When you get sick, it’s not like back in your childless days when you could spend as long as you needed lying in bed, watching reality TV marathons, only propping your head up now and again to safely spoon-feed yourself chicken soup so you wouldn’t dribble it on your duvet.
Nope, now that you’ve got kids to take care of, there will be no sick days for you. You’ve got to get up, make them breakfast, play with them, carpool, just like a regular day.
It’s in these moments that DayQuil and NyQuil come in really handy, which is why I partnered with them on their #NoSickDays campaign to create 24 hours in the life of a sick parent. A few weeks back, I asked my readers on the Mommy Shorts Facebook page to submit pictures of the things they still had to do while they were under the weather. Which is, of course, basically, EVERYTHING.
Each one of the 24 chosen photos below gets a $50 Amex gift card and I’m giving away an even bigger prize ($500!!!) for commenting under this post. But before we get to the giveaway…
Here are 24 Hours in the Life of a Sick Parent that were featured yesterday on the @NyQuilDayQuil twitter account:
DayQuil/NyQuil Severe relieves your worst cold & flu symptoms so moms and dads can go back to doing the things we love (and the things we don’t) for our families. Dayquil Severe fights symptoms to help you stay alert and on your feet during the day while Nyquil helps you sleep and recharge for the next day. Because, NEWS FLASH, you can’t take tomorrow off either!
GIVEAWAY: $500 AMEX GIFT CARD
1) To enter, you must be a Mommy Shorts subscriber. If you are not already a subscriber, you can become one here.
2) Then leave a comment under this post talking about a personal #NoSickDays experience when you had to power through in the name of your kids. Fun times!
You can read the full rules here.
Winner will be selected randomly and announced on March 3rd.
Good luck!
Winner Update:
Congrats to $500 Amex Gift Card winner Robin! Please contact pam@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize.
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If you were one of the 24 photos featured in this blog post, please contact pam@mommyshorts.com to claim your $50 prize! Please put the time stamp of your photo in the subject so we know which one is yours.
This post was sponsored by NyQuil/DayQuil but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Last winter our whole house (3 adults and 2 kids) had a nasty stomach bug! I will spare you the details, but it was a mess! Of course hubby and gram were the worst of all so not only did I feel like crap (pun intended) myself, but I was taking care of a 3 year old, 6 year old, 35 year old and 72 year old with the tummy bug as well! FUN TIMES!
I have been at home with my three sick kids for almost a week now. My oldest child is of course is my husband. They all have coughs, boogers & whiny voices. They all need to sleep but refuse too. They all request food they won’t eat and drinks that aren’t worthy of drinking. Laundry still some how gets folded. Dishes are hand washed (no dishwasher here!). Meals are on the table, even if they are only picked at. And the day must go on. Captain Mom to the rescue!! And the only reason I can even function is because I took NyQuil the night before, and DayQuil as soon as I woke up. Because guess who’s mouth everyone is coughing into, while I’m wiping their boogers away? Yep, mine. I didn’t escape the germs, I just know how to manage them to keep myself up and running… Because if I go down, they go down 😉
This is so well written, it could be an advertisement for Dayquil and Nyquil.
I’m actually 37 weeks pregnant with #2 right now and I have a super nasty cold. Because of my mom quilt I still took my two year old to swim lessons yesterday cause I know she is gonna have to take a break once baby sister arrives and she loves it so much. All I wanted to do was not pick her up early from daycare and spend the couple of hours laying on the sofa!
Does powering through a hangover count? If so, July 5, 2014 was certainly a humdinger of a morning…
The last time I got sick came on fast and furious. Luckily my husband was home so I was able to lay on the couch while he played with my daughter. (Never mind telling me I should lay in bed) Anyway, it started to creep towards dinner time and I hadn’t made anything. You would have thought he never cooked before in his life! He had to ask exactly what to make and how to make it. It was nearly as hard to explain as it would have been if I made it myself.
We had the stomach bug enter our house one day and stick around for 2 weeks! Passed from my son to me then my son again then my husband and then back to me. UGH! This was in the midst of my son’s 1st Halloween, so I was busy trying trying to put together a cute costume for him that he would actually wear. (Who gets all of those kids to wear costumes with head pieces?!?! That was certainly not working in our house…) We finally settled on a superhero theme, so I was Wonder Woman (still sick), my husband was Batman (still sick), and my son was Robin (finally feeling great and ready to play!). So exhausting… I’ll have to post a picture of our super (sick) family on your Facebook page.
I’m sick right now but I will still be taking care of my 1-year-old son all day and then taking my 6-year-old daughter to her school’s roller skating party tonight because I can’t bear to disappoint her, even though I would much rather lay on the couch and rest.
So a year ago I was 10 weeks pregnant with #2 and feeling pretty crappy most days. My then almost 2 year old got her first stomach bug and the great vomit apocalypse of 2015 was officially underway. Thought I could handle it at first, but the 4th time she threw up all over me, I cried uncle and called my husband home from work for reinforcements. He found us both crying the bath tub. She recovered pretty quickly, me not so much. I’ve never been so sick in my life, yet still had to parent the little vector since she couldn’t go to daycare. Worst week ever!
I had strep throat. I had a fever and body aches which made it really painful to be touched. Unfortunately, my 4 month old still needed to eat. So I dragged myself out of bed and into the rocking chair to nurse him. It was like torture, but I did it.
