…and you’re a mom, don’t expect to get that “rest” they tell you is so important! After having a tickle in my throat at the beginning of a long travel day of airports and planes and foolishly not having my preventative remedies (including essential oils) with me, my body gave into a nasty cold. But, upon arriving home I had to jump right back into life and work despite feeling yucky and didn’t really give my body a chance to improve. So, I present you with my list of items more likely to occur to a sick mom rather than getting much needed rest and sleep!

Instead of resting you will likely…

– spend the first night you’re sick awake with your toddler for 3 hours in the middle of the night because he woke up crying and just wouldn’t fall back asleep (which has probably only happened two other times ever); and despite trying to explain it to him, for some reason he just didn’t understand that mommy needed her sleep.
– still have to cook meals for yourself and your family – canned soups will only go so far!
– spend a great portion of your day boiling water to gargle, or drink with honey and lemon to soothe that sore throat.
– try to rest with your toddler and watch his favorite movie, only to have him get bored of it after 30 minutes and want to run around the house again.
– end up with a sick toddler as well and spend a good portion of your time cleaning out HIS nose with the Nose-Frida, filling up his humidifier and spacing out vitamins and cough syrup appropriately throughout the day.
– THEN have to sanitize the Nose-Frida after part of it landed in the toilet after said toddler thought it was hilarious to swing around his head. Yuck!
– do several loads of laundry just to keep everyone in clean underwear at the very least.
– try to take a nap while the toddler naps, but then be unable to fall asleep because you keep thinking of everything that’s NOT getting done while this attempt to rest is happening.

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– have to call the Home Warranty company and schedule a time to get someone out to fix your hot water heater because you’re not getting hot water in your showers anymore.
– finally give in and go to the doctor one day after you’ve decided your toddler has been accident-free for long enough that you probably don’t need that extra pull-up in your purse taking up so much space…. annnddd upon arriving to the Dr.’s office discovering that he did in fact wet himself in his carseat and you have no clean pants for him.
– have to bring your toddler into the doctor’s office in just a t-shirt and absolutely nothing on the bottom while you ask them if they have any diapers handy. Thankfully you find one at the pediatrician’s office down the hall.
– need to get your ear flushed out with water by the doctor because he found a tiny piece of ear plug stuck in there, which ends up leaving your ear totally plugged up for half the day. And this is in addition to the very plugged up and sore sinuses you are already dealing with.
– end up running errands to pick up your prescription and stop by the post office with said toddler now only wearing a t-shirt, diaper, socks and shoes, explaining to both the pharmacist and post office worker with an embarrassed smile that there has been an “accident.”
– return home and figure out how to remove that carseat cover to wash, because it definitely has pee on it now.

BUT, if you’re as lucky as I was, you will return home to discover that your sweet husband has decided to work from home the rest of the day to help take care of both you and the toddler and things will start to look a little better. Granted, there’s no way to keep up the house, keep everyone fed AND work from home, but it sure is nice to have some additional help! Of course, this still makes post-child “rest” a whole lot different than the kind from before, but sure makes for some hilarious stories that I will appreciate a whole lot more once I’m back to feeling 100% better. So, if you’re sick and also not resting, I commiserate with you! We can rest when they’re all in school, right?