post-Thanksgiving blues

Whenever we finish with Kate's diaper, we tell her that we have to wash our hands, so we don't have any germs, because germs make you sick, and being sick is no fun at all. Well, we've had a "no fun at all" Thanksgiving vacation. Starting Thanksgiving afternoon, she was feeling feverish, with the puking following soon after. We'd get the fever down, try feeding again, cross our fingers that it'd stay down, then wind up entirely disappointed that it didn't. A trip to the pediatrician ruled out the flu and RSV (?)--something that was apparently going around one of the rooms at the daycare, and Austin in general. Eventually, we were able to keep food down her and her fever down, but she has been mostly snotty and uncomfortable. Hard to eat and breathe at the same time, you know. On top of that, Daddy also got sick (new rule--do NOT let sick babies stick their hands in your mouth!). Each day has been a new experience. It all started Saturday with the Mother of All Hangovers--if you've ever had one of those doozies, you know what I mean. I had the screaming headache, queasy stomach, sore joints--all without the consolation of having had a wild night the night before (unless, of course, staying up most of the night with a sick, crying baby is a "wild night". If so, they're just not the same anymore). Yet unlike a hangover, no amount of sleep, Advil, or Tylenol, or water would settle it. My mother (Gladys) was in town until Sunday morning, so Kate and I did our best to be troopers. Not until Sunday did that hangover feeling go away (hmmm..was it mom-related?), to be replaced with heavy fatigue and weakness, sore throat, usualy cold symptoms. Most of the day was spent in bed. Monday, Kate was still very snotty, and since I was in a new head-packed-with-cottonballs, painful stuffy eared, dizzy phase of my cold, I stayed at home, we kept Kate home from daycare, and Tessa took a day off to play nurse. All in all, though, it made me so happy to see how Kate dealt with her illness. You could tell she was miserable, having trouble breathing, yet (for the most part) she kept working hard at being a baby. She crawled all over, played with her things, smiled and laughed a lot with us, pulled up on everything she possibly could, and chatting up a storm--sometimes I *swear* it was like she was telling us all about how she felt. She's such a great spirit. Twice this weekend, I've seen her fall, probably because of fatigue in her arms, and whack herself full in the face. She'd start to cry a little, but I'd talk to her to soothe her, and she'd settle almost immediately, making me think that she'd only scared herself, not really hitting herself like I'd thought. But then her face would turn red where she'd hit it, and I knew she really had hurt herself, but just shook it off. Crazy, amazing stuff. Hopefully we'll all have a good night sleep and get back to work and the day care tomorrow. We'll see...