After just a day of antibiotics, Kaia is already looking and sounding better. She’s talkative, babbling and saying real words constantly, and walking around the apartment as though she owns the place. She’s interacting with her toys and a couple of stuffed animals and demanding foods once again, so she’s back to her semi-normal self!

But me? Every time I think I am feeling better, I find myself running into the bathroom to cough up endless amounts of phlegm, and in the worst cases, kneeling over the toilet to throw up whatever I had just eaten. Doctor after doctor has told me that sometimes, different viruses just hit people differently, so I shouldn’t think too much of it. But is this really just the cold virus’s fault over the last six years since I first got silent reflux, or did something happen to me when I got that virus that changed something about my body?

I went to chat with the pharmacist at Duane Reade today to ask for his recommendations for my symptoms. He suggested that I get Mucinex with the cough suppressant, and Benadryl of all things. I wasn’t clear on the Benadryl since I thought that was supposed to be an allergy medication, but he told me that it helps with mucus production, too, and would dry it out for me while I slept. The Teladoc doctor I spoke with recommended a decongestant that would not help with mucus, and when I told the pharmacist this, he looked at me like I was nuts and clarified what that medication was for. It’s always fun to talk to incompetent doctors via Teladoc.

It is never fun to see your child suffering in any way, especially when they are ill, and there’s little to nothing you can do to take away the pain. As a parent, it’s almost ingrained in you to want to do something to alleviate the pain, but when kids are as young as Kaia is, there’s not much you can really do. You can’t take most medications to alleviate things like cough or congestion. You just have to “ride it out,” which really stinks. And it’s especially frustrating when not only your child is sick, but YOU are sick with the exact same illness. Every time Kaia coughs her very phlegmy cough or her nose oozes with endless boogers streaming down her face, I think: that’s what I have! I have that, too! I’m basically the same, except I can do things like clean up my face that she doesn’t really know how to do yet.

People warn you a lot about daycare sicknesses. It’s not just the issue of your child getting sick and needing to be pulled out of daycare; it’s also the fact that they will get you sick, and then you have to take time off work not just to care for them, but you’ll be miserable and ill yourself the entire time. And there’s really no break when they’re at home, whether it’s day or night. Last night, I probably slept only 1-2 consecutive hours at a time, if I am being generous. I was constantly being woken up by my own coughing and phlegm, or her coughing, phlegm, and crying. Plus, because I was constantly drinking warm water to soothe my throat, I was making endless trips to the bathroom. And, I also had to suck her nose and offer her poor throat some water.

I always tell myself: it’s okay. It’s better that she build up her immune system now when she’s really young than have to get super sick all the time once she starts kindergarten and the “real” school years, when missing class will become more critical. And it’s not like we were ever going to have a nanny that long, anyway. But even when I say this to reassure myself, all along, I still know that either way, it still really, really sucks. I say this all while I am coughing violently, hacking up endless phlegm and on the verge of vomiting.

A friend of mine recently had her second baby in May. She gave birth to her first in August 2021. While they weren’t actively trying to get pregnant, they weren’t not trying to get pregnant, so she got pregnant the second time around “accidentally,” and realized quickly that she’d be one of those parents who had “two under two” very soon. While she did not successfully breastfeed her first due to lack of knowledge and education, she decided that with this second child, she’d at least try to pump. She’s about 12 weeks postpartum now, and pumping about four times a day. She produces about half of what baby needs and tops up with formula. While we were on a video chat with another friend yesterday night, she was connecting to her breast pump and putting on a hands-free pumping bra, feeling embarrassed.

“Yvonne, did you know that I didn’t even know these hands-free pumping bras even existed until a week ago when a friend told me about them?” she said, laughing. “She told me, and then I immediately ordered it. I don’t know how I pumped this whole time without it! It’s been life changing!”

“Ahhhhh! You should have asked me! I would have told you way earlier!” I responded back, feeling bad.

“That’s the thing: I didn’t even know what to ask! You don’t know what you don’t know,” she replied, sighing and feeling dejected.

She’s totally right, though. When you’re on a journey as black-box-ish as breastfeeding and pumping, you really have no idea what to ask; you just hope that the people and resources who are supposed to be educating you will actually tell you everything you need. You really do NOT know what you don’t know, so how do you even begin to ask? So it’s sad when the experts you (or your insurance) pay money to just don’t arm you with all that information, then don’t give you the adequate time to ask and learn with them. And that’s what makes breastfeeding so hard in this country. We don’t have all the adequate resources to even know what questions to ask. Even though I weaned earlier this year, I still think about how frustrating this lack of knowledge and awareness is all the time and how my journey with breastfeeding Kaia could have looked so different if I just had all the right information upfront before she was even born. I’m happy that my friend is trying this second time, though, and that she has a second shot at it.

The last thing any parent wants is to have their child sick. So after we learned that one of her friends was sick with an ear infection late last week, and they had spent time together, I wondered if Kaia would catch the sickness. Ear infections are not contagious, per se, but apparently the colds that result from ear infections are. In the last couple of days, my sweet baby’s appetite has not been good; she’s even rejected her favorite things, like oatmeal fingers, mushrooms, and even bread (MAJOR RED FLAG). Kaia has gotten sick a few other times, but only once before, when she had COVID back in June, was her appetite affected. She’s been fussier than usual, especially in the late afternoons and evenings. Luckily, in the mornings, she still seems of good spirits, and she even enjoyed her first music class yesterday and was bobbing her head up and down and “dancing.” And then last night, she kept waking up about every 1-2 hours to fuss when she changed positions. She’s been sneezing a lot, and with each sneeze, her boogers and nose discharge fly everywhere. My poor little Pookster.

I cannot even imagine what it would be like if she were sick literally every week, which is what I hear from many parents regarding their young babies/toddlers in daycare. It would be never-ending exhaustion and borderline worry. I really feel for other parents and their seemingly perpetually sick babies. It’s like you never get a real break.

Today, I went over to the Upper East Side for a follow-up appointment with my orthopedic doctor. Honestly, I was hoping to never, ever see him again after my last two visits in October, when I had a cortisone shot on my left wrist and my right wrist, because seeing him again would mean that the pain and inflammation in my mommy thumb/wrist returned. Early last month, I realized that the pain had returned in my left wrist. It would come back quite suddenly and painfully after the most random movements, whether that was slipping my hand through a sleeve or just holding something in a certain angle. That horrible, sharp “snapping” pain would re-emerge, and I’d just think, really? AGAIN? I figured that this time around, I probably shouldn’t wait five months before just sucking it up and getting the shot.

So after a quick chat and examination, the doctor gave me my second steroid shot in my left wrist. He told me that in 80 percent of cases where someone comes in for a steroid shot for mommy thumb/de Quervain’s Tenosynovitis, they are cured fully and never have to come back again. I suppose that means I’m in the unlucky 20 percent that had the pain return… at least for now, it’s just in my left side. The shot helped for the last 4+ months, so a decent amount of time. Now, for those who come in for a second shot, it’s really 50/50 whether the pain will fully go away (please…), or return. He said if the pain does return, while a third cortisone shot would always be an option, surgery to release the tendon would be the more permanent option. A third cortisone shot would usually not be a permanent fix.

I do not want surgery under any circumstances. Please, inflammation, do not ever return. Please…..