It's No Fun Being Sick

Every year around this time, there is a lull in my blogging. On the one hand, I feel badly that there is annual documentation of motherhood going on the back burner for a couple of weeks as school starts, but on the other hand, it is how is.

This year, though, the blogging lull had nothing whatsoever to do with the start of school. In fact, as of today, I still haven't started school.

Sydney and I have been sick, sick, sick. It's the sickest that Sydney has ever been and the sickest I have been since walking pneumonia in college.

Sydney started with fever on Tuesday night and stayed sick until late Saturday. Mostly, she just had fever. She said her tummy hurt, but never showed other signs of a stomach bug. She coughed a lot, which also made her tummy hurt (possibly from the physical act of coughing). The illness, after two separate trips to the doctor, was truly viral, so we just waited for it to run its course. Her fever spiked to as high as 104, but stayed mostly 102 for those five days.

The thing that I found most interesting about a sick Sydney was her utter reliance on her dad. Most children I know want their mamas when they are sick. Not Sydney. She wanted, no, she needed her daddy. I think it was Friday before Jeremy got a shower in because every time he tried to leave the room, she would cry and cry and cry. And even as sick as she was, when he would need to run out to Walgreens to get something for us, she would insist on going with him.

Jeremy had no idea how unusual it is for a child to be that attached to the male parent in that situation. I know my cousin Danielle's kids were like that, but other than Mark, I can't think of another dad who can trump mom at making a sick kid feel better.

And since Jeremy was the well parent and I was just as sick as Sydney, I was thrilled for her to feel as she did.

Besides, I got my own sick time with Sydney. Jeremy hates to have his sleep interrupted, so we put him to bed in Sydney's room and she slept with me and we watched The Incredibles and Beauty and the Beast and Pete's Dragon on repeat all night long. She was so very sweet with me while we were sick. One night, she was just crying and crying and couldn't tell me what would make her feel better, so knowing how achy I was, I started rubbing and scratching her back. After a few minutes she calmed down and then asked if I wanted my back scratched. Sweet girl.

On the one hand, I cannot believe it's been a whole week that we were sick, but on the other hand, I was so sick myself, that I don't remember much of it. I've even missed the first two days of school, I was so ill.

But I'm glad that we're better and looking forward to my first day of school tomorrow and more than that, looking forward to picking Sydney and Jack up from daycare today and actually getting to enjoy them and not watch them from a feverish haze, laying on the couch.