I should have known better than to share a smoothie with my son when he complained of a sore throat. Sure enough, he was diagnosed with step throat the next day and I woke up two days later unable to swallow. Unfortunately, it was my younger son’s birthday and instead of powering through, we decided to postpone the party until everyone was back to health.
strikes a chord, as I’ve been single parenting while sick all week. exhausting!
Both my husband and myself got food poisoning last New Year’s day. Which meant we were alternating running to the bathroom while the other handled a cranky, teething 8 month old. My MIL was too far away to help and my parents were out of town. Worst 24hr sick day ever.
Two weeks ago I was taking care of a sick 16 month old while 24 weeks pregnant, I would have loved some Dayquil, because the toddler loves to share his germs. Daddy had the sniffles too, which left him incapacitated and unable to do anything but sleep.
It’s a terrible feeling when I am sick but have to drag myself into the classroom to teach “my kids.” A classroom full of middle school students is fantastic, except when all I want is my bed and a box of tissues.
Once two of the kids were down with a very nasty stomach bug. I had them out in the living room. The puke was coming so fast I was actually holding up two buckets under two puking kids simultaneously. Empty, rinse and repeat for hours. That day I’ll never forget.
Two weeks ago our family got the stomach flu. It started 10 minutes before midnight with our 1 year old twins getting sick in their bed. After changing them and their beds 3 times, I finally laid down only to hear my 3 year old getting sick and crying at 2am. All over the rug. After changing her twice and cleaning the rug twice, I laid down yet again. 3:30 & my 8 year old is getting sick. Luckily she made it to the toilet! Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to bed anytime soon. Come 5am and I’m not feeling well. Nope, not my turn yet! Now my 6 year old gets sick! So, no sleep, 5 sick kids and I’m trying to hold it together. Hubby wasn’t feeling well, but he at least did get up to get fresh sheets, clothes and cleaning products for me. He can’t clean up that kind of mess or they’ll be a bigger mess! So, everyone is down for the count, but I managed to do the laundry, clean the bathroom, make breakfast, lunch and dinner and clean up from each meal… without a dishwasher. The life of a mom!
This is a story that reminds you that even as a grandma, you are still a mom and there are still #nosickdays. Last year I took my mom out on the day before mother’s day for an early celebration just for us, despite my toddler having the early symptoms of the flu. Fast forward 12 hours and I was almost hospitalized for dehydration due to the food poisioning I got from our brunch, and my son was up all night with 102+ fever, cough, the whole shebang! I was trying to care for my son with my head in a toilet and my mom ended up taking care of both of us. Completely ruining any chance either of us had for a relaxing/nice mother’s day. But hey, that’s what being a mom is all about… Even after you become a grandma.
While having the flu this week and 103 fever, I had to make my girls lunch because their daddy didn’t know what to do.
I can really relate: I’m currently home with a broken rib, my 5 year old daughter has a sinus infection, and my husband is getting one. This morning, we’re all home trying to juggle taking care of her, attending important business meetings on the phone, playing Frozen Monopoly, and calming a crying little girl who wants us to hold and play with her all while we can barely move let alone breath. I don’t know if we should laugh or cry.
You are still a Mom when your sick and the rest of the household is sick too. You grad that combo Day &Nuquil pack and keep truckin. Some has to make sure the germs stop spreading and clean up all the snot rags. Your still a mom who everyone needs when they are sick, even when your sick. #yourstillamom and loving every moment of it.
The worst time I remember is when my daughter got her tonsils removed when she was 4. The day before surgery I started feeling flu-ish. By the day after I could barely move. Luckily I had the week off to take care of my daughter, so we ended up staying with my in-laws for a few days so we could both be taken care of!
This year I got pneumonia pretty bad and had to basically beg to be released from the hospital so I could get home and take care of my boys. (2&3) The night I was released, my youngest figured out how to climb out of his crib and insisted on making that the night he switched to a big boy bed. By the next morning I was kicking myself for not enjoying my hospital stay a little longer.
Just last week a nasty cold spread like wild fire in my house. My son came home from school with it one day, my two year old was next and than BAM! It hit me so hard. I hadn’t been that sick in years. I had to call the mom of the one year old I watch and told her there was no way. I literally laid on the couch all day. Only getting up to change a diaper, feed the kids or use the bathroom. The kids played on tablets all day and when those died they destroyed the house. It was horrible!!
Never as a parent(yet, I’m 18 Weeks). But as a nanny who can’t take time off so the parents can still work..I’ve had multiple times when I feel like death and have to deal with other people’s children. Which somehow just feels worse because I don’t have the maternal love for them 😛 but better because I get to leave at day end!
When my son was a baby I had a horrible horrible virus, I couldn’t keep anything in me and I still had to do all the care for him, at the time he was on nebulizer treatments three times a day. It was so bad that at one point I didn’t know how much was enough water in the bottle for the formula and asked my husband how to make our son’s bottle. Looking back, I probably should have been hospitalized and given iv fluids.
When my oldest was about a year old, my husband and I came down with a horrible stomach bug. We had to take turns sleeping and, well, you-know-whatting and taking care of the baby. Luckily the baby didn’t get sick, but we did have to suffer through endless hours of Daniel Tiger. To this day, as soon as I hear the theme song, I flash back to that horrible time.
