Mommies Don't Get Sick Days

It's the first day of February, and I caught the bug....

no, not the love bug....although I would surely prefer it!

My little one has had a nasty little stomach virus these last few days. The crazy thing about it is by looking at her you would never think she was sick.

After a bath and wardrobe change.

This time it was especially tough for me. Granted she is two years old, she has had her fair share of lost meals.  But it was her first episode after solid food. AND BOYY was it NOT easy.  It's a real challenge for me to deal with anyone getting sick that way. Being a medic KINDA  made it easier for me to deal with it, out of compassion for ill soldiers, and I thought that being this little girls mommy, would make me immune, but it didn't.

I held my own, but as I cleaned up the mess,  I looked at my little girl's face and she looked worried and I realized, I had the "EW" face. I felt so bad. I didn't want her to think she was yucky to me and thats exactly what I read off of her face. And that was my wakeup call.  "EW" face was turned off and I immediately went into soothing mode for her.

So the little one was immediately placed on her BRAT diet, and it was just water/Pedialyte and chicken broth for the remainder of that night.

The following day, breakfast included toast and apple sauce.  We kept her hydrated, (she actually loves the Pedialyte juice boxes.) For snack we stepped it up a notch, the wheat bread wasn't toasted and she had some yogurt with banana slices.  

In the meantime I was feeling über sick (nausea was the star of the show), but unlike times before I became a mother, I couldn't just lay out on the couch and nap all day.  This little girl needed me to keep my "A" game alive and well.  It meant lifting up my two year old and carrying her up the stairs even as the same illness knocked me on my behind making me feel like my own body weight was two tons.

It meant consoling my little baby (yes she will always by my little baby) the best I could even as my stomach churned and my abdomen pinched with pain....to keep a smile on my face so she could have one on hers.

Even in the Army, you don't call out sick, it doesn't work that way. But if you are sick there is a specific time of the day where you can see someone for treatment and they will send you home to rest if they feel that you should. But this isn't the Army...and with my latest challenge as a mommy I wouldn't have it any other way but I  have now learned that you don't get sick days in Mommyhood.