When you get sick, it’s not like back in your childless days when you could spend as long as you needed lying in bed, watching reality TV marathons, only propping your head up now and again to safely spoon-feed yourself chicken soup so you wouldn’t dribble it on your duvet.
Nope, now that you’ve got kids to take care of, there will be no sick days for you. You’ve got to get up, make them breakfast, play with them, carpool, just like a regular day.
It’s in these moments that DayQuil and NyQuil come in really handy, which is why I partnered with them on their #NoSickDays campaign to create 24 hours in the life of a sick parent. A few weeks back, I asked my readers on the Mommy Shorts Facebook page to submit pictures of the things they still had to do while they were under the weather. Which is, of course, basically, EVERYTHING.
Each one of the 24 chosen photos below gets a $50 Amex gift card and I’m giving away an even bigger prize ($500!!!) for commenting under this post. But before we get to the giveaway…
Here are 24 Hours in the Life of a Sick Parent that were featured yesterday on the @NyQuilDayQuil twitter account:
DayQuil/NyQuil Severe relieves your worst cold & flu symptoms so moms and dads can go back to doing the things we love (and the things we don’t) for our families. Dayquil Severe fights symptoms to help you stay alert and on your feet during the day while Nyquil helps you sleep and recharge for the next day. Because, NEWS FLASH, you can’t take tomorrow off either!
GIVEAWAY: $500 AMEX GIFT CARD
1) To enter, you must be a Mommy Shorts subscriber. If you are not already a subscriber, you can become one here.
2) Then leave a comment under this post talking about a personal #NoSickDays experience when you had to power through in the name of your kids. Fun times!
You can read the full rules here.
Winner will be selected randomly and announced on March 3rd.
Good luck!
Winner Update:
Congrats to $500 Amex Gift Card winner Robin! Please contact pam@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize.
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If you were one of the 24 photos featured in this blog post, please contact pam@mommyshorts.com to claim your $50 prize! Please put the time stamp of your photo in the subject so we know which one is yours.
This post was sponsored by NyQuil/DayQuil but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Ugh. The worst is when you and your two beautiful children are sick but they haven’t lost there abundance of energy. Meanwhile I feel like I’ve been hit with a train and need a nap desperately. Snot and coughs and inconsistent napping. A mothers worst nightmare. Hope everyone feels better soon, hate cold season.
Current situation…. 3 year old sick with cough… Ear infection… And pink eye… 2 days later I get chillis….body pain…. And pink eye…thank goodness its Friday…. Oh wait we dont get weekend off either…But I’ll still do anything for these kiddos..
I usually just lay on the couch with the tv on, and make sure enough toys are out. I have chronic sinus problems, so I’m sick with headaches and sinus pain a lot.
This has been my entire week! I got out the huge tub of Playmobils (you know, the ones with ten jillion TEENY TINY pieces) just so my kid would entertain himself quietly and let me lay on the couch for an hour. (It’s okay, I trust the kid not to consume said tiny toys)
As a single mom I can remember countless times that my babies have been sick and I had to stay home with them while I was sick myself. Throwing up and trying to console your 5 year old who is also throwing up is a hard deal. Love keeps you going!!
My daughter contracted Norovirus when she was only a year old. Then I got it, then Daddy got it. Thankfully my husband got the least severe case, so he was able to make runs for Gatorade. I was thankful she just wanted to snuggle because all I could do was nurse her and change diapers.
I am a single mom. I am home with a sinus infection – complete with runny nose and sinus headache – while my baby boy is doing some serious teething. We have 6 teeth coming in all at the same time. Lots of crying, snot, and sleeping here….at least the baby is sleeping. Hoping this passes quickly for the two of us.
I am currently home with my “sick” daughter and I started to fall asleep on the couch while she laid with me. Then she kept waking me up as I fell asleep, but she would show me her cute smile and make me feel better too!
Last spring we all ended up with a stomach bug. I was first to get it. I woke up in the middle of the night and was in the bathroom. Thor horrific sounds of my wrenching woke up my 3 year old and he was outside the bathroom door crying and shaking with fear! Every time I got sick after that he ran out of the room totally freaked out! I did also have to tell them far too many times not to jump on the bed I was laying on!
I’d say it’s just hard trying to function, keep them happy, and on top of all that try to keep whatever you’re sick with from spreading to them!