I have 3 boys–5, 3, and 1. Life is hard enough as a working mom with 3 boys but then the stomach bug graced us. I woke up to warm chunks in my hair and sliding down my back. My 5 year old had snuck into bed and kicked The Week of Hell. He had a day of diherrea and vomit. Next night my 3 year old climbed into bed and I couldn’t sleep in fear of being puked on. He sat up at 3am and I instantly knew. We ran as quickly as we could until right before the bathroom door when he puked all over my feet and the floor. The day followed with 2 kids with diherrea and vomit. Day 3 I felt horrible but nothing came. Day 4 was our 1 year old who puked on my husband when he was holding him in the air while laying on the bed. Vomit in face. I got sick on day 5 and then my poor 5 year old got sick again the next day. Sharing is caring? And somehow, I have no idea how, my husband remained healthy. Being that he’s the worst patient on the planet, I was so incredibly thrilled.
The kid gave me a stomach bug, and I still got up and fed him his bananas – which I hate – while focusing on breathing through my mouth and suppressing my gag reflex. I must really love him.
Shortly after my second was born, i got strep throat. I had to take care of a 2 1/2 year old, a newborn and myself while my husband was out of town. This was also during one of the coldest winters ever known as the polar vortex in Chiberia.
My husband recently had to fly to North Dakota for work. To make our last night fun, we drove into the city the day before to stay in a hotel and have a mini vacation with our twin 5 year olds. Around midnight I woke up with the unmistakable feeling I was about to puke. I ran for the bathroom and started evacuating from both ends, if you catch my drift. Up and down all morning like that and by 5 am my husband had to be taken to the airport. We had to have the hotel manager take him in their personal car because the shuttle didn’t show until 6. Eventually, around 11, I felt stable enough to drive the hour home. Not 15 minutes down the interstate both kids puked in the backseat, in tandem! That triggered me again as well! There we were, pulled over on the interstate, all crying and puking on the shoulder! No one stopped either. I got us home but it was the hardest 45 minute drive of my life. And I still had to clean out the car when I got home!
The Christmas my oldest son was just over a year old, I had horrible stomach flu. We were supposed to be at my in-laws that weekend for Christmas. Since I didn’t want to ruin the holiday for my child, I went — but spent most of the weekend in the bathroom. The morning we were supposed to have the family gift exchange, I spent 3 hours in the bathroom that night and woke half the house up. I also ate nothing. Four days later, my in-laws all caught the flu. It was terrible.
Taking care of a 4 year old and an infant while having the worst cold known to mankind. I ended up with laryngitis. My daughter’s listening ears were not working well so having to repeat myself often was NOT cool. The baby was not sleeping and would only settle when I sang. Oh and my husband had to work every night that week. So there I was, croaking some lullabies in a rocking chair in between coughing fits, while the 4 year old would pop in and “forget” that she had to brush teeth and put on pajamas. Because you’ve only done it approximately 1250 times in your life, kid!
This past weekend I was super duper sick. But! Guess who was also sick? One of my kids and my husband. So basically I had to power through and take care of everyone bc my husband is unable to function with the sniffles. I was so miserable…
A couple years ago my son got scarlet fever (!!!—don’t worry, apparently that’s not a big deal these days, it’s “just” extremely rude strep throat) and of course nothing but in your face mama cuddles could ease his suffering. So guess who else got scarlet fever? Dad! Haha, yeah right, of course it was me. Did I mention this was all during finals? But I still managed to drag my ass out of bed, make a big pot of soup for the lounge-at-home sick people, stuff my face full of antibiotics, find some clean clothes and a sick mask and get to class. AND I aced the freaking test. (And then I died for a week.)
My husband and I both had the stomach bug last week. We still had to feed them what seemed like endless snacks and settle arguments for my girls (5 &3) over turns on picking the cartoon and who’s turn it was to be the pup Skye. The whining and yelling seemed a lot worse that day.
My most recent was I got the flu Christmas Eve. CHRISTMAS FREAKING EVE!!! Of course none of the kids gifts were wrapped. I laid in the middle of my living room floor wrapping gifts for three children. After every gift I wrapped, I rewarded myself by closing my eyes for a few seconds. I didn’t bother going to bed, I just climbed on the sofa so I wouldn’t have to move Christmas morning to watch them open the presents Santa brought.
DVDs and cartoons I normally would not allow my daughters to watch were my ‘go to’ when I had the flu and was trying to take care of my daughters, who each had the flu one after the other. Thank you Patrick & Sponge Bob for your help!
When my son was 3 months old, I committed to a road trip with my grandparents to help them drive. I wake up with a full-blown sinus infection on the day we are leaving (at 5am, of course). So I had to single-parent a child who hated to sleep in hotel rooms with a sinus infection. Never again.
All four of us are sick right now. The kids tested positive for RSV, and my husband and I have the adult version, which feels like the worst cold I’ve ever had mixed with bronchitis. Seriously miserable. And yet we still have to watch Team Umizoomi a million times a day, and make sure I don’t give my oldest son (3) the wrong color bowl or fork that day, lest all hell break loose. I also have to make sure my youngest son (16 months) doesn’t eat the dog’s food and pour their water bowl out on his head at least twice a day.
