Luna's Baublebilities

When we signed up to bring Maxx home and parent him, I did not know that I was agreeing to be sick for weeks on end, all year long, regardless of the weather or how healthy everyone else around us is.

Maxx was a preemie. We do not have specific information about his time in the NICU yet, but he was 4 weeks premature and his immune response betrays this fact. Every time I turn around, he has snot. In fact, he is a veritable snot rocket. He can shoot a wad of mucous out of his nose as far as 5 feet. We tried to warn the Pre-K teacher, who brushed aside our admonitions to "beware the sneeze" but she had to admit surprise (and chagrin) at the open house two weeks after school started.

His colds generaly start with bad behavior accompanied by clear mucous production and progress to coughing and a mild sinus infection complete with great green gobs of greasy, gooey Maxxwel snot. It gets everywhere.

That alone is a challenge. What is worse is that I also get sick. Most of my first 5 years of life were spent in a miasma of second hand cigarette smoke (mmm... Marlboro and Camels, yum!) so I also have a compromised immune system. When Maxx starts shooting snot, I know that a sore throat, clogged sinuses, headaches and poor sleep are in the works for me. I haven't been keeping close track on a calendar, but I estimate that I have been sick approximately 8-12 weeks out of every year since Maxx has come home. That makes approximately 30 weeks of upper respritory infections and stomach bugs in 3 years. The rate of infection has increased since Maxx started attening Pre-K.

I'm getting a little tired of it. I guess I should be celebrating that we have managed to be healthy since the stomach bug in Early March, but today, I'm feeling just a bit sorry for myself.