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When Mama's Away, Day 3: clobbered by a cold

by Larissa Brown (Subscribe to Larissa Brown's posts)
May 6th 2006 4:59PM

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Filed under: Just For Dads

Boy, did I get my comeuppance yesterday, which was undoubtedly the hardest day I've spent as a parent. Before then, everything was going along so swimmingly.  I was having no problem taking care of Binx 24/7 in Larissa's absence (this is  Martin filling in for her).  Sure, I wasn't getting a lot of work done, but I was musing about things and enjoying myself.

Then a tiny virus came along, knocked me down, and started kicking.  Hard.

I woke up with a savage headache and violent hot and cold shivers.  Whenever I get sick, my body gets very theatrical, putting on trembling scenes of woe fit for a Jacobean tragedy.  I'm never just a little sick. This time it felt like a cinder block was lodged in my sinuses.  I couldn't think straight.

Then came the siren wail: Binx was up, and upset.

"Larissa, could you check him?" I mumbled automatically.

No response.  I rolled over to find her not there, and slowly grokked she was in the godforsaken tropics sipping umbrella drinks.  There was no one there to help me.

The rest of the day was a battle between two life-or-death impulses: the need to take care of myself, and the need to take care of the baby (I think he might have been coming down with something too), and  though it all turned out okay, man, it wasn't pretty.

About 6:30 pm some emergency help arrived, with cold medicine and soup (for me) and graham crackers (for Binx).  Those things helped, but I think just as important was the message that I wasn't alone.  Lesson of the day: in this task of parenting I'll take all the help I can get.

Props to all you single moms & dads out there.

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