You still have to take the sick kid to the doctor when you yourself should be at yours. Her ear infection and my sinus infection made for some lovely times at our house. Can’t you get a BOGO on antibiotics??!! #NoSickDays
I’ve been so sick the last few days….my kids (1&2) have pretty much started baby fight club (if they aren’t watching TV all day) but I can barely get off the couch! And then of course I’m worried that they’re going to get sick too….but they just want to climb, sleep and play on me all day. My kids are surviving on crackers and milk too….being sick is the worst!
I was sick with the stomach flu, taking care of a 3yo and 1.5yo (fun!). Naptime rolled around and my 3yo refused to nap, so I put her in my bed, gave her my phone, and fell asleep next to her. ????
Sticking to the potty training when you’re sick… helping little arms wipe their tushies while simultaneously trying not to pass out/ barf on them…
Does 18 weeks of all-day (instead of just morning) sickness count? Last January, I was still fighting all day nausea when my then-almost 2 year old and I both got influenza. On top of that, we had no heat in our house, so it was like 50 degrees inside. Being pregnant and still breastfeeding, I couldn’t take ANYTHING. I had my husband leave bowls of Cheerios around the house so my daughter would give me an extra 5 minutes of sleep. Because who can sleep while pregnant, nauseous, AND sick? AND our TV was not hooked up so I didn’t even have that option. Thank goodness for baby gates because I had to just let my daughter tornado through the safe areas (we were in the middle of a kitchen/house remodel, so we didn’t even have a dishwasher or a dryer at the time. It felt like camping, in the winter, while pregnant and sick.
Ok, you win! This story gives me the sweats just reading it!!!
A week and a half ago my son (18 months) picked up an awful stomach bug at daycare. He had the bug for about 24 hours, after which I caught it. At 5 am I was in the bathroom and as I’m praying to the porcelain god for the umpteenth time, he’s sitting on my leg screaming and I’m trying to comfort him between puking episodes because he can’t sleep/breathe due to the cough and head cold that came on immediately after the stomach bug…all while my husband was sleeping like a rock in the next room. My husband did catch the bug the next night.
When I was pregnant with my second, and my husband was deployed, my then 3 year old son and I BOTH got a stomach virus. A particularly nasty one. I had to comfort him, clean up after both of us, and keep us both hydrated enough to keep us out of the ER. It was the worst 48 hours ever, especially when we were both throwing up at the same time in our single bathroom. I cleaned up more vomit in that 48 hour period than I have in my entire life.
Even while sick I still had to make a fruit salad for my daughter’s preschool Valentine’s party. Each piece of fruit needed to be cut up into tiny non-chokable pieces.
When my son was 3 months old, I got mastitis and a fever that went up to 104. I had to drop my older son off at preschool, try to nap when the baby napped, pick up my older son from preschool, make dinner, etc. When my fever peaked at 104 around 5pm, I was told my by OB that if it didn’t go down in an hour (after Advil and Tylenol), then I had to go to the ER. But as my baby was EBF and I’m a SAHM, I didn’t have any milk pumped so I then had to pump in case I had to go to the hospital. Oh and since we don’t live near family, my husband was going to stay home with the kids and I would have to go to the ER alone. It was horrible. Luckily, my fever went down and I didn’t need to go to the ER.
Last winter my son had walking pneumonia and I had a sinus infection and blisters on my eardrum. My husband lived in the guest bedroom.
#NoSickDays
You still have to take care of/clean up after your sick husband when you both have food poisoning and breastfeed the baby without puking all over her.
Being sick as an adult sucks!! Still got to take care of everyone even the hubby! No one is giving me medicine or letting me rest. But it will pass! #nosickdays
Despite forcing the flu shot on my home, I still ended up with the influenza. I was the only one (thankfully). I got out of the hospital on a Tuesday morning, and at 3 pm I still had to take my 3 year old to a dentist appointment (single mom and all)because they refused to let me reschedule with having to pay. I may have been an alien for how great I looked in my unshowered/masked face glory. But hey she didn’t have any cavities:)
Forgot to say #NoSickDays
Last Spring I was hit with the stomach flu around 7pm. I was throwing up every hour on the dot. My husband took care of our 1 yr old but she woke up in the middle of the night and he (being significantly hearing impaired) didn’t hear her so I tried to get up to help her. She woke up because she had started throwing up too! I was too weak to lift her so I crawled back to our room to wake my husband. He got up to help but needed me to hold her while he cleaned things up and got the thermometer. She started throwing up so forcefully I almost couldn’t hold her (my weaken state being part of the problem). By the time he got back to the room it was my turn to throw up again. He took care of both of us all night and into the morning hours.
Driving the kids where they need to go, dizzy from lack of sleep and sinus co festoon, cooking home cooked meals no one will eat – no rest for the momma. And don’t forget the 4am wake up calls.
That time when I got the stomach bug so badly that I lined my underwear with diapers for those times that I just couldn’t get there, or I got there and the potty training child beat me… At least it helped me use up the last of my stock so the kid had no excuse but to hit the potty.
Just last month, I had bronchitis AND my 7 month old also had bronchiolitis. My husband leaves the house at 5 am, so it was just me, the baby, and the neurotic dog. It was hard enough dragging my body out of bed, but I had to get ready for work while also getting the baby ready for daycare and taking the dog out, etc. For a week straight.
