I’ve never exactly enjoyed being sick, but there was always something nice about taking a much-needed sick day. Luckily, I’ve never gotten sick very often, but when I did it was usually when trying to do too much for too long had caught up with me, so there was a certain relief in tabling my responsibilities and just taking care of myself for the day. I would spend the day mostly sleeping, or if my symptoms kept me awake, watching a movie and drinking lots of hot liquids. By the end of the day the frazzled feeling that had usually hit its apex as my cold symptoms came on would have retreated and been replaced with a peaceful calm.

Now, there are no sick days. I felt a cold coming on a couple of days ago and tried to take a nap to keep it from getting worse. Of course, my son had no interest in napping and I spent an hour alternately wrestling him down in an attempt to convince him to nap with me and nursing him while he kicked me in the stomach. Finally, I put him in his crib, which is at the head of our bed, where he spent some time crying and reaching through the slats trying to pull my hair. Ah, sick days, where have you gone?

A part of me half wondered, half hoped, that he had given me this cold and he would soon show an interest in some down time to recover. How I can still be so naïve after ten and a half months amazes me. He did, in fact, get sick, but sleeping was decidedly not on the agenda. Instead, in addition to the usual diaper changes and feedings, which he resists more when sick, I now have to clear his nose with a nasal aspirator, which involves more wrestling and a lot of crying which
probably produces more than the amount of snot I manage to extract during the process.       

Of course, napping in his crib is not going to happen, so I figure at least we can nap together in the recliner. But he wants to nurse first and is frustrated by his stuffy nose. This is bad news. When he can’t breathe through his nose while nursing, he gets frustrated and bites me. Then giggles. I think I could manage to have a bit more sympathy if it weren’t for the giggling.

I am getting a little concerned that he hasn’t had enough to drink and pump some milk and give it to him in a cup, then put him in his crib. He screams for a while and finally I give up and take him out and put him back on my lap in the recliner. He still screams. I try offering to let him nurse again (wincing inwardly) and he finally manages to breathe well enough to do it without biting me and eventually falls asleep. At this point, it is an hour and a half from the time I started getting him ready for a nap in the first place. I doze in the chair with him a little bit, but can’t let us sleep too long as he has fallen asleep around the time I like for him to wake up from his last nap so as to be sleepy enough to go to bed at the right time.

Sick days are exhausting.  I’ll take a regular day anytime.

J LeBlanc is a former high school teacher who resides in Lebanon, N.H. She is currently taking a break from teaching to stay home with her 8-month-old son.

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