Baby Boogs

Well, the day has come, and the little guy is officially has his first cold. He’s not terribly bad, but he’s stuffy as anything. It all started on Friday when I picked him up from daycare and looked over to see another little boy with boogs all over his face. I held L.A. close and said “please God, don’t let him get that”…. well, by Sunday morning it was pretty clear that he was sick. His voice was all raspy and hoarse, which is really heartbreaking when you’re talking about a tiny little baby whose primary form of communication is crying – which is kind of pathetic to begin with. The raspy voice led to sneezing, and then entered coughing and some stuffy congestion that’s been hanging on for dear life.

If anything has put a spotlight on how hard it is to be a working mom, this is by far the most difficult. Not the fact that he’s overtired, or a little cranky, or the sleepless nights… it’s the fact that my baby boy is sick and I can’t be there to take care of him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been in good hands all week… he was home with C on Monday and the past two days MIL has been at the house with him, so he’s definitely been well taken care of. It’s just that as his mom, I can’t help but wish I could be there for him.

The other day someone asked me if there was anything about being a parent that had surprised me, or that I wasn’t expecting. I thought about it for awhile, and there are two things I hadn’t anticipated. The first is that I, the career minded-corporate ladder climbing-woman would suddenly be so willing to leave my life of rigorous meetings and power lunches for play dates and simple bonding time with my little one. I never realized how much my heart would truly ache because I missed him in the course of 8 hours, or how much having him would change my perspective on what’s really important. The second is the impact that L.A. would have on the time C and I spend together. Some days it seems like we’re two ships passing in the night, and it’s imperative to savor every moment we share, be it a glance or a stolen kiss or the rare but incredible times that we can actually sit down uninterrupted and have an actual conversation with each other.