… Made me re-think having another baby, because I can’t imagine doing it all while pregnant!
#NoSickDays
I have been subsisting off dayquil and nightquil all week since a nasty head & chest cold has knocked me on my butt. No rest for the wicked – or mommies so i have been watching cartoons with my one year old and four yr old non-stop. The house a bit reminiscent of Lord of The Flies.
When my little guy is sick, we snuggle and watch Peppa Pig (his fav show) all day long. It’s the only way I can get him to sit still! And thanks to daycare germs, he has been home sick quite a lot this winter….so much, in fact, that we are both developing a British accent. LOL!
Right after my 2nd child was born was the sickest MONTH I’ve ever had. Urinary infection right after C section. Was recovering and nursing and I came down with walking pneumonia and worst ear infection ever. It was so bad that I couldn’t hear the baby crying. I sat up in bed screaming one night bc my eardrum had ruptured (with newborn beside me in bassinet and toddler in bed with us). Sadly I was more worried about waking baby than the pain. Had to bring newborn to ENT appt next day. A week later when my hearing was still bad I had to go in to have tube put in at office….without sedation :(. Finally get over that and a week later my 3 year old has a stomach virus. I took car of him and then I got it too. I locked us both in his room away from husband and baby and we both puked in buckets for 12hrs. Mind you, Luckily I had pumped and my husband protected the baby from getting sick. Anyway….it was a month I’ll NEVER forget…but we made it through, lol 🙂
I had three kids, all under age five when I came down with a bad cold- my 5year old and 2 year old also both had a bad cold, very cranky- as if that wasn’t enough, my baby had a stomach bug and was continually throwing up- we’re talking “Exorcist throwing up” status! So I call the baby’s Doctor (with no voice, cause I’ve lost mine) and while I’m on the phone, the baby throws up ON oldest child- and middle child hits a Tabasco bottle (he swiped from the fridge unbeknownst to me) against glass front door and bottle shatters and spills hot sauce all over him…ALL THREE KIDS are screaming and crying loudly and the nurse on the phone says “Do you need a moment?!” Lol! As just a side note this was before cell phones, so I’m chained to the wall by the phone cord!! THAT was the day I realized I was outnumbered ! Needless to say, we trudged forward and all three kids survived their childhood to become LOVELY Adults; one of them a parent himself! No days off when you’re sick as a parent, and it’s well worth it!!
Just had this yesterday…was feeling nauseous all morning and starting throwing up around 1pm. Luckily my hubby was home to take care of the girls (ages 4 and almost 1) while I laid down. But come bed time I still had to nurse the baby and put her to bed, and help brush teeth, and read books to the 4 year old while she laid on me (and had a meltdown when I suggested she sit next to me, instead of in my lap because I wasn’t feeling good).
Last winter right before Christmas, my son and I both got a nasty stomach bug. I was comforting and taking care of him in between puking my guts out. And I was still trying to get everything wrapped, cooked, and ready for Christmas Day. Definitely not fun 🙁
This past Monday I had bronchitis and a bad sinus infection. My 11 month old is trying to learn to walk, constantly falling, hitting her head and getting into everything. Meanwhile my 4 yr old insists on being my nurse. She is constantly in my face, checking my “temperchure” and asking every 2.5 seconds for a snack.
When I’m sick, Uncle TV is my best friend! My sons love watching Adventure Time and luckily there are a lot of episodes up on Hulu
I just went through this a few days ago. It all started when the school nurse called me to pick up my child from school because of a fever. Then the vomiting started. The next morning, my other child now had a fever and started vomiting. The third day, my baby started with the same stomach flu. It was a mess of towels laying down everywhere to “catch” the puke, washing machine running non stop and even my bed was covered in puke by this point. The fourth day, I started feeling nauseous myself. I held it together ALL day long until I got the kids in bed. I literally puked every half an hour for the next 12 hours straight, no sleep, while laying on the bathroom floor in between. By a miracle, I stopped hanging on the bowl, just in time for the kiddies to get up. I now had to continue to take care of them while weak and exhausted for the next day since my husband works 12 hour shifts and couldn’t take off from work. We had to cancel our sitter for Valentine’s Day dinner since no one wanted to come to our germ house anyway. Lol. At least my stomach flu was fast lived so I could go back to cleaning up after my kids being sick. Motherhood at its, best! ????
The worst is being nauseous and having to change poopy diapers.. But a time that sticks in my memory is trying to sleep in when I was sick, and waking up to my toddler coming up the stairs saying he had ‘a knife for me and a knife for you, mommy!’ Nothing like an adrenaline rush to get you out of bed QUICK. Luckily, they were butter knives. #nosickdays
Two stories:
1. February 2009:
I had just had my gallbladder removed. I still had those horribly painful gas bubbles, when my 5month old son decided my first day was the best to start crawling… I spent the next two weeks recovering, chasing a newly mobile baby.