Recently my newborn baby, husband and I all got a nasty cold. My baby still wasn’t on any sort of schedule as he was only 3 weeks old and so he was doing some serious cluster feedings throughout the night once the cold kicked in. I breastfeed so it was all up to me to get up every 80 minutes to feed comfort change and sooth my baby to sleep all while listening to my dear husband snore away. Then each morning when my husband would wake up he’d look at me and say how bad he slept and I’d have to pretend not to want to punch him 🙂
My 2.5 yr old and I both caught a two day stomach bug where we couldn’t keep anything down. Not even water! We threw up every hour and on top of that I have a 4 month old that I exclusively breast fed! With no food in my stomach I was terrified how I would feed my baby. Hugging the toilet bowl every hour and forcing myself to keep anything down, water, soup, Gatorade, pedialyte, so I could produce milk was a nightmare ! My 2.5 yr old was on the up when I was at my worst so from seeing how I comforted him while throwing up the day before he would pay my back (very hard) and tell me “its otat mom” as I was throwing up. And when I was done he would say “yay” (like we do after potty time since we are in potty training right now) ugh! Thank God my 4 month old didn’t catch it, I attribute most of that to praying and my breastmilk! 🙂
Definitely going through this right now. My 8 year old daughter caught the influenza b this week. Then I started to feel sick also. Come to find out I also caught the influenza b! Today my 2 year old woke up with a fever. Hoping she doesn’t have it either. This is the first year we didn’t the flu shot and we end up getting it! I feel horribly sick, but the show must go on! There is no resting time for moms. Lunch, dinner, grocery shopping, picking up kids from schools, it never stops! Wouldn’t trade it for the world! 🙂
Two parents, one 18 month old and the worst flu in the history of the world. I puke in the car, 10 minutes later baby pukes on the front steps. 15 minutes after that, Daddy pukes in the bathtub. For three days, we changed diarrhea diapers with nausea and the chills. We made pedialyte ice chips and soaked through blankets with perspiration. We called our neighbors to leave 7-up and Saltines on the front porch. We checked temperatures and checked in with the advice nurse. All of this after family flu shots a few weeks prior! We made it through as a family and hopefully we’ll only get sick one at a time from now on!
When my daughter got the stomach flu last month wasn’t fun still have to go to work and couldn’t find nobody to cover for me and ended up working at least half a day coming back to her washing the sheets because she had a moment but she didn’t want me to wash on because they’re her favorite how did tricker into getting her to get them in the washer and just when they were nice and dry putting them in her bed she did it again wash them again do it all over and I was the bad one for the day and just before the day was over I got sick too how to keep taking care of her just wanting to go to bed and go to sleep #nosickday
I volunteered to host my first Thanksgiving this past year. That morning my toddler woke up with a fever and slowly got worse throughout the day. We decided to power through and let her rest as much as possible while I cooked. Needless to say by the time everyone showed up for dinner, I was now running a fever and feeling pretty puny. The next two days my daughter was sick but started getting better. I got worse. Overall I was sick for 2 weeks and she just didn’t understand. Add in her working on cutting her last molars, no sleep, and wanting to crawl under the bed and not come back… It was a long 2 weeks.
Last week I had to have emergency gallbladder removal surgery while caring for four under six. I’ve never been in so much pain in my life. Still has to do all my mommy duties.
I had that the week before Christmas! Good luck and I hope you feel better soon!!
Nothing is as much fun as the flu with a toddler. After my tiny guy was up all night with horrible diarrhea, I got violently ill early in the morning. As I sat on our bedroom floor trying to relieve myself from the dizzy spell, I knew I was going to vomit. I dumped out a bucket of toys and began to unleash the beast. My son started to cry, so I had to reach over and hold his hand with one hand and the bucket with the other. In between heaves I had to reassure him, with spit laced puke coming from my nose, that everything was alright.
The best kicker? Dad was 2 months in on a 6 month deployment.
No reinforcements for this Mama!
Dont you just love it when they bring home these bugs and everyone in the house gets it? Funny thing is, my daughter is over it in a day and I’m still coughing and dragging around a week later. But still got to play baby for the 20th time today. Playing baby requires me carrying around my 3 year old like a newborn. And her favorite part, pretending that she can’t talk! Ugh! It’s so annoying.
Being sick with a newborn is just awful!
I had mastitis four times in one year! It’s so hard to get up off the couch with a fever and chills. Extra pumping on top of everything else trying to get it to go away! Miserable couple of days!
In January we spent two weekends in a row passing along sickness. Our son caught a nasty cold at childcare and mommy subsequently got it the DAY AFTER he started feeling better… Than daddy got it the DAY AFTER mommy started to feel better. Then, literally two days after my husband kicked the cold our son woke up puking in the middle of the night and we played flu-roulette all over again #NoSickDays
My whole family has been sick this whole week. My wife had to stay home with our 7 and 15month old and I had to power through work and power through the night with all four of us sick not to mention work one more day 6 days a week!
