A Pox on My House….

My husband’s been sick for the past few days. As in, truly miserable, sent home from work twice, sick. It’s such a horrible feeling, watching him stumble around the house in misery, while I’m just waiting with dread to see who it will strike next. Knowing the inevitability of it, that the girls are likely to take sick at any moment. Ugh. It’s immensely depressing.

We tried to stave off the inevitable. He’s been avoiding contact with the girls, not holding the baby, not hugging Rainbow, etc. It’s meant some added stress for me over the last few days, as I’m not getting any help with the girls. He might as well not be here. Yet he is here, coughing and blowing his nose loudly, a constant reminder of what’s to come.

Then last night it happened. First the baby started getting all stuffy. By the time I was putting her down for bed she was having a horrible time nursing. Poor little stuffalumpagus. The baby woke up like three hours earlier then usual to nurse. Then, as I was getting ready for bed,  I could hear Rainbow coughing a bit in her sleep. So I was braced for it. But I wasn’t expecting what happened next.

I was woken at 2:30 in the morning to Rainbow crying and screaming at the top of her lungs. I jumped out of bed and hurried downstairs, wondering what the problem was, and thinking maybe she’d woken up from a nightmare (something that’s yet to happen). I ran downstairs to find my girl, so upset she is shaking from head to toe, yelling at the top of her lungs, “Dad Made Me SICK!! He Did it. He MADE me.  Made me SICK!!!”, like she thought it was something her father did to her on purpose. Yes, over the last few days we’ve said many times, stay away from you’re father or you’ll get sick. I guess we said it a bit too much. She was so UPSET, shaking and in tears with snot running down her face. She was so angry about the booggies, which were more from her crying then anything. It took over half an hour just to get her to calm down. She told me that Dad made her throat go all dried up. So basically, no fever, sore throat, stuffy nose. Mostly indignant and inconsolable. I stripped her down, slathered her with some vicksvaporub, got her back into her PJs and after a long and lingering snuggle got her tucked back into bed.

At which point I notice the baby is HOWLING at the top of her lungs and probably has been for sometime, I just couldn’t hear her over Rainbow’s dramatics. So I rush upstairs to find a snot covered baby, also upset and in tears. I spent an hour comforting, calming and nursing her. Of course my husband somehow managed to sleep through all these shenanigans. Fun night.

Woke up this morning, of course, to two sick little girls. Seems pretty darn inevitable at this point that it’s going to strike me sometime soon. So if I disappear for a little while you’ll know why.