Man down! Man down!

Feeling: Last woman standing!

Okay, we recovered from last week's bout of lethargy only to fall into a new cycle of flu of the week. Except it's not me who's sick. It's the baby and the husband.

And as every woman knows, that's a whole different type of being tired altogether. Not to mention that I'm pregnant. But hey, who's complaining. The men in the house need to have a sort of nursemaid so that they can take care of me the other days of the year right? Haha!

Okay to be fair, my husband is actually super on the ball looking after the bub even while he's sick and tired and seriously overworked and I'm honestly really not doing as much as I should around the house nowadays that I have my mum helping us out on the weekdays.

It's a very welcome respite especially as I get bigger and bigger with our 2nd in my belly.

It's also a blessing in disguise that the bug is hitting everyone else only now instead of when I was suffering from the icky 1st trimester symptoms. I'm in a much better shape to help around with the 2 invalids now than I was a month ago!

But in any case, we've actually been really thinking about a lot of the childcare issues because as things get a little bit more cumbersome for me, even the school that we absolutely now seems a bit and literally too far for us to handle.

Babywearing the baby to school with a growing tummy hasn't been easy because the bub hasn't taken well to being worn on the back as of late, and sitting front-saddle means my tummy feels a bit squashed in the mean time.

That's obviously not something we want as the tummy just shouldn't be too constricted as it enlarges.

There are definitely other solutions to this, getting a stroller (but that's going to be a hassle in itself), getting daddy or grandma to send him to school on my behalf - which is actually the plan next year when the baby comes out and I have to be on call for a new milk monster in the house, and the current solution we're using, which is to just get him to walk and be a big boy, and/or carry him the bits along the way where we need to cross a road or junction or where he wants to be whiny about not being carried.

Tough and tiring work to get things coordinated again and especially with my waning stamina, but it has to be done..

I'm just taking it as my last ditch attempt to exercise during this pregnancy.

ahem well moving on, we've also considered the typical Singaporean parent response to the shortage of hands at home and considered hiring a helper too.

We actually started researching the costs involved when I was pregnant with bub #1 but we seem to have managed pretty fine without up to now.

I mean, as it is, we only need some extra hands for getting the house in order and cleaning and washing once a week. All the household chores was handled by the husband and I easily before we had kids anyway. We don't really need a live-in helper to keep the house clean the whole week around do we?

At the end of the day, I figure that while bub #1 is off to school and I'm on tap for the milk monster #2 and I have my mum around to help eyeball things in case things get furry AND the husband is going to be around too, we probably would be able to manage things pretty well without having to spend the extra money on an iffy stranger coming into our house to help with things.

But it would be nice if we didn't have to think about money though.

Thing is, what's she going to do with so many people in the house besides clean?

I'd want to be the main go-to person when it comes to interaction with my child though and I thank God that I'm blessed with a job that allows me to do just that. Staying at home to work has allowed me to give bub #1 all that precious attention and I've been able to just be a part of his life when he's learning more about the world.

I figure I'd be able to carry the bub #2 around for the first few months at least while she's growing and doesn't have the desire or ability to run around on her own and that'll give me the freedom to carry on life as usual, with albeit a lot less sleep.

Ugh, back to square one with night wakings. Kill me now.

Anyway, I guess I'm just worried about how to split my time between all the men of the house and even the littlest boy or girl to come. I suppose things will get better as the kids all get independent and move off to school...

Gosh, I can't wait for the day that I can point an arrow at the kids to help with household chores - washing up and doing laundry and sweeping the floor, oh my! Haha!

So with all the things that will be demanding my attention in the time to come, it really does hit us hard when someone in the family falls sick, not just because someone is unable to help, but because then the sickness goes around...

So back to the topic about being sick now, I guess we're lucky enough to not have a never ending cycle of illness in the house just yet (choy and touche all the wood surfaces everywhere!) but as I hear from my friends with more than 1 child, it's important to make sure you have a veritable pharmacy in your pantry because whatever 1 kid is going to get, highly likely your other(s) are going to get in due time too.

Falling sick is a way of the kids building their own immune system and all that too I suppose and it's a good idea that if one person gets sick, that the rest of the family members grow to be able to resist that strain of bug too.

But of course I'd much rather have a house full of healthy people any day, even if it does mean that the husband gets a day "off" of work to keep me company while I'm clacking away at the computer for work.

This week's case unfortunately hit the kid and the hubs our of nowhere.

One minute we were enjoying some fake snowfall (read: foam) at a Christmas market, and the next thing we know, bub's got a high fever of 39 degrees and the husband wakes up with a head stuffed and clogged.

Can't imagine what might have happened if that snow was legit cold. shakes my head

So today, the bub and the hubs are all at home in bed and resting because I'm sure I've mentioned this before about how it's really irresponsible of parents to let their kids into school when they know that they are having a fever or a flu.

Here's to our due diligence to keep them away from school when they aren't feeling well so that other kids won't get the sickness either!

Wrapping things up though, the truth is that the germs are really everywhere. All we can do is ride it out and pray that the sickness is caught and treated in good time so that everyone can get well soon!

Wish me luck how we're going to handle things if this happens when the new baby is out and with us. Perhaps we might really need that live-in help then.

Work cut out for me,
Jess

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