A Sick Little Boy Turns The MPB Household Upside Down
Well, this week has officially not gone according to plan – some days I wonder why I even try to plan things? I was supposed to be on the road with work 3 days this week, including at least 1 over night trip on Wednesday/Thursday. I was supposed to be working 12 hour + days. I was supposed to be at meetings with clients. And Mr. MPB was supposed to be busy as well.
Instead Little MPB is sick. At 2pm on Tuesday we got a call from daycare indicating that Little MPB fever was 104F (40C) and that he needed to be picked up immediately.
I was on a conference call so Mr. MPB darted out to pick him up and managed to get him into the doctor right away (his fever dropped once baby Tylenol was in him and we were just told to watch for dehydration and lethargy while the virus works its way out of his system).
From there, we both went into problem solving mode – how are we going to care for a sick child while having abnormally intense work demands on us this week and no family around to help out. The one indisputable fact is that neither of us get any work done with Little MPB around, so one of us simply cannot work as long as Little MPB is sick and at home.
By 5pm on Tuesday both Mr. MPB and I had completely rearranged our schedules so we could each be at home to care for Little MPB for the remainder of the week. Mr. MPB arranged people to cover for him. I downloaded all my meetings onto a colleague so that I could stay home. Since we didn’t need both of us at home full time, Tuesday evening we actually sat down and discussed who could be home with Little MPB when, and which meetings were the most important for us to attend. In the end, we decided Mr. MPB had a critical meeting one of the days that he needed to be at. And, we knew I was either completely gone or completely available – there was no middle ground for me. So, we decided I would stay home and we’d share the responsibility of caring for our sick Little MPB as neither of us receive any sort of income for days off because we are both self employed. And, by not travelling is get a bit of unexpected time in my office to do some work, which might just be a blessing in disguise. (As an aside, I will forever be in awe of single parents, I have no idea how people manage all this on their own, I just cannot even begin to imagine).
I wont lie, I felt/feel sick about missing meetings. In fact, it literally kept me up at night. That’s just not the person I am. Or rather, that’s just not the person I was.
But, I’m a mom now, and that matters more then anything else. And, even if it’s hard to find balance as a working mom, I know that my family comes first. Mr. MPB and Little MPB come first every single time.
.
So, I spent all day Wednesday (yesterday) playing and cuddling with Little MPB while obsessively trying to take his temperate and get fluids into him. As an added bonus, we even experienced another unwanted first when Little MPB puked all over Mr. MPB and I (it was epic and rather scary for poor Little MPB and just broke my heart). But, asides from the puking, we had a pretty good day together.
Thursday (today), I’ll work while Mr. MPB spends the day with Little MPB. Hopefully without any more puking.
As for Friday (tomorrow), we are just hoping Little MPB starts to feel better so that he can go back to daycare. And if not Friday, then hopefully Monday.
And, Mr. MPB and I will both just work evenings and over the weekend to make up for the lost work time.
We’ve got this…I think…I hope…
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My Perfect Breakdown 
awww… poor baby, Its always hard on the kids, when they fall sick.. daycare’ don’t help much either unfortunately.
I wonder too how single parents handle, their level of exhaustion must be bone numbing..
you got this, just plow through it, the weekend will be here soon.
Lots of cuddles to Little MPB in the meantime..
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Yes, lots and lots of cuddles!!
On a different note, are you getting comments from me on your blog? I don’t see any from the last few days and I’m wondering if the comments from my phone aren’t working?
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There’s a professor in another department here who is a single mother by choice (sperm donor) of two young kids — so she’s been doing it ALL on her own from day 1. Her family lives a plane flight away, so while she temporarily relocated to be near them for the births of her children, otherwise she’s been totally on her own. I am completely fascinated by her life and how it works — sometimes I see her walking out to her car at 5:30pm and I just wonder “where are her kids right now?” since our daycare closes at 5:30. She is awesome and amazing and I have literally no idea how she does it.
But I also want to make sure to say that even being a two-parent working family is hard, and I don’t want to minimize at all what you’re going through! It is always so sad to see them sick, and so hard to juggle life and work even when you know family always comes first. Hope Little MPB feels better soon, poor guy!
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Single mom, to 2 kids! Where is her gallantry medal? She deserves one. I have a husband and a full time nanny take care of the kids during the day, and yet most days I feel like I am losing it.
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I just tried leaving you a note from my computer. I’m curious if you get it.
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on one of my blog posts? Or this one?
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On today’s blog post. I’ve now left one fomment from my phone and one from my computer.
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See neither. Interesting.
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Are thry in your trash or spam?
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All in spam!
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Odd!! Glad you found them all!
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I cannot even imagine how she’s handling 2 kids on her own!! Our daycare closes at 6pm, so maybe hers does too?
And, thank you as always for your support. Even with 2 of us it is such a hard juggle!
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Oh no! Hope he’s feeling better soon. I can’t even imagine what the rescheduling process looked like and I admire you both for truly handling it all!
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Thank you! He doesn’t have a fever so far today so we are hoping he’s on the mend! š
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Hope your little guy feels better soon! The child care juggle when they are sick is tough for working parents, and like you, I don’t know how single parents manage it.
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Oh man. I’m so sorry. There is nothing worse than a sick kiddo. I hope he feels better soon and that you guys avoid his germs. ā¤
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Thanks! Fortunatly Little MPB appears to be feeling better. Unfortunately Mr. MPB is definitely sick now. I’m just hoping I avoid it….
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Poor little MPB š hope he gets better quick. You guys are a great team staying flexible together WRT work, it’s not easy!!
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I hope little is feeling better very soon! Glad you could move things around to be home and care for him while he’s sick. Hope you manage to get all of your work done! Good luck!
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Oh no! I hope little man feels better soon and that neither of you get it!!!
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Thanks! He seemed basically fine today – thankfully! Mr. MPB, not so much. He’s on the way to being sick unfortunately.
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Poor little guy… And poor parents, too! I hope he feels better really soon, and in the meantime, at least you’ll have family time! I’ve gotten really good at putting family first, even though before having a baby I was terrible at it. I’m even dropping a co-advisor because she doesn’t respect work-family balance. Don’t need to be worrying about bosses/clients/advisors who don’t get it…
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You’re totally killing it with the working together and rearranging schedules. It may not feel like it to you, but from my perspective, you’re Super Parents. I hope he’s on the mend soon.
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Poor little one! I hope he is better now. I haven’t been blogging a while so just catching up. Sending love! X
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