Normal is Nice

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that Colton recently fought a hard battle against strep and the flu.  What I didn't mention was how absolutely terrifying and sad the whole experience was for me, first time mom.  I am sure many of you can relate, but the sight of my usually peppy baby boy just laying there was just heartwrenching.  I wanted nothing more than to snap my fingers and make him all better or even put his sickness into my own body so he would be pain free, but it literally took days (about 10 actually) for baby boy to get back to full strength. 
While I oftentimes complain about the hectic pace of our life these days, when Colton was under the weather and slowed down, I yearned desperately for the craziness of our normal lives.  I wanted to see baby boy playing and causing mischief, I wanted to pick up his piles of toys, and mostly, I wanted to see his smiling, happy face.

poor sick baby boy

In those agonizing days, I learned a lot of lessons.  If you are a veteran mom, these are probably obvious to you, and if you're not yet a parent, this is probably of no interest to you, BUT if you are a new mommy like me, I'm hoping these may offer a little bit of assistance if and when you find yourself in the sad situation I was last week:
1.  Trust your instinct.  Colton never ran a fever, but I knew in my gut that something was not right with baby boy so I stayed home from work.  Within a couple hours, not only was it obvious that he was indeed sick, but that it was something we needed to go to the doctor for.  Yep...strep and the flu.  Good thing I listened to myself.
2.  Stock up on Pedialyte, bananas, applesauce, and Cheerios.  That was the entirety of Colton's diet for a good week while his little belly kicked the nasties out.  Needless to say we went through quite a bit of all of them and had to keep heading back to the store.  Next time, I will just try to buy them in bulk the first time!
3.  Be patient and stay strong.  I hate sickness of all kind...it scares the poo out of me (no pun intended).  Like I said, I just wanted to snap my fingers and make baby boy all better.  But, I learned, it takes time to get over the ickies, especially when you have a little 10-month old body.  For me, it wasn't changing the constant diapers that got old, it was just constantly hoping that it would be the last.  It was stressful to say the least, but Josh and I knew baby boy was depending on us to take good care of him, so we kicked it into high gear.
4.  Take the time off. I am so fortunate to work somewhere my coworkers and principal not only totally understood that I would stay home with my baby boy, but expected me to.  I couldn't have imagined trying to go to work in those days when my mind was so occupied with Colton.

Now that normalcy has resumed around here, I can honestly say I have never been so happy to be picking up toys and chasing after my bundle of energy.