The House of Germs

2011 did not get off to a good start for us. We've spent the majority of Jan. dealing with sicknesses. Both Scarlett and Elliot were sick right before the holidays and didn't get well until the week between Christmas and New Year's, when daycare was shut down. Then the new year started, they went back to daycare, and boom, they're sick again. It's definitely not fun having two sick kids to deal with. Scarlett came down with a cold (which is normally not a big deal) but she also had a fever that lasted 4 days. Elliot caught a cold and around the same time, he had his 6-month check-up and slew of vaccines, including the flu vaccine. The result was fever, crying baby all day and night, and lack of sleep for us. Scarlett recovered after two weeks. Elliot was recovering when he caught something else, probably Respiratory Syncytial Virus, which led to bronchiolitis and an ear infection. It was so heartbreaking to see him suffer, coughing his lungs out and drifting in and out of fevers. At the same time, my husband came down with the flu and was in bed for three whole days. All that culminated in the decision to pull Elliot out of daycare for the month of Feb. so that he can get completely healthy again. Last Sat. night, I was up at 4am (after putting Elliot back down at 2:30am) thinking about it. It was so frustrating to see Elliot so sick so much and when he's too sick to go to daycare, I have to keep him home, which means I can't work. Since I'm self-employed now, I don't get vacation/sick days. So it makes no sense that I have to pay daycare on days that he has to stay home due to an illness he caught there and I'm not making money on those days.

Of course that decision turned my work world upside down in an instant. With client meetings, conferences, and such already scheduled, I can't turn into a stay-at-home mom instantly (plus, I can't give up my career). So we interviewed a part-time nanny last Monday but when that fell through, I just felt my stomach sink. Luckily, on Thursday, I found a place that provides onsite drop-in childcare and an office space for professionals to work. What a great idea! I wish daycare was like this - just pay for the hours when I need childcare and not pay for the extra hours that I don't need. So my husband and I decided that we would try and hobble through the month Feb. and hope that in a month, Elliot would be much healthier and much better at fighting off new viruses (and hopefully, not get so sick again). Through the course of the last month, I think we've gotten better at barely getting by. I feel like I'm just surviving on a daily basis.

A big thank you to the MIL who came down last Sunday to help out. Our house is truly the house of germs, as she got food poisoning on Monday night!