2. February 2016
Feb 4th my 7 yr old wakes up at 3:30am puking all down the hallway. Feb 8th he has diarrea for two days. Feb 10th, my 3 yr old wakes up puking and crying, at 10:30, just as I had fallen asleep for the night. 5 hours later, the 5yr old wakes up puking everywhere. 18 hours later they are still puking sips of liquid up, so we head to er, trip number one. Feb 12 I pick my husband up from work because he is now puking. Feb 13th, I finally start, but I get the worst version and have both ends going. Got dehydrated and ended up in er for trip #2. Spent Valentine’s day on the couch with a still recovering husband, while 4 boys run the house into a disaster. Feb 15th I get up at 5:30, still nauseous and gagging to drive my husband to work an hour away. Spent the day with all 4 boys because it was a school holiday. Feb 16th, still nauseous and not eating, take kids to school, and baby throws up. Feb 17th I finally feel somewhat better and get kids to dentist appointments, lunch to hubby, clean house, make dinner, and bake a double batch of banana bread. All while coming down with now a sinus infection. NyQuil and DayQuil are what’s getting me through today. At least everyone else is healthy now right??
Just last night my DH was in bed sick and I spent 3 hours trying to keep the kids quiet so he could rest. Why oh why does everyone feel the need to yell when someone is sick??
Ok, this is a great story! (Unless you’re me in the story)
A few months ago I got a horrible stomach virus that had me throwing up several times each hour. I also had a nursing toddler who gave no f*cks about me hunched over the toilet actively vomiting as she clutched to me with her arms AND her legs AND HER TEETH and nursed. She was like a chimpanzee and hung from my breast, parallel to the ground, while I struggled to stay concious and upright. If it hadn’t happened to me I would doubt it actually happened.
Our house just got hit with the stomach flu just after I was recovering from a sinus infection. Needless to say, momma had to put on her super cape and be the mama bear everyone needed despite running to the toilet every few minutes. After everyone recovered from the stomach bug, momma got another cold. This winter season is really testing my patience and live for my family. Should o mention I work full-time too!
When my son was about 2 months old, the constant sleep deprivation caught up with me and I got a really nasty head cold. I had a high fever and between that and the lack of sleep was very close to hallucinating. I just remember nursing him, walking into the living room and handing him off to someone else because there was a very strong chance of me passing out and dropping him on the floor.
I am currently on Day 8 of a wicked head cold and because I have asthma, it immediately settles into my chest, forcing me to cough uncontrollably most of the day. While using my nebulizer, I coughed so continuously and hard that I vomited into the mouthpiece. Upon watching this, my 4 year old promptly vomited all over the carpet, his clothes, and a bin of freshly folded laundry. So then I had to clean up myself, the kid, the nebulizer, the carpet, and the already clean laundry that I had forced myself to wash, dry and fold just hours earlier. This all occurred at 9pm, just before bedtime. I then had to wake myself up every 2 hours to check on said kid, because he spiked a fever at the same time. Fun times. My husband slept through the entire event.
Viral Spiral stats … coming out of a 12 week bender; Stomach flu:3, sinus infection: 8, Fevers 103+: who knows, missed days of work: 20, Doc visits: 12-ish, nights spent sleeping upright in recliner with child(ren): stopped counting, Ear infections: 8, Runny noses: yes, ER visit with pneumonia complications: 1, and one plumber called to remove a flushed hotwheels. Put kids in daycare, they say. It’ll be great, they say. Both parents can work! The first few months of daycare are no joke. I now truly know what the term “sick and tired” means. Here’s my son on one of the better days …
Two weekends ago, I got taken down by the norovirus so bad, my husband had to call an ambulance for me at 11am (amazing how the kids don’t wake up with paramedics in the hallway, but they can hear me sneak candy in the pantry…). Anyway, the family picked me up the next morning, but around noon, my husband went down with the norovirus and spent the rest of the day and night in the basement, leaving me to entertain an 11-month-old and 4-year-old by myself on no sleep with no energy. At 8pm that night, just as the baby went to sleep, the 4-year-old started throwing up. On Monday, I was going to send the baby to daycare, but she had a poopsplosion getting into the car. All four of us stayed home…at this point, I hadn’t slept since Friday night. Tuesday, I packed them up (they were both well for more than 24 hours) and dropped them off at daycare and PreK so I could go home and sleep. Forty-five minutes later, I got a call to pick the baby up because she broke out in a mysterious rash all over her body. I dragged my butt out of bed, picked her up, brought her home, played with her for two hours and put her down for a nap so I could finally sleep. Ten minutes later, I got a call from PreK that my oldest threw up twice and that I had to pick her up. Woke the baby up, put her in the car, got my oldest, went to the pedi and got home at 5:30pm. The next day, my oldest ended up going to the ER…we got home at 6:30pm, just in time for me to go to night class (I am working on my doctorate full-time). I had a major paper due that I hadn’t even started, so Thursday, when everyone was well and I was back at work, I decided to stay up after my Thursday night class to write my paper. Just as I clicked “save” at 1:30am, the baby woke up screaming…she was cutting two teeth. I finally got her to sleep at 4:14am, just in time for my alarm to go off at 5:42am for work. #NoSickDays
When my daughter was 4 months old I got some kind of 24 hour bug. I couldn’t eat or drink anything without it coming right back up. She was breastfed and I didn’t have any frozen backup milk… So while I was nursing her the urge to throw up hit me hard. I looked at my husband and he ran the puke bucket to me and I puked while continuing to nurse her. She took one break while I was throwing up just to do a little baby giggle at my puking sounds, and then she went right back to nursing. #nosickdays
