Sick Days

My sweet little Patrick has been a sick sick baby. Last week I noticed that Patrick had a runny nose and a pretty bad cough. He pretty much always has a runny nose, but the cough was new. It got progressively worse through the week. On Friday, Sharon asked if she could keep him in the morning while I worked instead of going to Margarets. 

He had fun hanging out with Nana, but when I picked him up at lunch she mentioned that his cough had been really bad that morning. When Patrick woke up from his afternoon nap, he was burning up and was having trouble breathing. I immediately called the doctor in hopes we could get in before they closed in an hour. A couple of the kids at Margaret's had gone home with Bronchitis the week before, so I assumed that's what he had. However, he tested positive for RSV and had an ear infection. I had no idea what RSV was, but knew it was pretty serious after I spoke with the doctor! It is just a common cold for adults, but is really hard on babies under 1.

So this weekend we had a couple pajama days. I think I only made it out of the house a couple times. Here are a few pictures of my sick little boy. You wouldn't even know he was sick, would you? Such a happy little guy!

After trying to rest this weekend, I thought Patrick was on the mend, but he seemed to get more sick on Monday and Tuesday! Patrick wasn't able to breathe very well (since RSV causes fluid in the lungs) and he wasn't able to sleep much at all.

Luckily we have the grandparents in town, so I had care for every day but Tuesday the following week. I worked from home on Monday since there are so many pregnant people in my office and I was sure I was carrying a bunch of germs! On Tuesday I had a nanny come to watch Patrick. I have had two really good experiences with the nanny service, so I thought it would be fine. After writing down everything in very specific detail and going over it with the nanny multiple times, I headed to work. I asked her to call me if she had any questions at all and that it was no problem for me to come home if needed. I didn't have a great feeling about the nanny that came, but I convinced myself that everything was fine.

After about 2 hours at work, I still couldn't shake my bad feeling, so I texted the nanny to see how everything was going. The nanny texted back that he had been really fussy. I immediately packed up my things and left. When I got there the nanny was not very friendly and said that Patrick had been crying almost the whole time I was gone and that she called her mom to see what she should do. Umm...called your mom? Why not call me? She also mentioned that she was not able to get Patrick to drink anything, so I fixed a bottle and fed it to him with no trouble. I could feel that he had a full diaper, so I went ahead and changed him too. While watching me change him, she mentioned that she hadn't changed him yet because he didn't have a stinky diaper. I was thinking to myself...have you ever watched a child? You change their diaper every few hours no matter if they have a stinky diaper or not! Then she casually mentioned that she had given him tylenol because he felt hot and was fussy. I had specifically said Patrick could have tylenol after noon and that she should call me before she gave him any medicine (I had also written this down and gone over this with her twice!). This really irritated me because it was well before noon and you do not mess with a child's medication!! I noticed her roll her eyes at me after I asked her why she already gave it to him. So I about lost it with this girl!!

But, I had a conference call that I had to be on for an hour so I really needed the help. Since Patrick is all over the place these days, there was no way I could concentrate on a call and watch him. I decided to do the call from the office downstairs, so I could still hear their every word. It was really obvious to me that Patrick was not fond of this girl from listening to them play. I don't blame him, since I wasn't fond of her either! After the call, I paid her for the full day (which I probably shouldn't have done) and told her to leave. I'm not normally that bold, but I was pretty mad!

I'm not sure if I will ever use the service again or not. If I do, I will be extremely picky and ask a million questions about the person who will be coming. I have had two great experiences with them, so I was really surprised about this experience!

I have really been struggling with being a working mom this week, especially after what happened on Tuesday! Being a working mom is tough, especially when you have a sick baby (and there are a lot of those sick days when your baby is in daycare)! It's been really tough for me to leave Patrick when he is so sick and just wants to be held by me. It's also tough to find alternate care while you are working! But, I think the sleep deprivation is one of the most difficult parts!! I'm pretty used to functioning at work on 5-6 hours of sleep a night, but the 4 hours that I have been getting this past week and a half is wearing me pretty thin. It's also tough since Michael is working til 1:30am every night, so he isn't available to help much at all. Did I mention Michael also had strep throat this past weekend while Patrick had RSV!?!? He ended up having to take off the whole weekend from work, but was pretty much banned from the upstairs where Patrick and I were, so we barely saw him.

So glad this week is over and that Patrick is starting to feel better!

It wouldn't be a good post, without a cute sleeping picture. So, below is Patrick's favorite sleeping position. He loves to stick his booty in the air. Cracks me up!