Curse you, daycare!

An epidemic is sweeping daycare. Carter and I have been home sick for the past three days, since my lunchtime visit on Tuesday, when I discovered that he had a slight fever (100.2). Coupled with the cough he'd had that morning, I whisked him out of daycare and straight to the doctor. Fortunately she reported that his lungs and ears were both fine, and that it is just a cold. I had also awoken that morning feeling slightly under the weather, which the pediatrician said was great - since I'm nursing, Carter will get the antibodies that I am producing to fight our shared cold. Home we went, sniffling and coughing.

And home we have remained for the past three days, as I quickly descended into a full-blown mess, complete with fever, aches, and congestion so hideous that I can scarcely breathe out of my nose. Fortunately, Carter seems to be faring better than I - he has a slight sniffle and yesterday still had a low fever (100.8), but is primarily plagued by an evil little cough. He is slightly more lethargic than normal, as I discovered when I placed him down for Tummy Time and he simply sighed and rested his little head on the blanket, showing none of his usual interest in exploring. Otherwise, he still seems to be in high spirits - when he is awake, he is his usual smiling, jovial self. This is simply more evidence that I have the most pleasant-tempered child on earth.

A frustrating - though not unexpected - side-effect of Carter's cold is the inevitable disintegration of sleep. Last weekend was huge for our family - we finally started sleep-training Carter, and our little boy went from sleeping swaddled in a bassinet next to our bed (after being nursed to sleep by mama) and waking four times a night to sleeping unswaddled in his crib in his room (and falling asleep on his own) and waking either once or not at all (with a dream feed courtesy of yours truly in the wee hours). For four magical nights, I slept. And then, all too soon, the evil daycare malady struck and it all went to hell. For the past three days, my husband and I have tried to be good, responsive parents to our sick baby without totally destroying any sleep progress we made. He is still falling asleep by himself, in his crib, unswaddled, but there are several wake-ups during the night, and I can't ignore the cries of my sick child. Thus, we'll have to see how the pieces fall when we are healthy again - hopefully it won't mean starting from square one.

Think healthy thoughts our way...