So many to choose from l but I’m going with the most recent. Married 11 years with 2 children, 5 yr old girl in kindergarten and a 3.5 yr old in preschool. Husband had shoulder surgery in December and has been recovering at home. Understandable he has been less then helpful. However, I’m over being a single parent. Last week 5 year old was home sick with cough and fever, 3.5 yr old caught it just as 5 yr old is back to school while the whole time trying yo keep the kids away from hubby as to not set back his recovery. Fast forward to this morning…my 40th birthday and I wake up feeling like I have been hit by a truck, but the rest of the family is perfectly happy and feeling better. And of course it settles in my chest so I can’t stop coughing but can’t rest bc I have to get 3.5 yr old to preschool, 5 yr old insists that I make breakfast and we eat together bc its my special day. In between have to drive hubby to PT. Come home to clean the house, do laundry, keep 5 yr old happy (on winter break) make sure everything is ready for the grandparents who are watching the kids this weekend so I can get away with VIP tickets to see Brantley Gilbert. I’m gonna be on so many cold pills I’m hoping if I make it to the show I will at leaat have pictures. So much for a once in a lifetime getaway. Moms never get any time off and that includes the 40 yr old child! BTW we live in Buffalo, NY, so the snow doesn’t shovel itself. Not surprised its after 1030 and just sat down for the first time today.???? #nosickdays
Oh my goodness, there are just so many choices! So many choices! Is there a way to discuss dealing with a stomach bug while simultaneously doing all the mom things without grossing everyone in the comment stream out? No, I didn’t think so. It’s just no fun. None at all! 🙂
As a mom of a 4 yr old,a 2 yr old, and a 6 month old there is never a good time for me to get sick. But of course we all had to get the stomach flu at the same time including my husband. From changing horribly disgusting diapers x3 every hour to disinfecting the couch thanks to my husband..I didn’t get to “rest”.
It’s been almost 3 weeks since we were in a wreck that totalled our van (but thankfully none of us!). Our 2-year-old and 8-year-old came away with bitten tongues, but hubby and I were worse off with burns, bruises, and air bag injuries to our chests. He’s all but healed, but I got it the worst and still have trouble breathing, lifting, etc. So naturally I also came down with a chest cold this week! Yay Nyquil! If keeping 2 kids entertained and contained in an ER for 6 hours while in tons of pain wasn’t enough, sneezing and coughing added a new element of surprise! After the toddler asks, “You okay, Mama? You okay?” my giggles at his sweetness hurt, but a bit less! I just wish he could understand why I can’t pick him up much! #nosickdays
I have crps so ever day is a sick day for me but I power through, when my kids smile and laugh it’s totally worth it! # nosickdays
I have had a terrible stomach bug with it coming out both ends and still had to do the normal morning routine all day. On the way to my son’s school, I had to pull over to vomit and make several stops to use the bathroom. The rest of the day continued just like that!
This post makes me feel extraordinarily glad for my husband, because I’ve never had to take care of our daughter when I am sick! I’ve returned the favor too!
I’m lucky that I don’t get sick too often, but when I do it’s usually pretty awful. I had a really bad head cold, and the pressure was so bad I couldn’t even think straight. I had to watch my 2 year old son all day, but I couldn’t even sit upright the pain was so bad. I spent most of the day lying on the living room floor like the 11am dad you pictured above. I couldn’t stand up long enough to cook, so we only ate snacks all day until my husband took over after work. #nosickdays
I can remember one time having stomach flu and having to run to bathroom leaving a toddler and a preschooler in the living room. Who have been asking to go outside in the snow but mommy was so sick. “It is so pretty honey but mommy cannot be 6 feet from bathroom….maybe later” It’s like one of those funny pictures you cringe when you see on FB. Baby Powder covering the room, pink marker on Baby Boy toddler’s face…head and the marker still in preschoolers hand saying, “I did this all for you mommy…kind of pretty..like outside….don’t you think?” with hands on sides. #Speechless #NoSickDays
Ahh, the endless duties of a mommy!
I am brought back to an utterly horrible night and day with three out of 5 of my children being down and out with a stomach bug! Round the clock that night I tended to the violent vomiting episodes of 2 of my foster children whom had no skills in place to be able to get themselves to the bathroom or even vomit into the wastebasket by their beds. While running back and forth between the two, changing sheets, pjs and having no choice but to shower 2 sleepy, sick, miserable children, the 3rd ( a 14mos old whom is now my adopted son❤️) awoke with 102.5 temperature. Well, I honestly just wanted to throw my hands up and say” Oh Lord I cannot handle all this” but instead brought sleeping bags, blankets and pillows into the bathroom and pretty much had a camp out in the bathroom all night, holding a sick baby, watching for the signs before the vomit started flowing and positioning a child in front of the toilet.
Although the vomitting had stopped during the wee hours of the morning, I was now faced with mountains of laundry that stunk to high Heaven, cracky-feverish- tired children as I was running on 2 hours sleep and starting to feel nauseous myself. It was frankly a night and day from Hell. Fortunately a rainbow did appear from this bleak experience, my 4 year old Foster daughter hugged me for the first time since being placed and said” Thank you Kris for taking care of me and my brother last night!”. This is what brings sunshine to my world in the end!!!
