A second week with swine flu while the baby lay comatose on my chest; limp and intermittently fretful. On Tuesday I got up maybe three times to pee but otherwise I was stuck night and day holding my very poorly little fella. Matthew thankfully worked from home that day and did the school runs and picked up Tamiflu as Edward was too sick to move. I’d like to say I was quite creative in my enforced ‘sit in’ but it’s amazing how much time you can spend looking at your clammy, sweating, shaking child and worry instead of getting on with making all those phone calls you can normally find a reason to put off and other tedious stuff. I did fill out a form that had been languishing in my in-tray since April (a metaphorical in-tray because I’m just not even organised enough to have an in-tray) and so I’m going to call the week a success. I’m a mother of four small children: I take my victories where I can.
It’s fair to say that trying to run a busy household with a sick baby in your arms is not easy and the week has passed in a bit of a tiring blur. There is some benefit though – if I thought I didn’t get anything much done in the course of the average day, you just need to see what the house looks like when I can’t do anything.
This weekend? The hope for a bit of sleep and alcohol will mostly be replaced by the reality of tidying, cleaning and doing laundry or else the house might implode from the chaos – although if it does, at least I can console myself with the fact that the house WOULDN’T ACTUALLY LOOK ANY WORSE.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Poor you, sounds like no fun at all. Looking after your children when they’re ill like this is just part of parenthood I guess. We’ve been unwell in this house this week, I’m getting quite desperate to get out somewhere! Hope you’re all recovered soon.
Even if you only have half the children, when one or other is sick, it is impossible to get anything done. And I think, the priority is just being there and doing what they need you to do. Sorry you’ve all succumbed to the virus, I really hope your little one gets better soon.
It is a very scary thing to have a sick child and you experience mothering at its finest.
Truly, when a child is sick nothing else should matter. The piles get larger and we are met with more work when the child is better but in the end, nursing a child back to health is a large enough reward.