snot another ear infection!

Carrying on from our previous conversation, "Snot so Bad" ...

We're back from the doctor again. Asa has his third ear infection since the new year and we've been told our assessment that he is pretty much sick for all but one week a month is just typical. According to our doctor, babies and kids go through a phase of catching between 7 ~12 colds per year for roughly two years. Each cold generally lasts between one to two weeks, so they are sick basically half the year and are either on the mend or on the road to being sick for the other half. This either happens when they are babies and starting daycare as is our case, or when they start playschool as a three year old, or for the hyper-sheltered I suppose it wouldn't start until kindergarten.

So if you missed that small detail, babies are sick about half a year each year for two years. So by the time our son turns two he will have spent half of his life sick with a cold. How f*cked up is that? And on a more selfish note, as his parents, it will mean that we've spent about a year of our life feeling sicker than we have since we were babies ourselves.

At any rate, babies get sick, their parents get sick, and some how we muddle through and learn to laugh at the copious amounts of dried and fresh snot that cover all exposed skin and toys in our home.

snot that bad

Asa has a cold. Again. It had been about two weeks since he fully recovered from his previous cold so I guess I should have expected that he come down with something again soon. In our house I'd say we average one cold per month, with each cold lasting one to two weeks. So in any given four week period we have at least one week of misery, one week of health and two weeks of the in between stage.

Months ago, before he had caught his first cold, I was dreading it. What would we do for a sick baby? How do we blow his nose? What if his fever is too high? What if he starts wheezing? Or gets whooping cough? Or typhoid fever? Or rubella? Silly first time mommy, overreacting, what were you thinking? He got his first cold and it was so sad and pathetic but we all made it through with flying colors (snot of yellow and green) and not a hint of deadly disease (thank you God).

Now here we are, on our I don't know, 7th cold, and it's old hat. The snot runs like water from a fountain. The cough gags him and his little face turns red from the effort of hacking. He sneezes mouthfuls of food all over us. I have a thin layer of dried snot and food smeared over my neck and chest. He runs a fever and wants to cuddle with us until the Tylenol (thank you God and Science for inventing acetaminophen) kicks in. And then, a few days later, all we're left with is some snot and a case of the snuggles.

Well that and a sick mommy and daddy who can barely muster the energy to take care of themselves much less a baby who is nearing full strength and is interested in climbing stairs, banging on flat screen tv's and dvd players, and sticking his finger into the test socket for our carbon monoxide alarm.

People keep telling me its a blessing to get it all over with now because once Asa is in his school he'll never miss a day, having been exposed to all this so young. I guess they are right but in the meantime, pass me a tissue my nose is running.