2 years ago everyone in the house got the flu on Christmas including myself. I had to clean up toddler puke, comfort a whiney teenager, tell the husband he wasn’t going to die all while trying to hold everything inside myself. To top it off my boys had gotten a puppy as an early Christmas present. The puppy ate something while no one was watching her and got explosive poop. Try not puking while cleaning that puppy crate… to add to the mix it was christmas I had to still be Santa Claus, and Dec 26th was the little guys 3rd birthday and he wanted a home made cake..
I had to take care of my two year old twins less than a week after extensive shoulder surgery. Lifting two toddlers in and out of cribs with my dominant arm in a sling for 6 weeks was really fun.
Our entire family got hit with the flu this past Thanksgiving…so of course, we couldn’t ship the kids off to daycare! 3 month old started puking first, and the rest of us (3 YO, hubby, and myself) followed over the course of 3 days. I couldn’t get the lingering puke smell out of my house for days.
I think the worst menorasble one was Me with a stomach bug, Daddy had his wisdom teeth with in the last 12 hours and baby was 4 months old. That was an awful weekend.
Two events come to mind-one was a week before Christmas three years ago, we all got a norovirus, started with our one year old, then to our eight year old. Luckily they were mild cases. Hubs came home from work miserable and super achy, planted himself in the recliner and barely moved. I put away a dinner no one wanted, ran to the store to stock up on Gatorade, soup, etc., and got hit with the aches myself. It fully hit me about midnight, and the next three days are a blur of bathroom sprints, mopping up, getting whoever was most coherent to get drinks and such to whoever needed them. All of us camped out in the living room the whole time. Second was last month, I got a super flu- thankfully no one else did. Spent days laying on the couch, dragging myself up just long enough to feed my preschooler on his days off, hubs coming home early to get kids and try to keep the house running. Four days in, I woke up on the floor with him leaning over me, calling 911! Got so dehydrated my blood pressure bottomed out, I passed out and hit my head. How did the kids sleep through the ambulance showing up?? ER trip, lots of tests, IV fluids, etc. Still get tired so easily, feel like I just got the housework caught back up. (My husband tried really hard to get it all too.)
While my husband was away of course I had to get sick.
I got some kind of upper respiratory virus that ended up going into my chest and I didn’t have a voice for a week. I had to get up after not getting much sleep to begin with get my oldest ready for school, and the little one ready as well so we could take my oldest to school. Then come home to feed the little guy and realized I need to go to the store for some milk. Mind you I felt like I should be laying on the couch not running to the store… Got back tried to lay the baby down for a nap and of course he doesn’t want to nap … so still no rest for me. Then it was time to pick my oldest up from school so of course the little one fell asleep in the car. Got home little guy woke and didn’t want to go back ti sleep. After making dinner it was time for an early bed time or so I thought. Didn’t get to sleep till midnight and back up by 6 it was a crazy few days… Then both kids got my cold as well 🙁
My husband and I both had Norovirus one weekend…I got it, gave it to hubby that night and baby (16 months old) got it after. Since it was on the weekend I figured I’d get some help; we could take care of Ember together. NO MAM! My husband was either on the couch or the bed curled up as if all limbs were paralized. I, in between throwing and puking (and having to guess what was going to happen first) also had to change Ember, clean up her puke (prevent the dog from ‘helping’ with that) and changing her clothes 20+ times that weekend, and clean the crib 3 times too. I also had to feed, cuddle, take the dog out, AND make ALL the food (soup, grilled cheese…all the adult ‘man baby’ food) for the three of us too. All without a thank you, good job, how about a night off.
This a while back but my child, husband and I all had a stomach bug. It was 48 hours of hell. My child was only breastfeeding at the time so I would have to pump every 3 hours to keep my supply up. This also involved eating which was a horrible task with a stomach bug. My husband would set a timer so I would know when to pump and he would feed our daughter while I pumped. Then all 3 of us would go back to bed. This cycle was horrible for 2 days straight. Luckily we all had it at the same time so that after those 2 days we were back to normal.
Two weeks ago I had norovirus. I still had to pick up the toddler from preschool and hold the baby. I had to pump, change diapers, convince the toddler to pee on the potty and find the correct eposide of Doc McStuffins. And try not puke in front of the children (which was unsucessful, I may add).
My husband and I recently had a lovely experience with a stomach bug. All I wanted to do was rest, but our daughter wasn’t having that!
A couple weeks ago I got food poisoning and my husband generously offered to stay home and help..but both the kid’s crawled on me all day and my husband took a nap.
When I had a migraine and literally puked in a bowl while spoon feeding my baby :/
My family has all been sick for the last two weeks. Of course, I had to continue taking care of the household including laundry and dishes (I left other cleaning for later). I also had to wake up whatever kid or kids weren’t sick for that day, drive them to school, and pick them back up. In the meantime, I also had to take care of the sick kid(s) at home while I felt like crap. Oh did I mention I work from home and had to continue to try to do my work while I had kids home. Ugh! We are finally on the road to recovery!
The week following my husband first deployment I got a sinus infection and ear infection. My son was 19 months at the time. He thought we should spend the morning on the couch with him laying on my back. Thankfully he did not get sick as well!
My daughter is the queen of faking illness long enough to miss the “absent not tardy” window and it’s ALWAYS on a day when I have 1 million things to do or I’m sick and can’t play with her al day long. :/