Last weekend Mr. B. and I were both struck down with a horrible infection. High fever, stomach cramps, swollen tonsils, headache, muscle ache... you know the score. It was horrific. One of the worst viruses etc. that I've ever experienced.
But despite the illness we still managed to take Lara to a 4th birthday soft-play party and take the girls out to the park to let off some steam. It made me realise that once you have kids, getting better from a cold or virus is so much harder because you can't just curl up in bed and wait for it to pass. Someone has to be functioning as a human being in order to look after the kids.
Looking after young children when you are both so unwell is pretty damn hard. I think we were very lucky that Mr. B.'s symptoms were always running about 4-5 hours behind mine so while I was feeling my worst, he was able to mind the children and vice versa. If this hadn't been the case, I suspect we would have had to call the grandparents for help!
It reminded me a bit of a hangover. Not just the nausea, disorientation and pervasive headache but also the fact that I have only ever been hungover while on child-duty twice since becoming a Mum and I know it is not a good place to be; you just HAVE to get through it - survival instinct kicks in to get you through. A hangover is self-inflicted but you can't escape a virus like this and the same survival instinct has to kick in.
Thankfully, the infection ran its course in 3 days and now I'm back to normal. Woop.
