Sick Sunday

If yesterday was crazy-busy, with everything I had to do both in and out of the house, today is very chill-relaxed.

I have nowhere to go and nothing to do until Friday's 6-week postpartum check-up.  Then no appointments until March, though I will have another OB appointment sometime between Friday and mid-March, to get my IUD.

This means I get to spend this week focused on things at home - my children and husband, the house itself, and getting my regular work-outs done every day.  I should also find plenty of time to balance work (writing - currently editing) and play (video games).

What a nice difference from last week.

The only problem is my husband is Plague Man.

He's been sick since Thursday.  It started off as a cough and he thought he caught something from Gavin.  Ever since he arrived a couple of weeks ago, Gavin has had a little cough.  But he wasn't actually sick.  I think it was just a change in weather or environment, or maybe a cough leftover from when he was sick over the holidays.  Anyway, Gavin's cough is just about gone, and he never showed any other symptoms.

Meanwhile, my husband has a hacking, dry cough (very different than Gavin's), chills, and fever.  I ran into a friend yesterday, and her son has the same thing.

My husband doesn't get enough fluids as it is, so I'm making him drink something every hour: tea, orange juice, water, or Hi-C (full of sugar, but it also has vitamin C in it).   I've also been making him take a vitamin C and a zinc every day since Friday.  I have plenty of soup in the house for him, but since we don't eat poultry, we don't have any with chicken broth.  Last night I made vegetarian chili, and made sure he got an extra garlicky portion.  This morning I gave him oatmeal after he had some tea and orange juice.

Of course he's taking the appropriate medicines during the day and night, but I don't like him to take anything to reduce the fever unless absolutely necessary.  My focus when anyone in the house is sick, is always on making the cold (or flu...) run its course as quickly as possible.  That's why I like to let a fever do its job during the day, as long as it isn't dangerously high, and push for a high fluid intake, in addition to the vitamins.  I'm going to make a super garlicky vegetable soup tonight for dinner.

I'm trying to keep myself and the children healthy.  My husband is all kinds of paranoid about Rowan getting sick, but I reassured him that she's the least likely to get ill since she is breastfed and getting all my antibodies.

I'm probably the most likely to get sick, because even though Rowan is now on a regular 5-hour sleep schedule at night (with a 1 hour wake-up around 4 a.m. for feeding and diaper changing, then we go back to sleep for another 2 to 3 hours), I'm not getting as much rest as I used to.  Sure, I feel fine and have plenty of energy, and I'm sleeping well, but it's not the kind of restful, 8-hour sleep I used to get.  I'm also breastfeeding, which takes loads of energy.  My body has a lot of demands on it right now, so if anyone is going to catch his cold, it's me.

That means I'm running around washing my hands constantly, which is something I do anyway, and disinfecting surfaces.  I'm trying to refrain from touching my face or the children's faces, or kissing them.  It's hard, because they're so damn yummy, warm, and cuddly!  But I won't relax until next weekend, when all traces of the virus are gone.  Better safe than sorry.

This morning I was joking with my husband about burning the sheets and he said, "What about the baby?"

I said, "Nah, she's not the germinator.  You are, so guess who I'm tossing in the bonfire?"

Well...  It's a little after 10 a.m.  Time for me to get hubby's breakfast bowl from the bedroom, and force more fluids into him!

 Copyright (c) 2013 Wendy L. Callahan