this house I know that if this mommy goes down then everyone else might as well go with me. Still even with a gigantic bottle of antibacterial in my car we find ourselves at the starting line of another cold run. A huge part of me wants to cover my girls (and myself and Dan too!) in gigantic bubbles or just never go anywhere, no more dance, no more fun activities, but that’s certainly not the way to go. So for now my fingers, toes, legs, and everything else is crossed that this round will be really mild and hopefully start and stop with only one of us and as for the future, I’m hoping that all of our immune systems get a little bit stronger so we can have all the fun with only some of the sick.
Even with all of these sniffles though, so far this Fall has been one of the most special ones thanks to our two little girls! And as I try to stick to positive thinking, I thought I’d share some healthier versions of my little girls loving life and each other!
Sincerely,
Lindsay