The Uck

They say that the first year or so that a kid is in daycare or school -- the first year that they're regularly and frequently exposed to the germs of others -- is the sickest year in a kid's life.

It makes sense, and it was certainly true for Penny; she seemed to always be sick as a baby, but by the time she was two or so, the illnesses had tapered off to the more reasonable three or four times a year. This past year, she hasn't really been sick at all. (I know, because I've been dreading having to deal with managing her blood sugar along with an illness -- since being sick typically spikes blood sugar while trashing appetite.)

If the axiom holds true for Alex, then I suppose I can expect him to get sick again somewhere around the third grade, because in his eleven months of life (nine of which have been spent going to daycare) I can probably count the number of times he's been really sick on one hand.

I say "probably" because I'm not altogether sure: even when Alex does get sick, it doesn't usually affect him very much, or last very long. His colds are fever-less, just a couple of days of runny nose and diminished appetite. We've taken him to the doctor two or three times to have them check his ears (Penny never gave us any signs of an ear infection until it had backed up into her eyes, so we leap for the pediatrician as soon as Alex so much as touches his ears) but they've all turned out to be false alarms. The few fevers he has had have been mostly low-grade, and identifiably attached to things like vaccinations or teething.

The boy is healthy as a horse, is what I'm saying, here. He's going to grow up to be one of those guys who doesn't quite know how to be sympathetic for sick people, because he never gets sick, himself.

But alas, he did finally succumb, as all eventually must, to the Uck.

Penny had the Uck, off and on, for about three months. I'm hoping Alex's mutant superhero immune system has adapted to it in the last three days, because once he brought it home, the entire family succumbed.

Saturday, Alex was sick.

Sunday, he was improving (no really: As. A. Horse.) but by mid-afternoon, I was starting to feel under the weather, and when I tried to make dinner, I fairly quickly realized that I was down for the count. I had Matt take over to get himself and Penny fed, and spent the rest of the evening in bed, shivering despite being under two blankets.

By the time Matt was putting Penny to bed Sunday night, he was starting to feel the edges of it, himself.

At about 4 Monday morning, Alex threw up again. No school for Alex! I took Penny to school, but they called us at 10:30 to say she'd thrown up her morning snack, so I went back and picked her up.

So we were the Family of Sick. Penny spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon sitting on the couch with one of my big plastic mixing bowls close at hand. (Her blood sugar, at least, was almost weirdly well-behaved.) Matt and I spent the day dashing for the bathroom and changing Alex on the floor in the living room so we wouldn't have to climb the stairs on our wobbly legs. We put Alex down for more naps than usual, since we didn't really have the energy to jolly him out of fussiness, and Matt -- who never naps -- laid down nearly every time Alex did.

We were feeling a little better by dinnertime. Penny was hungry, and we made her nurse two pieces of toast a a cup of diluted Gatorade over the course of about an hour and a half, but she kept it all down, and then felt good enough to want to take a bath. After her bath, she came downstairs, climbed into my lap, and said, "What are we having for dinner?" (We already HAD dinner, I told her, though I let her have some more watered-down Gatorade and a sugar-free Jello.)

Matt and I also had toast for dinner, and we let Alex graduate from pedialyte to formula just before bed.

Everyone made it through the night without any incidents, and Penny and Alex had recovered their appetites for breakfast. So we took them to school, and Matt and I are at work today. Matt's legs were a little wobbly when he first got up, and I can't say I'm at 100% either. Maybe more like 80%. We'll see how the day goes. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I hate the Uck.