Sick Sick Go Away!!!!

Well, it's 8:08 on Thursday evening, all three kids are asleep, and I'm sitting down to blog again. Of the 3 times that Kevin has traveled since we've become parents, this has been by far the most difficult. Every other time, there has been something else to keep my mind off of things, or help from friends. This time, there isn't much of either. Don't get me wrong -- if I asked, I know my friends would step up and help me in all and any ways that they were able to. But we've been dealing with a bug in this house that I can't risk exposing them (or, in many cases their kids) to, so I haven't asked for the help. Rachel was sick on Friday night/Saturday (Kevin was still home to help me deal with that one), Simon got sick Sunday night/Monday, and at around 12:45 today, I received a phone call from Daniel's school informing me that he was crying, complaining of a headache, and had a fever of over 101, so I immediately picked him up. Of the 3, he seems to have the worst -- he's actually vomited once (the other two never did) and he just seems to be much more miserable. There's very little I can do about it. If he's still feeling so badly in the morning, I'll call the pediatrician to be sure that it's nothing that requires antibiotics (he has a history of strep with minimal symptoms).

The problem is not having to take care of the kids. I'm a parent and I do that willingly. I miss not getting the break when he would come home around 5:00 or so, but I know it's only for the week. It's not even that terrible dealing with sick children. I'm lucky (I think) that they've spread this out and I've only had to deal with one ill child at a time. The real problem is I need time to recharge my energy, best done when I don't have to take care of any children. In theory, I'm supposed to have about 6 hours Tuesday-Friday to do just that (Simon gets picked up at 8:45 and gets home at 2:45 -- he's the last to leave and the first to return home). It's closer to 4 hours on Mondays (since Simon only has half-days on Mondays). Those 6 hours would allow me to de-stress a bit. I'd have an opportunity to get together with a friend or two, go to a MOMS Club meeting, read a book, play on the computer, with minimal demands on my time.

Instead of 4 days for the week that I'm on my own, I am getting one day of that break this week. Simon was home on Monday. There was no school on Tuesday (which I did know about when I was thinking through the week). Thursday, I had to pick Daniel up early and take care of him this afternoon. And tomorrow, he'll be home again, regardless of how he's feeling in the morning. Granted, taking care of Daniel this afternoon required me to listen to 2 hours of Phineas and Ferb while he vegged in front of the television while I ate my lunch and ran around ready to catch the next vomit wave while trying to clean up the first one. Also, I had to get in touch with a neighbor Mom to inform her I couldn't pick up her son to bring him home from school since Daniel was sick.

The other problem this week is the lack of sleep. Simon's sleep habits have gotten better since he recovered from this latest bug, but he's still capable of leaving his room at will. I am noticing though, that he's staying in his room until after 5am and, if he's up in the middle of the night, he's gone back to crawling into Rachel's bed and going back to sleep. This brings us closer to where we were about 2 weeks ago, which is a relief. It's still not perfect, but it could be so much worse.

I'm just looking forward to Kevin coming home Saturday afternoon so I can run away for a few hours on Sunday and do something that has NOTHING to do with responsibility. I'm not sure when I'm going to get that chance (we have to do a Sam's Club run [we're running out of EVERYTHING] and Daniel has his first baseball game in the afternoon), but I will find it. And Kevin will have to deal with this bunch for a bit while I take the time to de-stress just a bit. Not sure how, or what I'll do. But it will be SOMETHING.