While my father in law was visiting us in Florida from Wisconsin a few weeks ago, the plan was that my we were all going to take our dude Max to the Packers game in Jacksonville, but our little bug came down with the world’s most horrid tummy bug. My friend at work said her mom used to call it “a cold in your colon”. Mommy and Max had to stay home, and Max had to miss his first NFL game. Instead he napped on mommy for most of the day.
I had a business trip early the next week so my husband had to work from home for a two days. As soon as I got back, my husband had to leave the next day for his business trip so then I had to work from home for three days. Our dude had a great appetite and was drinking a ton so we weren’t too worried about him getting dehydrated, though managing diaper rash was quickly becoming a top priority. My husband and I are both lawyers and working from home with a mobile 11 month old is no joke. We would close ourselves off in our family/movie room upstairs that is the most baby proof room in the house, respond as we could to emails, and work feverishly the second he would go down for a nap, and then late into the night after Max went to bed.
Nevertheless, we all enjoyed our time at home together and Max had plenty of time to learn about how to free the doggies from their cages.
The second weekend of the world’s longest tummy bug, we thought that it would surely clear up with the next diaper change. It did not. Max’s favorite teacher at daycare was texting to check on her little guy, and the front office let me know that about half the kids in his class had come down with this thing! Notwithstanding Max seemed to be very happy and eating and drinking well, daycare doesn’t allow babies with a “cold in their colon” to go to school, and with good reason obviously as we didn’t want this thing to spread either.
I called his pediatrician’s office to be safe and his nurse assured me that this thing was going around and told me when to call back if needed, but that didn’t change the fact that work was not going to be quite so forgiving for a second week. That second Sunday we sheepishly asked my mom to fly down from Pennsylvania to Florida to babysit Max until he was better. She usually babysits my niece now that she’s retired, so pap pap had to take off work and had big shoes to fill too!
With my mom on her way, we relaxed a little and played the day away in Max’s new kiddie pool. My mom had been telling me to get one for months, and our water baby really enjoyed getting to splash and play on his own.
My mom stayed here 3 more days until this thing was gone! We are so incredibly lucky to have an amazing family that is willing to just pick up and leave at the drop of a hat. Living so far away, I know my mom enjoyed getting baby snuggles and one-on-one time with Max. (That being said, I know my mother in law would kill to come down to be with him too, but she was on vacation!)
Finally at the end of last week Maxy returned to school and the world returned to its normal order . I never in my life thought I could talk about, look at, and judge poop as if it was in a beauty pageant. Yet, we survived tummy bug number two.
Now on to surviving Max learning how to climb up the stairs!
How is he doing this before he’s a year old?!
And yes, I started this post with him in a Packers jersey, and ended it with him being in a Steelers jersey. I’m from Pennsylvania and have been a Steelers fan forever, so Max grows up in a house divided. That being said the way the Steelers played on Sunday I understand if he picks green this year (but just this year).