Poor Second Baby

Our house is currently in survival mode. The cause? A sick baby. I'm so grateful for the weekend since my husband is home to help keep the ship upright, if not on its usual course.

It all started in the wee hours of Friday morning, Mini Muffin woke up with a miserable stomach bug. Luckily it passed and by Friday afternoon she was back to normal except for reduced appetite. Early afternoon though, Little Smiling Man seemed a bit off. Shortly thereafter he developed a low grade fever. By dinner time he was miserable and the fever was high grade. Hubby got home and I spent hours sitting in the dark, comforting him, and most of the night either rocking him or with him asleep on my chest. Saturday he bounced from fine to feverishly miserable on a whim as we tried to keep him comfortable, allow a low grade fever to do its job but not let a high grade fever take over, and of course keep the toddler fed and busy.

In my hours of holding my little sleeping furnace, who seems to wake crying if I even think about putting him down, I have found myself reflecting on sickness in our house since Mini Muffin was born almost two and a half years ago. The differences between her and her little brother's experiences are significant.

Mini Muffin caught her first cold at five months, and a second one around eight months.  We stayed home and cuddled her better. We avoided any kid with even the slightest runny nose at play group. And, she stayed pretty much healthy. Mini Muffin had her first high fever at one year three weeks, her first week of daycare. And, every few weeks for months thereafter she had a fever, cold, flu or all of the above. Mama looked after her, or grandma came to help out so mama could go to work. It was tough, and I cursed those daycare bugs, and the parents that sent their kids to daycare sick to infect my baby. Finally, it seemed like she'd built up her immunity and the frequency of illness thankfully dropped off. These days, she's a pretty healthy kid with (what I suspect to be) a pretty strong immune system.

Little Smiling Man, however, has had all the bugs his sister carries around to contend with.  He had his first cold at three weeks, and I'm not actually sure how many more he's had over the months.  He gets through it as we're out and about at parks, playgroups, or other activities.  They really don't seem to have much of an effect on his mood at all.  And, I'm careful to keep his drooled on toys away from the healthy babies around him.  When Mini Muffin is under the weather we do our best with hygiene, and avoiding the kisses and licks (yes, licks) that Mini Muffin loves to give her brother.  It's a rather futile battle though.  When he was small, I could baby wear, or have him out of her reach.  These days, he's all about exploring via rolling, scooching and crawling backwards.  There's really no protecting him from his sister's germ-ridden love.  And so, he had his first fever at 7.5 months.  Poor second baby.

I am, however, hopeful that all of these sniffles and warm foreheads are building up one wicked immune system.  And, maybe there's an end in sight to the incessant bugs floating around our house.  A mama can hope, right?