I’m always fascinated about how things seem to happen in threes. Three celebrities die in a week to 10 days time, three people announce they are expecting, three pounds down on the scale.
Three, to quote Schoolhouse Rock, seems to be a magic number.
But right now, we’re going to start with two’s.
Two for two. Two kids. Two different illnesses. Strep and Flu.
It started on Sunday, about the time I heard I’d finaled in the Mamavation Mom contest (My video is pawf1067 by the way–please vote for me). My older started with “feeling bad” and moved to “feeling bad with a headache.” She had fever and then the younger started with a faucet of a nose and fever.
Monday, they didn’t look much better and started to look less perky. We went in on Tuesday morning and found the older has strep, the young has flu. What are the odds that each kid gets something different at the same time? Besides, the younger didn’t look all that sick. I would never have known she had the flu if we hadn’t tested her. I thought it could be because of the colder weather and got to thinking whether we were keeping the house warm enough. But then I do call on a service like Buric Heating & Air Conditioning (burichvac.com/rockville-air-conditioning/) once a while to make sure that the home’s heating & ventilation systems are doing fine. So I’m not sure how they caught the illnesses.
Now I’ve spent my week doing two things: Praying that they dont’ switch illnesses by the end of the week and try to keep myself from eating everything in the house due to emtional stress. I was only marginally successful on the eating part.
I’m a nurse, a pediatric nurse at that and I know kids get sick. I know fever can be a good thing–as your body attacks the ugly germs, it turns up the heat to weaken the foreign invaders and then eat them up. Fever turns on your white count to send armies of these infection fighting solgers out to kill off the illness. I understand that, but when you’re kids look so pitiful and all that helps is allowing time for the medications to work–basically be patient–it’s not really what I want to hear. I’m no different than any other parent who wants their child fixed and fixed now, but I am well aware that’s not how it all works.
Sick kids are an emotional stressor for me, but when they are my kids, it kicks it up a notch. There are much sicker, chronically sick children in this world, I’m well aware, and I feel for their parents. It seems stressed out parents are either too skinny or too heavy. There isn’t much in between.
I should rephrase that, stressed-out parents who aren’t dealing with their stress are either too skinny or too heavy. What I see is either they don’t eat or they don’t stop eating. I fall into the latter category when emotions get the better of me. I guess you could say that at least we are finding ways to cope, but surely this would only have more of an impact on our health once our stress has passed? Whereas I can’t stop eating, my friend decides to buy cannabis online. You should know that marijuana can be taken for personal enjoyment, and not just for its health benefits (which is a lot). Since many dispensaries took their business online, users can easily buy them like any other product. My friend takes something similar to this tangie sativa cannabis strain when she is stressed, as it’s been known to help with stressful symptoms, and luckily for her, it works. She told me that she went online to look at scientific bongs so she can take it in the way she wants. Maybe I should look into doing the same? Having to look after our children, as well as suffering from stress is a lot for anyone to take on.
After our children got their diagnosises and had their first doses of medication, I relaxed and talked myself through not eating for comfort. Since Tuesday, I feel as though I’ve regained my sanity in regard to emtional eating.
My other sanity, well, it’s being tested because there are only so many games of Chutes and Ladders, Memory, Go Fish you can play and hours watching the Disney Channel before you start wanting to watch movies like Bachelor Party, The Hangover, and The 40 Year Old Virgin just to hear some “grown up” words.
So why did I bring up 3 at the beginning? Because despite the children’s illnesses and our self imposed quaranteen, three amazing things happened since Sunday.
First, I final in the mamavation contest (again, my video is pawf1067–please vote for me).
Second, my kids are now on the mend and I didn’t eat all the chocolate in the house (actually, the later is the more amazing. The former expected).
Third, I got a call from a friend who needed a video shout out for ensemble daytime talk show, The Talk, a more laid-back version of that other show, but with topics that still make people go hmmmmmm. She said they needed a video from someone who wrote a blog and would I be interested in sending something in for their Friday shout-out?
Within 30 minutes, I’d applied a little make up, brushed my hair, and recorded a short, but sweet video for the ladies of The Talk.
I have no idea if I’ll be on this Friday or another, but that really isn’t the point. The point is things change, children get sick, we stress out, and then all of it resolves and another round of stress starts again. It was a good exercise in understanding my emotional eating. I walked around the house multiple times on Monday, feeling uncomfortably hungry and couldn’t figure out why. Once the kids were diagnosed, it seemed the hunger went away and I could focus on them.
Why I didn’t figure this out before now, I don’t know. Seems a no-brainer, but when your protective mommy-brain kicks in, it seems nothing else makes sense except finding a way to get your little ones better.
Next time, and with kids there will be a next time, I’ll have to remind myself there’s no need to running to the pantry or the freezer for comfort foods. Things do change and get better, no need to “fix” them with ice cream or chocolate. The problem will resolve with time. But if I keep emotional eating in the interum, it doesn’t help me when it’s all said and done. I’ll feel sick and then feel defeated, thus fueling my emotional eating downfall.
I’m back on track as are the wee tots and we’re all looking forward to returning to the normal routines and mommy’s “appearance” on TV.
Well now, wouldn’t that be amazing?