It is actually dumb how difficult it is to fight off or get over a cold while taking care of a newborn. One would think that two adults could handle recovering from a seemingly common nasal cold, which the baby also got and from which the baby recovered within a few short days.
But no, they cannot do this simple thing very easily. Why? The answer is sleep. When sick, we need sleep and water the most to recover efficiently. What do we not get enough of in the first place with a newborn? Oh, yes: sleep.
Between the two of us, we’ve been handing off care of the baby whenever one of us can’t manage anymore and absolutely needs to sleep. In that time of the one’s sleeping, the other’s health gains regress, and the trade must happen again. On a somewhat consistent cycle, we repeat. Ever so slowly, improvement happens. But never have I been so mildly ill for so terribly long.
Fortunately, I was able to start recovering before my husband ever started feeling ill, so my baseline these past couple weeks has been much higher than my husband’s. I’m still not fully well, but I’m sitting in the ‘fighting off something’ range. He got full-blown sick last week. After a couple days, I began getting worse. My mom was about to come pick up the baby and go in a granny adventure with her for the day so we both could just sleep. However, the baby was quick with her nursing sessions that night and morning, and went back to sleep quickly each time, so I actually had a decent night’s sleep, disturbed as it was. I was feeling back to my ‘fighting off something’ by the time I got up for real, late morning. (I almost wish I’d had her come anyway, so maybe I might have kicked this thing fully, once and for all…)
Nonetheless, I think that’s the only efficient way to kick the colds – have someone else step in to care for the baby for a day, so the parents can drink water and sleep all day to recover for real. I should not be mildly ill for weeks at a time. So it seems to go with breastfeeding a newborn at the end of winter. 😛
Thank you, God, for our daughter. Please, keep her and us safe and make us all well and together. Thank you for our home. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2025
hannah ananas 