It was bound to happen eventually. Sophia and I got sick at the same time. With the flu, no less. Oh, and did I mention that it hit at 2 a.m.? Yikes! Monday night was rough, to say the least. Tuesday we holed up at home and did the best we could to make it through the day. Sophia recovered more quickly…by mid-morning she was tired, but good to go. Mama took a little longer. Thankfully, the amazing Auntie Kiki saved the day and drove three hours just to take care of her precious niece. Kiki did laundry, gave Sophia a bath, sanitized her hands a million times, sent me to bed early, gave Sophia another bath this morning because of a little “diaper incident” and just generally took care of us. Most of all, it was just a relief to have her there!
Simultaneous sickness is one of the things I’ve been dreading. As a single mom, it’s one of those situations that you know is going to come up. What are you going to do? How are you going to handle things? How do you take care of yourself and the child? What’s your backup plan? Of course, there are many friends that I know would help out in an instant, but it didn’t feel right to send my sick child off to spread the love to others. It’s a different scenario if Sophia is healthy — then I’d ship her off in an instant to Anne, Jen or Jen 
But when Sophia is sick, it’s a whole different ball game! Here’s where I say a big thanks again to Kelly for helping take care of us this time!! And to Grandma and Grandpa for watching the boys for her. But what about next time? What if I was sick for more than 24 hours? What’s my contingency plan? It’s something that Jen and I have talked about. (Ironically, in this situation, it turns out we were sick at the exact same time. Aargh! What are the chances?!) I talked to a married friend of mine this morning who made it clear to me that simply having a husband doesn’t ensure help during times like this! But at least said husband is some sort of backup. What’s my plan? Clearly something to think about for the future!
And, on a positive, non-sick related note, there was one additional upside to Aunt Kiki’s impromptou “visit” — she taught Sophia to roar like a lion! Super cute; I’m seeing a video clip in the very near future!
Filed under: Motherhood
Yucky! I remember the one time I have been sick since Patrick came along. Ryan was busy at work, My sister was busy with her kids and I had no one. Luckily Patrick was small enough that I could just lay in bed and keep nursing him and he gifted me with a full 4 hours of sleep until Ryan got home. No doubt it was a very tough day! Way to go, you made it through and you will make it through next time as well. Amazingly, things happen and help arrives.
Hope you and Sophia feel better soon. It’s hard to be sick and take care of a sick child at the same time. Pete, Kim and I got sick at the same time a couple months ago, almost like mono for us.
Take care
Yeah, I could not believe it when I called you (after much internal debate) to help me out by taking Emmerson to daycare (and so early in the morning!) and you and Sophia were sick, too! What are the chances of such a coincidence? Hopefully small enough to never happen again. And I would gladly watch Sophia for you even if she was sick.
Yuck, it’s so hard to take care of a baby when you are sick. I obviously don’t totally understand b/c I’m married, but my husband’s crazy travel schedule, that often has him out of town five days at a time, four weeks a month, leaves us without “backup” a lot of the time. He’s wonderful about helping when he’s here, but illness doesn’t appreciate our schedule.
I’m glad things worked out okay for you. Take care of yourself.
Oh what an awful day – I worry about that very thing – sick is one thing, flu is a whole different ball game and to be sick at the same time has got to be practically impossible. I’m glad Kelly could come help and I hope you are both quickly back on the road to full recovery!