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Monday, February 21, 2011

A Saga of Sickness

I am officially declaring 2011 The Year of the Sick for our family.

Right now it's Pip's turn. And in typical Bagel overachiever fashion, he is outdoing the rest of us. He has RSV, which stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Anybody have ANY idea how to say that middle word? I'd really, really like to know.  Never mind.  I just found out from a doctor friend on Facebook.  Have I mentioned before how useful Facebook is?  Syncytial is pronounced "sin sishal."  Yeah, I was WAY off in my head.  I was thinking it was "sink i (as in igloo) teal."  Good thing I'm not a doctor.  I would slaughter the medical lingo. Thanks Johnny!

Anyway, back to Pip.  He's stuffed up and draining like a leaky faucet at the same time. He purrs through his mucous. He has a rattling cough and you can tell it hurts him pretty badly because he tries especially hard not to cough and cries after every mean ol' burst that escapes his best efforts. He has red, leaky eyes and is so, so fussy.

I hear all the time, from other mothers, about how much they enjoy the cuddly nature of their children when they are sick. (Come to think of it, I think I've said this before myself!)  This is not the case with Pip. He is simultaneously clingy and anti-cuddle. If you have never experienced this before, count yourself blessed. This means that he wants me to hold him, but whenever I do, he proceeds to shove off of me, climb over my arms, and dig his toes into my quads (if I'm sitting) and belly (if I'm standing) leaving little bruises all over me. It's rather exasperating (and, to be honest, a bit painful).

He still sleeps through the night, thankfully, but that's the ONLY time he sleeps. His napping is sporadic and insignificant.

So, if you put all this together, you have a wide-awake, fussy, clingy, and unsettled baby. Try getting ANYTHING done with one such as he. I dare you. The boys have been watching the boob tube (and wearing their pajamas) non-stop for three days now. Luckily, we have educational programming that they enjoy, like Leap Frog Letter Factory DVDs, Liberty's Kids, and Munchkin Math. And if I feel like we've maxed out our time on those, we switch to PBS and catch some Curious George, Sesame Street, Word World, and Super Why.

The other day I got so fed up with the sickness-induced monotony that I climbed on the treadmill with the Pipster strapped to my chest in the Baby Bjorn. It would have worked beautifully if it hadn't been for the 23lb. extension on my chest that was insisting on throwing the full weight of those 23lbs. forward in order to watch the fascinating performance of disappearing and reappearing feet below. After 15 minutes of that, my back was done. Done, not finished, because at the end of those 15 minutes it was cooked like a Turkey and equally dead.

Here are some pictures of Explorer Pip in happier days:




And here he is in his latest state, taking charge of the nebulizer:



2 comments:

Daniel said...

I think he just misses his uncle. He needs some quality uncle time.

Lisa said...

Poor little guy and poor Mom too! We have been really sick at our house too. We have had fever,coughs, pink eye, double ear infections,and sore throats. I am just glad the no one has had RSV. I hope he starts feeling better soon.