2 Months, 1 Week and 1 Day
Today is my husband’s birthday. He started his birthday with an unexpected surprise, a sick wife. Yes, folks, that weariness and headache I woke up with yesterday turned into a full blown fever with chills and sweats last night.
While my mom was here I trudged through it thinking I was just tired and worried my mom and husband would butt heads again. When they left and I started pumping, I noticed my headache had gotten worse and I was getting the chills. I took two acetaminophen and lay on the couch. Within an hour I was covering myself in blankets shivering. I dislike that part of a fever, where you know you are actually burning up and need to remove the blankets but you feel so chilled to the bone, you put on every sweater you have on.
Eventually, my brain won and I removed the blankets. The second thing I hate about a fever is the headache. It’s the type of headache that intensifies when you close your eyes. I think it intensifies because then you start to worry and think about everything you need or wanted to do but can’t. For me, I worried about my baby. If I’m sick, what am I going to do? My DH has a gig this week. I know I should still breastfeed but what precautions should I take for everything else? Should I pump just in case I am too ill? Will my illness affect my milk output? Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday, what am I going to cook? Should I cook? Should I sequester myself so BG doesn’t get what I get? Will the immunities she gets from my milk help prevent her getting what I’m getting? How’s BG’s nasal congestion? I hope it clears up soon. What’s a mom to do when she gets really sick? It’s not like I can lock myself in my room now.
DH took care of BG all night and periodically checked up on me. He gave me orange juice and let me sleep whenever I could. At some point I finally passed out and woke up hours later with the sweats. I took it as a sign that my body was fighting whatever was in my system. I drank the rest of my OJ, pumped and then tried to go to bed again. If my body could fight this through the night, I was going to let it.
Now, it’s 8:45am and so far, I feel much better. I’m taking it easy and have decided not to go out to meet the new moms. 1. I don’t want to give them or their kids anything I may have had or still have. 2. I don’t want to overexert myself until I know I’m back to tip top shape.
As for the dinner last night, it was pleasant. BG slept for 45 minutes in her crib, sans Boppy! My brother predicts BG has our sleep gene. She fell asleep on his massive chest and snored for 30 minutes. When BG is on my brother, she looks so tiny. It’s very adorable.
I put on her red kimono for the festivities much to the delight of my mom. BG was passed around like a hot potato. She was tired as it was past her usual nap time but she only fussed for a bit.
My stepdad is really uncomfortable around crying babies and naked babies. As soon as she cries, he walks away. It doesn’t matter if he’s carrying her or someone else is holding her. When I giving her a diaper change, everyone huddles around as if they’ve never seen a naked baby before. My stepdad asks people stop taking photos. It’s very cute.
Going back to today, every day BG amazes me. She’s still congested but sometimes she’s ok with us cleaning her nose, sometimes she’s not. Twice, I distracted her and cleaned it with a warm soft paper towel and she seemed ok with it. I sang to her, ‘Boogie Oogie Oogie’ and it distracted her long enough to clear out a long strand. I’m actually amazed yet thankful that the boogies are long strands. It helps with the cleanup process.
The boogies aren’t what amaze me. What amazes me is how every day; I can see her learning and growing. She’s slowly sleeping on her back in an empty crib more and more. Her jerky movements are becoming more controlled. She smiles more. She interacts more as if she’s trying to express herself to me. She likes quiet time where she sits in her swing, bouncer or activity mat and looks around and just now, I caught her staring at her hand in puzzlement.
