Sickness is a very big part of my job

I am blessed in so many ways.

But when it comes to my child's constant sickness, I have to wonder, "Is my baby more sick than other babies?"

Because I swear I never hear of so much sickness as I see when I am with my little guy.  I've even noticed one pattern- EVERY single month, around the 8th (which was when he was born) he gets sick!  There's always something, whether it be a small thing like the cold, or a big thing like pneumonia, my baby boy never misses his birthday!  It makes it very hard for a mom to be excited for her child's monthly birthdays when he is always going to be sick!

This month, his ninth month, he is sick with his first ear infection and a horrible case of the stomach flu.  It started on Friday, the day before his monthly birthday, and it is still here today- almost a week later!  Friday, Saturday and Sunday he wasn't eating, and he had diarrhea.  We took him in on Sunday and found out he had the flu and an ear infection.  Started giving him antibiotics (amoxicillin) and I feel like I am on to something- I wonder if he might get sicker from the amoxicillin.  When we try to give him ammoxicillin and tylenol at the same time he vomits every single time- and this happened the last time we had to give him amoxicillin (for pneumonia that time).

So after having been vomited on three times in half an hour (and changing as many times), my morning has already started off at a bad start.  I am a working mom, so every time I am late, I worry it will go against me.  Every day I have to ask off, I worry it will get me closer to the door (and not in a good way).  It is hard to be a stay at home mom because of the lack of contact with people, but I sincerely believe that it is harder to be a working mom.  Before 7:30 I have to be completely ready (pump, shower, makeup, breakfast, dress, and get my lunch ready) and have my little guy all ready for the day (fed, change diaper and clothes, bring whatever supplies he may need for the day) and out the door already on my way to daycare.  It takes half an hour to get to work when it would take half that time if I didn't have daycare to go to (and a cute little guy to get in and out of the car and such).

So of course I had to call my boss today and tell her that for the second time this week I will be late, because my husband has to come home from work to take care of our sick munchkin.  All week we have stayed home with him, with the majority of the days being Daddy staying home, because I have the full time job.  It is days like these that make me go "Why? Why does it have to be this way?  Why can't everything be perfect and daycare take care of my little guy no matter what?  Why do I have to work full time- why can't I stay home with him?"  But there is always an answer- because there is always a good and a bad side to each of those ideas.  If daycare took care of him while he was sick, they would have to do the same for all the other sick kids.  And where would that get us?  Sicker, that's where.  And if I stayed at home in our current financial position, you would be seeing us on the streets eventually (only half kidding).

Ahh... the things we do to stay afloat.

Life is never easy as a mom, and I am most reminded this when Karson is sick.  There are always parts of me that wish I could stay at home and take care of him to the Nth degree and be there for every cough and every sneeze.  Other times I think it is nice to get out of the house and have some adult conversation.  There will always be grass that looks greener on the other side, until you are ON the other side.  I was reminded of that as I watched my son play with toys today.  Since he is so sick, he wants us to be close to him always, even if he doesn't even look at me for ten minutes, as long as I am there beside him he is happy as a clam, but if I walk away for a second, he notices and cries bloody murder.  So as we sat on the floor playing, I started drumming on one of our cups and he looked at me and the cup and set aside what he was playing with and started playing with the cup I was playing with.  Then when I took up drumming on something else, he again did the same thing, because obviously Mommy was having so much fun- so he will probably have more fun with that toy.  

This reminds me that that is how our lives are.  While our friends are staying at home and we are working, we think, "Man, it would be awesome if I could just stay at home every day with my little guy and be there for every new thing he does, and wear pajamas all day if I want, and go out to the mall or shop or do whatever."  But at the same time, I am realizing that the stay at home moms look at us working moms and say, "Although I love being with my little guy, sometimes I just need to get out of the house, or have some alone time, or even some adult conversation that isn't my husband!"

I guess we all have to just be happy with what we have.  There's always the silver lining, and I try to remind myself of that daily.  I'm happy to have the job I have- I'm very blessed because I have hours that work with my daycare, and eleven holidays that are paid time off, a great work environment with lots of people that I can get great interaction with, and a good daycare that I can trust.  I'm thankful that God has given me all of these blessings.