This week I am calling, The Wilderness Years.
Not nice cozy cabin wilderness, with open fires and warm argyle fluffy blankets, but more survival bear grylls style.
This is because, it very much feels like it has been much longer than a week and I have very much been lost in the wilderness and slight panic of sick baby. Poor Milly had a really nasty tummy bug for an agonizing seven days. And it was all more than a bit of a worry….
If it had been a movie the tag line would have gone something like this…. “One Mum, One baby and the germ , go head to to head in a battle of nappies, vom and will!”….
I know I am being dramatic here, (artistic tendencies) but last night when I finally feel asleep I dreamt I was Ripley from Alien. I had to get the nasty parasite out of Milly. It was horrible, but it is a pretty good reflection on how it feels. You just feel so useless.
I also dreamt that Dec (he of Ant & Dec) was hopelessly in love with me and wanted to marry me, which is strange…sleep depravity does funny things to the brain……
Anyway we visited the docs, she said stuff about hydration and temperature and rashes…blaaa blaa blaa (all stuff I know) but apart from that she just has to fight it through on her own apparently. Somehow that falls short when its your kid….
Its all made worse as I know where this nasty came from (and so, I have guilt..) … its where all Milly’s bugs have come from, the Friday Baby Group.
I love this place, I really do. Its full of toys and fun stuff to do, my best baby mummy pal is always there with Milly’s best pal Henry, and its bliss. Milly gets loads out of it, she always comes home with new words and it seems to help her learn the art of playing on her own rather than the “watch mummy play with stuff ” that we have had till now.
But as well as all the fun and bright shinny things, there is ALWAYS a Sick Kid.
After taking Milly here on and off for about 6 months I have learned to scan and spot said “sick kid” before even getting Milly out of her buggy.
Then its just the matter of avoiding the poor kid till home time. (and why do they bring em sick anyway???….just asking! )
This means, watching what he/she sucks on, dribbles near or just breathes next to.
This might seem a tad over the top, I am honestly not a Mummy Germ Nazi but out of the 6 or 7 times I have been to baby group, 4 times Milly has come home germ-ed up. Usually its a cold but this time it was the dreaded bug of sick. Oh joy!
Sometimes I can even pinpoint the moment when the germ was implanted…… Like last month, we are at baby *cough* sick group and all was well, the designated toys this week were all food related…what FUN I thought innocently.
But the problem with a room full of toddlers and plastic food is that they ALL put it in there mouths so each piece of McDonald’s plastic burger and fries has probably, by the end of the session been through about 20 kids. Not a marriage of good health I can tell you.
Anyway, on this particular day *sick kid* was to my left, three kids down and chewing on a particularly yummy piece of plastic pizza. One of the other mums had already cleaned up his candlestick nostrils, (no sign of mum, maybe behind the bike sheds smoking a fag?..)
After much slurping in bogey consumption that had made some of us wish we had skipped breakfast. He marinaded the plastic pizza liberally with snot and then very polity..(you have to give him that) handed it right to Milly, who before I could reach over ninja mum style had that plastic pizza in her mouth like it was gourmet jelly beans!
The irony of this is she NEVER eats pizza at home..not even the one I lovingly hand make with Focaccia bread and sun-dried tomatoes. Obviously I am missing the secret snot ingredient which makes every pizza addictive to all children under the age of three.
So that was a week of coughing and night time sleep deprivation covered!
Big J says I should never take her there again, but surely if I just keep her at home till school age she will then get every bug going?!
Maybe we could get her a little oxegen chamber to live in…..hmmmm…
What would you do?… Friday baby club ban? or bring on the germs?
Am I just being paranoid or should we protect our kids as much as we physically can? Inquiring minds (namely mine) need to know XXXX
PS.. Please forgive the whingey, rather jaded tone of this post, All normal frivolity, smiles and shiny buttons should resume shortly, after some sleep and perhaps wine 
XXXX
PPs… Milly has now made a full recovery and has gone back to terrorizing her brother and sisters…YAY!!! 
Am afraid Im of the old school, keep going to Friday Baby Group, keep having fun and keep catching bugs. You are building up a good immune system for your daughter this way, same as we were told as kids to go play in the garden and” eat worms”.
As much as you may want to , you cannot protect her by wrapping her up , you are actually doing more to protect her by exposing her to life and all that it entails.
Love her with all your heart and enjoy the bad with the good, being a Mum is the most important job anyone has in this world.
Ah so true mel! and your right of course, just a little hard sometimes….
x
thats one vote for bay sick group on friday then
Mmmh, “lovely”. Just the thought of eating someone else’s bogeys.
hay Maggy, nice to “see” u here! I am glad it was the bogeys that got you commenting ;D hehehe XXXX
I think I need to be sick …… As you well know with all your experience of children its a necessary evil and it does pass. Not nice at all when they are poorly sick though. Glad she is all better… Until the next time . Keep taking her, the more she can be exposed to at young age the better. It only starts all over again when they go to school !!!Hugs xxx
Hehehe! sorry for making you feel ill Karen, was it the bogey talk or my dream about Dec?!
I know what you mean about necessary evil, but Jack & Ellie just never seemed to get this sick. Its odd because she eats much fresher foods than the other two did, but she only ever eats a tiny bit of anything so maybe that’s it? Or maybe she has now had her fair share and will be germ free till school time, here’s hoping XXXX
That really puts the ICK into icklebabe
but don’t you dare stop coming, I’d have to fend all the germs off by myself! The only reason Henry didn’t get it this time is that we’ve had it before from somewhere else. Hopefully next time Milly will be super immune…
Poor you, it sounds like you’ve really been through it and sickness is particularly nasty (not to mention messy). So glad she’s back to normal.
Much love xxx
thanku lovely Sara! i think she is back to fighting fit so see u tomorrow…and bring on the germs! ;D xxxx