When the youngest was still a breastfed only baby, our oldest, my husband and I all got the stomach flu. We only have one bathroom which my husband claimed so my daughter and I both had to use buckets (yuck). Every time I would start vomiting my daughter would start screaming at me to stop, I tried to imagine she was cheering me on. Thankfully my parents happened to be visiting from out of state so they took the baby and would sneak in when he needed to nurse even though I was severely dehydrated. It was one of our most challenging 24 hours and I don’t know what we would have done if my parents weren’t visiting. The house was disgusting afterward and my mom helped me clean it, talk about always having to be a parent.
My husband was home for a week with the flu so my 7month old daughter & I went to hide out at my parents. He’s finally feeling better, so we come home & now I have the flu. Not only do I have to still be mommy to an overly active 7 month old but I am also 3 months pregnant. #nosickdays
Two winters ago all 3 of my kids and I had the stomach flu. In between cleaning up their’s I was running to the bathroom to get rid of my own. We all camped out in my king-sized bed for 2 days, watching “Wreck It Ralph” (ha!) on repeat because I didn’t have the energy to get up and change it. Needless to say, I can no longer stand to watch that movie.
They are too sick to go to school..you have to take off from work and stay home with them…yet they don’t ACT sick, they still have all of the energy in the world. I wish I felt like that when I am SICK.
Being sick while having to take care of a toddler is hard enough, but this past winter I had the joy of being very pregnant and sick while taking care of my toddler. All she wanted me to do was sit on the ground and then get up and get her something then sit down again and then go get something else. And of course I did it but there were plenty of grunts and lots of panting going on.
I have 2 that stick out the most.
The first: I was 24 weeks pregnant, on strict hospital bedrest with preterm labor and serious dehydration. I was laying in bed with an IV fluid drip when my husband came to visit with my 1.5 year old twins. I thought he was being cute popping in for a visit. Nope, he needed me to make our youngest son eat. I have a picture of me laying in bed hooked up to IVs and a contraction monitor spoon feeding my toddler.
The second: my 3 year old daughter brought home a nasty stomach bug and spread it around. Somehow missing my husband. He didn’t want to catch it so spent a weekend in a puke covered bed taking care of an infant and 3 year old twins all while sick with the same stomach bug.
My daughter got sick overnight with a stomach bug and kept me up all night. I was lucky enough to step in some of it that I’d missed the next morning 🙁 Even better, I came down with it later in the day!
I’m pregnant with baby #2. I was never sick with my first, but this time I am. The first morning I was hugging the toilet as my 16month old walked in and threw up all over the rug beside me. I like to think it was sympathy pains. But we spent all day cuddled in bed:)
Although I told my husband something was much more wrong with me than your average stomach virus when I was barfing at 4 a.m., he kissed my cheek, told me to suck it up, and headed to work. I continued to barf until my 10 month old woke up at 8 a.m. I then proceeded to somehow feed her breakfast and turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, while constantly going to the bathroom to throw up and deal with the stomach pain. By noon I couldn’t handle it anymore, so I called my mom and told her I thought I had appendicitis and needed to go to the ER. She was (conveniently) at work, so I had to pack up my 10 month old daughter with enough stuff to last what I figured would be atleast 24 hours of me being in the hospital (which is half the house). I then had to load her in the car (see also: wrestle a baby alligator) and drive an hour to meet my mom to drop my daughter off. After a short stint in the ER (I think my throwing up loudly in a bag moved things along), I was diagnosed with appendicitis and scheduled for emergency surgery. Hubby made it to the hospital from work 30 minutes before they wheeled me back. Needless to say, he was in the dog house for a while.
This past Christmas my first grader brought a tummy bug home! Merry Christmas to us! We were gathered for the weekend at my in laws to celebrate, 19 people in total. Slowly they went down. First some of the kids, then there parents. What was a 6-12 hr tummy bug for the kids knocked the parents out for 24-36 hrs! Me and one other adult made it out alive that weekend. Between the 2 of us we did lots of cleaning, disinfecting, and feeding the recovered patients. Proving parents get #nosickdays or #holidaysoff.
Last year, I had a 9 month old and was pregnant with baby #2. A stomach bug hit our house with full force! Being pregnant is hard enough, but pregnant with a bug is the worst! Even though it was coming out of both ends, and all I wanted to do was lay down for hours and sleep, I had to persevere for my daughter and make sure her fever stayed down and clean up all the throw up and dirty diapers. Mommy-ing is hard but always worth it!
The worst #nosickday I’ve had was when I was about 8 months pregnant with my third baby and I had a 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 yr old. I had already been so tired and on top of it got a chest cold. Plus it was winter time so there was no go run around the yard. Lots of sensory play in the bathtub and “special” time on the couch watching shows during that long week!
