My wife encountered a bout of the flu that hit her yesterday evening (thank God, not the Stomach Flu).  A few days prior to that I had some kind of weird cold or flu that made me really tired, irritable, and generally miserable – so I fear maybe I passed this along to her.  It is really not fun to be sick regardless, but if you are sick AND you have a baby, then it is double difficult.

It is extra hard because you have to still be alert, “on the ball”, and there for your baby’s needs, even if you are a little (or a lot) under the weather.  In addition, you do not want to get the baby sick.  So it is quite possibly more stressful than when you are healthy.  Even further, the baby will still wake up during the night (a baby doesn’t care when you are sick), so you don’t get that much-needed solid and deep sleep that is required to get healthy.  In other words, it just sucks in every way.

I feel especially bad for my wife, who is so concerned about the little guy that even during the night when she was on fire with fever (but told me she was freezing), she still needed to know he was OK, needed verification that he is still breathing thru the night, and still put him #1 on her list of concerns, way above herself and her needs.  That shows you how dedicated she is, how deep in her heart she truly does put the little guy #1, and why for her being sick is probably a version of horribleness I can’t describe.  Add into this that she is still breastfeeding, and she wants to make sure he is getting fed breast milk no-matter what, when surely it would be easier for me take him to give him some formula.

As the healthier of the two, it is my role to make sure my wife is taken care of with all the fluids and vitamins she needs, and to make sure that she does not have to worry about anything.  If I do my bit for her, she can rest fully, take it easy, and hopefully have a speedier recovery.  I am a little “cloudy” today as well, but it’s more important that my wife gets the rest she needs and that I do what I can to boost her recovery time.

If I am really honest with myself, I know that in the grand scheme of it all, at this moment in our little guy’s life, it would be her (the mother) whose health is most important for the baby.  I am staying at home taking care of him so of course my health is important too, but as long as she is breastfeeding the little guy, her health will be the priority – I say this as if I had to pick between us, of course the best would be that we are both healthy.  With her recovery in mind, today we (my parents, the little guy, and I) will go to Sham Sui Po market to get out of the house and give my wife the peace to rest.