I have a rotten cold.
These days, I hate being sick. I never minded it all that much before I became a mother. If I'm sick, I ought to be entitled to crawl into bed and stay there, uninterrupted except perhaps by the appearance of cups of hot lemon tea at intervals. Also someone should bring me chicken soup. And yet here I am, coughing and sneezing and still having to take care of other people. What is up with that?
Oh, and: Did I mention that my experience with, say, coughing/sneezing/vomiting, and other diaphragmatic spasming type issues has been seriously soured ever since I gave birth the first time?
(Cue the automatic Kegels practice)
Still, chin up! I can, generally cope pretty well with a rotten head cold, even if I don't like it.
What I don't cope well with is rotten cold PLUS six months pregnant. I do not know how to sum up the experience except with a single word: "OOOOOOOOF."
Last night I persuaded Mark to let me crawl into bed as soon as dinner was over and stay there. He took care of everything and I didn't have to make dinner or clean up dinner or read bedtime stories or nurse (no, Mark doesn't lactate, but he's good at toddler distraction) or break up fights or anything.
I started to feel less generally-awful-all-over around four in the morning. I still had the head cold, and am still 6 months pregnant, but those two conditions had decoupled and were no longer working together to destroy me.
At first I felt a little guilty at skipping my Thursday gym night, but now that I'm awake and coping a lot better, I am struck with awe at the power of simply getting some rest. I haven't always noticed it; I guess it's not as important when you're younger, sick or not, pregnant or not. Although to take to your bed for a few hours is not a quick and easy remedy – it requires someone to take care of your responsibilities for a while, and you can't get anything done that whole time, which I suppose is the point — the results seem darn near miraculous. How is it that simply lying still and closing your eyes can make such a big difference?
I don't think I will get to repeat the experience tonight, but I did announce that I wasn't going to make dinner. Mark can pick up a pizza or something. It's a small thing, but it does mean just a little bit of pressure off my late afternoon, and maybe the chance to sit down and put my feet up at 4:30, or put on a DVD for the kids and go take a hot shower. I don't play that card very often, and it means I can deploy it when it really counts.
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