Not too long ago I had a terrible stomach bug. I couldn’t eat or drink anything without having to run to the bathroom to puke my guts out.
Every time I would run to the bathroom my 3 year old son would hold my hand until I finished. After he made sure I was ok, he would look at me and say, “you conductor Mami now”, and hand me his Thomas the train. Yes, I had to be. #nosickdays
Last year all dressed and ready to go out on date night 2 year old starts a tantrum as I pick her up she projectile vomits all over kitchen floor hubby standing near acts “quick” taking her from my hands running across the entire kitchen to the sink yup while she’s still committing all through the kitchen and of course she’s all done by the time he’s at the kitchen sink.????????
I’m not a mom but I am a nanny. And we don’t get sick days either. The parents rely on us to come in sick or not to care for their children. And most times it’s also because we got sick from our charges so we’re sick caring for sick kids, that aren’t ours! But we do it because we love them as if they were ours! ❤️
We are just now recovering from a week-long stint of being under the weather with a two-year-old in tow. Holy Mother.
I am 5 months pregnant and have been with my husband for ten years. In all the years we’ve been together, we’ve never fallen ill at the same exact time except for NOW– when we have a tornado running through the house and while I’m growing a human. Why now? WHY NOW.
We’ve tried taking turns all week hiding from crocodiles, sword fighting robots and fire-breathing dragons, all while feeling like absolute death. While the hubs is downing Nyquil/Dayquil like it’s his job, I’m over here wondering why pregnancy sometimes has to be so cruel. I’ve never wanted a Nyquil cocktail so badly in my life.
Ultimately by day three we had given up and given into the *GASP* near-24-hour screen time between the iPad and TV. Seriously, how did parents do this before? My son was perfectly content watching cartoons or playing games while we got to rest on the couch intermittently.
This has been the longest week of my life…and as I write this, nap time has come to an abrupt end. Time to go again…
My husband was helping me recover from massive surgery, setting his alarm to be up every 4 hours to give me medication, changing my bandages, and (of course) our kids ended up with the flu.
One puked all over our bed and he had to clean it up, another one puked into the clean Diahwasher while he was trying to unload it and the last one puked in the hallway and created what we affectionately called Puke Lake because he had to walk through it in order to get to the towels and cleaning supplies.
He can’t tolerate the sound, sight or smell of throw up but because I was unable to take care of the kids he powered through like a stud and even took care of me because I couldn’t! Dad of the year!
Try being sick with the stomach flu with a newborn, twin 1.5 year olds and trying to pump and breastfeed ????. Would definitely call in if I could lol
My husband works 12am-8am so during the day he sleeps, I have to either try my best to keep my girls quite or take them out. Well one day my girls (I have a 2yr old and a 10 months old) and I were sick, they didn’t want to be out but they also didn’t want to be in the house, they basically didn’t know what they wanted, I had no idea what to do besides to just sit there and cry with them. After we were done crying my girls fell asleep, I realized no of my chores were done, so instead of napping with them I had to clean. Not a good day at all ????
So far I haven’t been sick enough to warrant husband to call in to work, but I certainly haven’t gotten a sick day since my wedding week 7 years ago. The last two years have been dealing with a child and her various illnesses that have come with the nastiest of diapers!
I’ve been sick numerous times (obviously, my daughter is 10) but this is the worst. I ended up with the worst migraine of my LIFE. And there was a school project due the next day. So, from the floor of the bathroom I begged my husband to go pick up my migraine meds from the pharmacy. After he left, I still had to help help her finish up the project and listen to her practice her oral report about it. UGH.
We just moved in to a new home and boxes were stacked everywhere. We were miles and miles away from friends and family and didn’t know anyone so we didn’t have any help. My husband was working 3rd shift and no help either. I had gotten a stomach bug and was trying to care for our then 5 month old and unpack so that we could “live”. The only position that was comfortable for me to move around in was doubled over (I could not stand up straight). I would put our daughter on a blanket and pull her from room to room as I got through the day. ????
Birthday party at Chuck E Cheese on Valentine’s Day. 4 year old stricken with a Stomache flu the next day and finally masters the sit on toilet puke in trash routine after destroying 3 pairs of underwear. The 13 month spends a good deal of the day in her cage of protection ( play pen). I wash my hand until they look like dried up old prunes. I sanitize the entire house while I force my husband to entertain our 13 month old. Husband does his best to continue avoiding us all but I won’t let him. 4 year wakes up hungry, won’t eat anything except cinnamon rolls. Then I start to feel nauseous… Husband goes of to work as healthy as a horse.. Wish me luck. #nosickdays
Last February my 2 kids and I all had a stomach bug at the same time. It was 5 days of vomit and diarrhea HELL! I’ve tried, but failed to completely forget all the icky details of that week. I still shudder at the thought. Ugh! #nosickdays
My boys are mine and my wife’s world. But lately, they have been the craziest they’ve ever been. 4 1/2 & 2 years old. My youngest realized he doesn’t need to be bullied anymore and really fights back now when he gets picks on by his older brother. I call them our little “Bulls.” The nice thing is, when they are nice to each other, they are the sweetest little angels. I’m not a mom, but my wife and I both love you’re Instagram page and can really relate to literally everything that is posted. To win the gift card would mean the world to us. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Have a great one.
