The toddler effect

When my sister's kids were young, it seemed that every time I went to visit them I came home with some new (and even strange) virus.  One year it was the hand, mouth and foot virus (not to be confused with foot and mouth disease).  It caused me to run a 103.5 F fever, which made me miserable and then I had some red spots on my hands and feet afterward.  Bleh.

Well, now that we have our own toddler in the house and we're entering the cold and flu season, I am once again subject to random strange viruses.  I shall call this "The Toddler Effect."  Recall the Tummy Bug post?  When we called the doctor to make sure we were doing everything we should for him she told me it would likely spread to me and John.  I felt fine at the time so it was hard to imagine how it would hit me.

Yet, it did.  On the morning of November 6, Election Day, we woke up and were getting ready to take Evan to his 15-month check up.  However, I was unable to get out of bed.  I was completely nauseous and at first thought, "Okay, I will just put on a hat and sweat pants to go to Evan's doctor's appointment...no shower needed."  Then my thoughts changed to, "Oh my, I really can't leave my bed side for longer than 30 minutes...I can't go to Evan's appointment."  :(

I was pretty heartbroken.  I've been at all of his appointments and I didn't want to miss this one.  Nor did I want to miss my chance to sit and ask the pediatrician all of my questions (I usually have a prepared list...haha).  My compromise to myself was that I asked John to call me while he was there so I could talk to the doctor, which he did and so I did get to ask my questions still.  However, I wasn't there to hold his hand when he got his shots and help comfort him when he was nervous around the nurse.

Nor did I get to record his exact measurements.  While they wrote them down on a packet for John to bring home (like they always do for us), he was pretty busy trying to calm Evan (after the shots) and pack up our diaper bag and things, that he left the packet in the room.  His best recollection of Evan's measurements were that he weighed 22 lbs 2 oz (61%), was 31.5 inches tall (42%) and his head circumference was 41.5 cm (41 %)....however his head was 45.5 cm at 12 months old, so we're not sure what that one should be (maybe 51.5 cm?).  :)

I'm really glad I got sick on a day that John was home to help care for Evan.  I was completely useless. I stayed in bed all day...literally.  I didn't watch TV.  I slept a bit.  I didn't eat anything other than sips of water and a few saltine crackers.  By the evening time, I was feeling a little better so I sat up long enough to watch one hour or so of election results coverage.  However, I quickly grew tired of hearing the same things while no real answers were known yet, so I turned it off and went to sleep early.  It was strange to wake up the next morning not knowing who had won, and especially interesting to look back through at all the facebook posts that I missed out on in "real time", but I'm not not as torn up about missing that as I still am about missing Evan's appointment.

Sadly the bug hit John eventually too, and not until he had already left for his birthday trip to Vegas with the boys.  The upside, though, is it seemed to not hit him as hard as it did Evan or I, and so it only kept him from enjoying one evening of the bright lights.

Given it's just the beginning of cold and flu season, and our travel season too, I'm afraid this won't be the last time we have the aches and pains in our household thanks to the toddler effect.  (Although I'm certainly not letting Evan put his hands in my mouth anymore, to his dismay).  I just hope that the future bugs won't be so contagious and debilitating each and every time.