Gemma's blog: The house of sickness...

Before I had my daughter I was never ill, in fact it was like my badge of honour, cough or sniffle I was at work. During my pregnancy this hardly changed, until the end when a nasty bout of Pelvic Girdle Pain meant that I had to minimise walking and start working from home a few days a week. Despite this I was still fully functional and if anything even more productive. For the first year of having Beth, we were still rarely ill and when we were it cleared up quickly. I naively thought we had struck it lucky and were not going to be impacted by the stories of childhood sickness I had heard about. This therefore, meant I was totally unprepared for what would happen when I returned to work and Beth started nursery.

Colds, sickness, diarrhoea, teething, coughs you name it at some point over the past six months we have had it. It seems that I am either leaving early to pick up my daughter or taking the day off to look after her and if she is well then my husband or I are ill. Please do not misunderstand me - I never want to be anywhere else than with my baby when she is poorly – I just didn’t realise it would happen this often.

I now find myself constantly googling old wives’ tales about how to make her better, Vicks on her feet, Pineapple Juice, humidifiers etc, regardless of whether it is medically proven or even rational I will try anything -  much to my Doctor Husbands amusement.   

As a mum I always worrying about my daughter but as a working mum this is now also coupled with my worry about how I am being perceived at work; do they think I am a sick note? Was it a mistake to hire me? So far they have been very understanding and I have no grounds for this fear apart from the simple fact; I am not sure I used to be as supportive.

When I raise my concerns to those with more experience than me; they tell me that I am paranoid, work understands and that within 6 months it will get better. We just need to build up our immune system and the regular bouts of illness will subside. So this lifeline is what I am desperately clinging to and the belief it has to get easier soon ...doesn’t it???