I was sick and kids had 2 snow days and it was so bad. I basically let them rule the house, but they are 9, 8 and 5 and still wanted hot chocolate and food every 2 hours. But they were not all on the same 2hour cycle!
I had the worst cold of my life over the Christmas holiday. It was a nightmare to deal with my 7 month old baby’s needs, and also go through the motions of all the holiday activities with my extended family. NOT how I envisioned spending my child’s first Christmas! #miserable
There are too many times I’ve powered through mommy-ing over the last 20 years, but last month was probably the worst. I don’t get sick often and even when I do I can usually deny it well enough that it’s not too bad, but last month I got a head and chest cold that knocked me on my butt. But despite hacking up both lungs and running a fever I still had to drive my 20 year old non-driver back and forth to the hospital to visit a friend in critical care, console, listen, and advise her while she struggled with the severity of her friend’s injuries. I still had to teach (and learn) robotics to my 8 year old homeschooled daughter. I still had to entertain and keep up with my exuberant 4 year old son. I still had to potty train and cuddle my 2 year old daughter. Oh and the latter two also had the cold so I got to stay up all night with them while they coughed and ran fevers. Yay for #nosickdays
Just got over a 3 week long round of sickness. First me, then the 6 year old then the toddler and the infant and then me again! So much snot! And whining! So thankful for cold medicine. And so glad we’re over it all, hopefully for a long time!
When my baby was 3 months old I got the flu and was in bed for a few days but still had to nurse her in between throwing up and trying to rest up by keeping her entertained on an activity may on my bed. At least she got my antibodies and she didn’t get sick!
I got sick with a nasty cold right after Christmas and was almost thankful my 8-month-old wasn’t quite crawling yet. It lasted over a week! Thankfully I got better for our vacation with husband’s family, only for one of their kids to get us sick all over again. For the next week and a half, I barely could swallow with my swollen tonsils, baby coughed so hard he puked every time he ate (I had to laundry like twice a day b/c we kept running out of clean clothes), AND he learned how to crawl and get into everything all at the same time! To top it all off, right after we all started to get back to normal, my husband who claims to never get sick came down with pink eye AND a double ear infection. It was almost a month straight of sick in my house.
It’s been a bad winter in our house I feel like my kids (my daughter is 4 and my son is 10 months) have had colds since October. The most recent cold started a few weeks ago and I got it too and it’s just sticking around forever. I’m not surprised I got it since I’m always wiping their noses and they cough on me all the time. All I wanted to do was stay in bed but they haven’t slowed down they just keep going. I would love to take Nyquil/Dayquil but I’m still breastfeeding so I haven’t been taking anything.
My #nosickdays recent experience was taking my toddler for a weekend to visit friends… and coming down with a fast and furious 24hr stomach bug at their house. Lost my everything in our friends’ toilet and then had to drive my toddler home an hour later on our two hour drive to prevent additional contamination …and to make sure that when toddler got sick, he got sick at home. Driving while nauseated, weak, and wondering if we were going to have to pull over to the side of the road was a definite #nosickdays reality check.
The first time I had a mommy #nosickdays kind of day was when I was pregnant with my second child. My daughter was about 18 months at the time and my husband was off for a month in the field for the Army. She was throwing up, I was throwing up, my family was 800 miles away, and I didn’t know anyone well enough from the military to let them experience our bodily functions and help me out. Let’s just say my daughter and I did a lot of cleaning up, laundry, and a lot of Mickey Mouse!!
My baby is only 3 months old but being a breastfeeding mom getting sick and handling those late night/early morning feeding sure ain’t fun or easy!!
Currently sick. Last weekend the husband went and hung out with his buddies to watch college basketball. He came home very intoxicated and passed out, knowing that I was sick and needed him to take care of our son so I could rest. He only woke up the rest of the evening to throw up…. Moms never get a break!
Back during my 1st trimester (I’m in the 3rd), my daughter got a stomach bug in the middle of the night. We cleaned it up, then I took care of her all night and all day, then the following night I got it. Then the following day/night my other daughter got it. I was sick on top of pregnant sick taking care of 2 sick girls. It was lovely.
