Confessions of a Virus-Swept Mommy

If you haven't spent quality time scrubbing the toilet, your kitchen floor, and your carpets this week, your week may have been better than mine:).

Isaac got a virus for the first time in his life on Wednesday night and the next 4 hours were REALLY tough. I felt so bad for him as he kept throwing up all over both of us, and my number one objective was to help him feel better about the whole thing. I'd try to soothe him calmly, saying, "Honey, that's alright; that's no problem; you're such a big boy!" as I transferred him away from one throw-up covered section of the kitchen over to another clean area. Then we'd proceed to change his clothes (again), and wipe him off, and cuddle, and dump more things in the laundry and cuddle some more.

I love my little baby, and I didn't want him to be sick. But I wasn't truly empathetic! I didn't know what he was going through because I hadn't had the flu in more than 2 years. He seemed to be better for the next 24 hours and then he threw up all over me on Friday morning. So we resumed the soothing and calming and laundry, and the queasy feeling I'd had since the start of this mess kept going like a champ. Then I got sick.

So last night, I got to remember what it's like to have the flu, and I realized how unempathetic I had been with my little baby while he was sick. I'd thought about his nap schedule, and how to avoid spoiling his "sleep-through-the-night" trend that I love so dearly. For fun, I'd likened us to a figure skating pair--we could never be more than a yard away from each other.

But I wasn't doing everything I could to make him feel better.

Last night, as I gripped the cool, unappealing toilet and prayed to throw up to get the poison out of my body (and congratulated myself on never drinking alcohol in my life, thus depleting the amount of times I've had to have heart-to-hearts with my toilet), I wanted my mom.

Later, I saw Doug reading, "Where's Mom When I Need Her?"--specifically the section about viruses and how to treat them.

As he went to the store for Pepto Bismol, I thought of how grateful I am to be married to my sweetheart, who isn't my mom, but who tries to take care of me the way she always has.

I thought of how I'm Isaac's mom, and I'll hopefully be the one he wants for the rest of his life when he is hurting.

And I thought about how much better of a mom and a wife and a daughter I want to be. I'm grateful that I have been sick because it reminds me of the kind of person I want to be. Sorry for all the throw-up descriptions--it was very "purging" for me (and down-right icky:)).