Sick and Tired of Sickness

When I picked her up to get her ready for a bath last night, Camille felt a little warm. I didn't want to take her temperature, tired of discovering yet another fever, but I had to know. Sure enough, her temp was up. Again.

It was a month ago that Camille got sick with norovirus. Just when she seemed to make a recovery, adnovirus moved in. This weekend, Cami finally appeared healthy again. Then last night - fever and a nasty cough.

She (therefore, we) were up much of the night from 3 a.m. on. Each time she'd begin to fall asleep, the coughing would wake her up.

I feel so sorry for her. And I'm frustrated. I can think of a couple of reasons why this is mostly my fault, of course. Because guilt is something I do very well.

Not only has this been hard on Camille and hard on our sleep, but it's been hard on work for both Lee and I. We can't (and wouldn't want to) send her to daycare when she's sick, so this last month we've been trying to juggle our schedules and take turns caring for her at home. I'd guess she's probably been out of daycare more in the last month than in it - which is nice theoretically, except work doesn't stop just because she's sick.

Thankfully, I didn't have to take a sick day to stay home with her today. It's Confederate Memorial Day - I can't believe it exists, and I can't believe I have the "holiday" off.

I talked with the nurse at my pediatrician's office this afternoon, and she didn't seem too concerned. The fever isn't particularly high, so she said just to give her tylenol. She gave us some suggestions for helping ease the cough, too.

As I was thinking about all these illnesses, I made a list. You know your child has been having a rough time when:

-You call the doctor, and the receptionist actually moans and says, "Please tell me Camille is not sick again."

-When a different receptionist asks your child's birthdate (their method for looking up records), you tell her. Then she apologizes, "I'm sorry, I knew that. I don't know why I asked."

-Your child is only 9 months old and knows the tylenol drill. I used to have to hold her arms down and struggle to get the medicine dropper in her mouth. I don't think she particularly likes it, but when she sees me with the bottle now she resigns herself to the inevitable and opens wide. She knows it takes 2 squirts, so after the first swallow she opens again for the second one.

-Your child is trained to have her temperature taken. This afternoon, when Camille saw me pull out the thermometer, I swear she raised her arm so I could put it under her arm. She sat there while the thermometer did its thing, then when it beeped, she raised her arm again so I could remove it. These motions could've been coincidental, or she could just be incredibly helpful.

I just hope she feels better soon. Forget my embarrassment about calling the doctor's office AGAIN. Forget my workload piling up. None of that is as important as seeing Camille healthy again.