Today, when I had two pack up the toddler and the baby to get to the toddler’s checkup… Only to be told it’s next Friday.
On Wednesday last week, the stomach bug started to set in on me. It was tolerable at first. I just couldn’t really eat a whole lot. But then on Thursday, my 4 year old started with diarrhea. Then at dinner time, he literally filled his plate with puke. So disgusting. I had to work so hard to keep in my stomach contents. The next morning my husband left for Mexico and went on a plush turkey hunt with my father-in-law. On Sunday, I still wasn’t feeling the greatest, but had signed up to help with my son’s Sunday School class. So off to church we went. With daddy away, and a 1 and 4 year old this is no small feat. But half way through the service, I about lost it and we had to all go home. I was stuck on the toilet or sitting beside it the rest of the day. Thank goodness my mother in law watched my oldest while my youngest slept. My week on my own continued with both kids and myself not eating anything, endless trips to the bathroom, explosive poopy diapers, a broken dryer (so I couldn’t even dry all the poop covered things in a timely manner), and 4 inches of snow covered by an icy rain the next day. Yesterday I finally thought we were on the upswing, and my 1 year old was a bit too relaxed in the tub… Poop everywhere!!! Please let it be over! My husband comes home tomorrow. Thank goodness!!!
When I was preggo with #2 I was really really sick for the first 2 trimesters. Unfortunately #1 was 9 months when I got pregnant. So I had the pleasure of morning sickness while my baby watched from the baby gate on the bathroom door. Fun!
Last year on my daughter’s 6th birthday, I was so sick I couldn’t even get out of bed (I have NEVER been that sick!) Luckily my husband was able to take care of the kids for me, but I felt so bad that it was on her birthday, we still did presents, cake and ice cream, but no friends were allowed over (so they wouldn’t DIE). Just laying on the couch watching my family eat cake and ice cream was so awful, I just wanted to sleep through it! I went to bed right after :/
I did make it up to her the next week, I let her pick 2 friends and we all went bowling 🙂
I’m a single mom and three years ago I broke my ankle, my son was almost two at the time. Well we both ended up with the stomach flu. So not only was I not able to walk, I had to clean up my son’s throw up off the floor and try to make it to the bathroom myself. That was the worst!!!
Funny thing, my 18 month old and I have been sick for the past 3 days. Husband called out of work sick and has been laying on the couch all day while I do the dishes, feed the baby, run to the store with the baby (because he “needs a break.”) and then I finally had to drive around for almost 2 hours to get the kiddo to take ANY sort of nap! To boot, I finally got home and realized he took the last dayquil. #nosickdays for me…
I had to do 10 loads of laundry even though I had the flu!
Worst non-sick day ever was when I was working nights as an RN. Came home feeling sick after working all night, but stilk had my kids to take care of at home too. Pretty sure I just threw dry cereal at them all day, let them watch whatever they wanted on TV and prayed the plastic electric covers were intact. Happy to report they are still alive!
Last year my preschooler gave all of us hand foot and mouth disease. Including my husband, myself, my then-5-year-old, and then-2-month-old. I had to breastfeed a feverish baby who refused ibuprofen while I had a 103 degree fever myself, change diapers after losing all the skin off my hands. Oh and I had scabs covering my face for weeks from the rash, I was explaining to everyone everywhere I went about the virus because I was sure I looked like a meth addict. The skin on my hands and feet peeled for months and I was still losing finger and toenails 3 months later. Good times.
I was so fortunate to have healthy kids – we had very few sick days. Even worse, when you as mom, are sick. #NoRestForMom #NoSickDays experience
I have a one month old and caught a cold almost immediately after her birth (thanks to my toddler). Newborns don’t care about anything besides eating though and breastfeeding 12 times a day when you feel terrible is no fun. Powering through on very little sleep and very little medicine is your only option and you do it with a smile on your face because you’d do anything for your kids.
I have 3 children: 3 months old, 3 and 5 years old. They all were sick, my husband got it and everyone knows when a man is sick he’s dying and it’s the worst! Of course they shared the colds with me, but mommy work NEVER stops…nursing every 2 hours, diapers, pull ups, dishes, laundry, meals on the tables, lunches packed, and the list could keep going.
Currently I’m on day four of migraines mixed with cold symptoms. For the sake of my 15 month old, I’ve been playing all day and napping with him when I get the chance. Somehow he’s been happier these days (thankfully!) since usually he is competing with my working from home for my attention.
