Sick daze

"Mommmeeee, my ear hoits!" said Anders* (my 2-1/2 yr. old son) Friday morning. Hmm. On top of the major snooty nose and hacking cough, Dr. Mom sagely diagnosed an ear infection and called the ped for an afternoon appt. She checked him out, no lung problems, minor ear infection and sent us on our way with a antibiotic Rx to fill if he got worse. She wants us to let his body fight the infections once in a while. I smiled and thanked her, but left feeling like I was going to cry a bit concerned because I haven't had more than 2 hours of continuous sleep since 2002 and the prospect of being up all night ALL WEEKEND was daunting. Anders starts around 10:30: crying for mommmeeee, I have a snooty nose!, I need tissue! where's Dadddeeee? I need my ba-ba, I need water, rock me on the chair. He slept from about 3:30 - 5:00 though, and I, back in "nursing all night" mode thought I handled it well. Because the parenting books advise you not to scream at your sick children in the middle of the night, no matter how tired you are.

"Mommmmeee, I'm so cold!" said Dagny* (my 6-1/2 yr old daughter) Saturday morning. Hmm. Took one look at her reddened cheeks, glazed eyes, shaking limbs. Dr. Mom diagnosed a fever, which turned out to be 102.5.

I prescribed a day of movies on the couch: Free Willy, Veggie Tales, Wall-E. Sent the Mr. J* out for Tylenol chewables, an extra bottle of Motrin and some Diet Coke.

By noon I felt like I had a fever too. By 3:00 I suspected I was coming down with something as I hacked up a lung, sitting on the couch between the kids, eyes glassed over watching Free Willy. I knew I was sick when I cried at the end.

After we got the children to bed (note, I did not go so far as to say asleep!) Mr. J walked around the house spraying everything with Lysol. But it was too late for me and now I can officially join the ranks of movie-watching, apple-juice sipping, couch potatoes.

*Yeah, those are my kids/hubby. I'm tired of the initial thing.