Ironically this was today: have a raging head and chest cold given to me by my lovely daughter and son,( who of course have since recovered), but have to power through Carnival day at school as a parent volunteer so that my daughter can still attend and have fun with her friends. Carnival day is held outdoors, in February, in Canada. It was 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and akin to herding cats (including my clingy 3 year-old). I think I now have pneumonia. Send Dayquil!
Today was that day. I’m 6 months pregnant so everyday has been pretty tough. But today I woke up feeling like I got ran over by a semi truck. My son had an assesment today for his speech and learning delay and I had to put on my mom pants and make the assessors believe that I could function like a normal human being. I think I did pretty well!
When my son was 9 months we tried to take him to his first MLB game, as soon as we parked he started puking. It was a long drive home. Of course after 48 hours of him getting sick and not sleeping I caught it as well. Those are the most tiring days, I want to cry thinking about it!
I’m currently sick with whatever crud seems to be taking everyone down, but I still had to take my son to the dentist to get two teeth pulled! Thought for sure the dentist was going to give me a mask to wear. 🙂
When my sinus infection hurt so bad to bend over and pick things up or even kiss my kid goodnight. It hurt my head so bad to do anything but especially bend over. I started to use my toes to pick things up so I didn’t have to bend over and I even made my kid reach up to me from his bed to give me a kiss good night so I didn’t need to bend down. The pressure was so bad!!!
I’m in the process of finishing nursing school and last December, 2 weeks before Christmas and right in the middle of finals my two kids who are 2 and 4 got the flu and pink eye and gave it to me. In the very same week we also moved into our brand new house. So I had to complete my finals and move my entire family all while having the flu and constantly washing my hands so I could make sure I avoided getting pink eye. It took me 3 weeks to make a full recovery but some how I managed to power through it, unpack the house, avoid pink eye, and get A’s on all of my finals, and have the house ready in time for Christmas
Having to wrangle three kids for the day. Trying hard not to throw up while getting up early to get my son into his wheelchair for the bus, then feeding my baby and getting my oldest ready and off to the bus stop. Daddy works over the road so being sick never falls on his home days. 🙁
Last month I got what felt like the flu and had to keep on trucking! I set up a playpen next to the couch for the baby and my 3 year old twins watched A LOT of tv! Of course they were boycotting naps that week so I had to forgo one too! I would pass out when daddy got home!
When I get sick I still have to do the normal routine. Kids still want me to play with them and their toys and get them food. When the hubby is sick, same goes for him I have to cater to their every need even if I’m about to pass out.. Joys of motherhood 🙂
I work at a nursing home, have one child in the public school system, and two children at daycare. If one of us brings a virus home, it never fails to cycle through our household. The worst one was last fall with a severe stomach bug that had kids erupting out of both ends. Occasionally I have flashbacks, but I mostly don’t recall the horrors because of sleep deprivation.
My husband and I are still keeping our fingers crossed that we don’t come down with the stomach bug our kids had last week.
2 years ago my then 2-yo and I both got the noro virus. It was terrible. Standing hurt, laying down hurt, we were vomiting and the whole 9 yards. Apparently my husband was too overwhelmed to console the baby, so in between trips to the bathroom I was comforting the both of them and changing diapers – though to do doubled over in pain! Longest 18 hours of my LIFE…
Tough* I meant!
I’m living mine as we speak. While playing bingo with my for year old two nights ago I felt a twinge of something my throat. In less than three hours I was fevery, achey and under the covers unable to swallow anything. Then about 2 am I was convinced I had full blown strep throat. i then decided to take some NyQuil (yay) which helped till 6 am to decide I wasn’t going to work. By 11 am I tested positive for strep. Thankfully my hubby got the kids to school but then I found out my 1 year old is not only the carrier but also has strep. So we’re both down for the count. My husband is the best but of course kids still need their mom. So not being able to love on my 4 year old has been hard but even harder haha is seeing how happy the 1 year old is and the fact that I want to chop my head and throat off from
This strep throat!
While home with our 2 year old trying to comfort her when she had hand foot and mouth disease, my husband came down with it too. He was confident that he wouldn’t get it because he had it as a child, but he was wrong, very, very, very wrong. He ended up missing 2 days of work because his feet were swollen so much he couldn’t put on shoes or walk if he was able to get flip flops on. I ended up having to stay home with both my husband and daughter and nurse them back to health. Our daughter enjoyed the cuddle time with mommy and daddy while daddy tried to put on a happy face and mommy took care of them both.
Me and my two little boys all got pneumonia last spring and my husband is a firefighter who works 24 hour shifts and goes to school (translate-almost never home). So, I basically had to care for two extremely sick kids by myself while also personally battling a fever and throwing up. No fun!!
Having to prepare a meal when I literally can’t taste anything and have zero appetite and just hoping the kids will eat it.
I had a nasty stomach virus last month. Couldn’t keep anything down. My husband is a nurse in a hospital and was on call at work. I had to find a way to wake the kids up, feed them, make sure they were dressed and drive them the 10 minutes to school all while I had to pull over 8 time on the way to throw up. My poor children had to help take care of me!
Never as a mom (yet) but I have had to drag myself out of bed and go to work for my patients. I work in Oncology and my patients need me – sick or not!
I’m a first time mom just coming off maternity leave, which meant my little one had to start daycare. Enter the germs! One week in and he had a nasty cold. Which, 24 hours later, he gave to me. Rock the baby, nurse the baby, wake up with the baby, try to comfort and make the baby feel better, all while wishing you could crawl into bed for 2 days! Good thing he’s adorable!
We’ve been dealing with a stomach bug in our house all week and I’ve gotten hit with the worst of it. I have a 20 month old little boy who is a ball of energy. It’s been a challenge trying to keep up with him and feeling like death at the same time.
This week was the first time I tried Dayquil and Nyquil and letmetellyou, it was a life-saver, literally. I was down with the flu while my oldest son was down with RSV. On Tuesday, I popped some nyquil before bed to take care of my chills and body aches, but when my son started to have an asthma attack a couple hours later, I woke up fully and was able to help administer his emergency meds. Nyquil was able to give me a sound sleep without completely knocking me out so that I could still be the mom I needed to be that night! I can’t believe it took me 31 years (and countless colds and flu’s) to try Nyquil or Dayquil, but I’m a believer now!
My worst #nosickdays day was when I had a flu with GI issues – my husband doesn’t get to take time off from work without a serious emergency (college professor) so I got to spend the day trying to balance the toddler and bathroom “breaks”. Easier said than done when the baby wants to be in the bathroom with mama, but I don’t want her seeing me vomit! Nothing quite like being feverish, achy and nauseous, fighting a migraine, and trying to coach yourself into getting up off the nice cool bathroom floor because the little is losing her mind on the other side of the door. Even with all of that, probably the worst part is knowing I was going to end up passing it on to the kid and having to take care of her sickness while still trying to recover from my own – those recovery days are impossible without Dayquil.
February 2013 – stomach bug hit our house. Myself, husband, almost 3 year old daughter, and 17 month old son all took turns over the course of 2 days. Husband and son had to been taken to the ER where I paced the hallways with my daughter who was feeling the best of anyone (and not thrilled about waiting around the hospital) and hold my poor, dehydrated baby. All while I was just feeling well enough to keep my head out of the toilet.
My experience as a parent being sick comes from day home. We’re going on month 3 of alternating between myself, my husband and our 3.5 year old and 16 month old daughters being sick from one thing or another. I really didn’t think you could have colds for this long! But I’m mastering the art of exactly when to give medicine, and when just water and cuddles will do. The girls think the doctors is a treat because it usually involves us stopping at a coffee place for caffeine and pastries before ensuring the hours long wait at the clinic.
I have been home sick with my twin boys for the last week.. It started two weeks ago with colds and left fairly quickly. All of a sudden this past weekend a new virus that’s been going around hit us like a truck. Dealing with the coughing, mucus and crying all while trying to find something they will eat or drink in conjunction with dealing with their fevers/symptoms, the “temporary medicine cure” and subsequent crash when it wears off is exhausting when healthy… Trying to deal with it all while sick is overwhelming at times. Without the help of NyQuil & DayQuil (and a super supportive husband when he gets home from work ????) I would have never gotten enough sleep or be able to deal with two sick kids plus the normal day to day things that go on during the week.
My 2 kids are 17 months apart and I swear when they’re sick they forget what sleep is. They had a nasty stomach bug for about 4 days not long ago and at age 1 and 2 it felt like I was changing nappies 24/7. They would wake up after 2 hours sleep with red raw bums and then stay awake for a few hours and repeat. No naps through the day when sick either but full of energy.
They felt better and then I was struck down with it. The first night they slept through I was up every hour shaking and stuck in the toilet. Lost 1.5kg overnight!
It’s one of those times I’m glad I’m a single mum though, if my ex had it he would’ve been worse than the kids and I put together!
My parents came to the rescue with nausea tablets and more hydralyte so that I could look after the kids thankfully
I was having “stomach” issues for awhile, and on my days off from work all I wanted was rest and relaxation! But being the mom of a busy 2 yr old came with the understanding that that was just a happy little daydream 🙂 Fighting for the covers in the morning endless tea parties at lunch and inconvenient nap times during my productive hrs were part of the job. She’s so cute it was hard to be upset about it. Turns out I needed my gallbladder removed! So thankfully much better now, and our routine is still similar, she must be in charge 😉