Dealing with a Sick Toddler and the Very Real Mom Burn Out

It happened, it always does. We got sick. Just a regular seasonal cold, nothing Covid related, but our little family all got sick.

So far, we’ve been really lucky that Delilah has never really gotten sick. There was once when she was younger when she had a fever that lasted about a day but never coughing, stuffy nose, and miserable sickness. Somehow, we still had enough luck that we were staggered when symptoms started so we weren’t all feeling our worst at the same time. It started with Joshua having a slight cough and then a few days later we were all bed bound. I was still coughing and stuffy but through the worst of it when Delilah started showing symptoms.

Getting sick was really hard on her. It didn’t help that she had just gotten over some terrible teething. It felt like she had just been sick forever! It was really hard to watch because I could feel how bad she felt, but there was little I could do to make her feel better. Sometimes we’d just spend hours laying down together with her favorite show playing to make her smile.

We’re all doing better now, but dealing with being sick myself, taking care of a sick Delilah, and then trying to get things back to normal once we were all well again, has left me feeling incredibly burnt out.

I’ve noticed I just constantly feel drained and have very little patience. I just don’t feel like myself at all and it’s incredibly tough to deal with. Every morning I try to get up and do whatever I can to get things back to normal but by the time afternoon rolls around I’m just exhausted.

There is also another layer of difficulty as well with Delilah. For a while now, she has been having some, what I would consider pretty intense, attachment issues with me. I never expected to have these issues. I figured since her dad and Grandma were both home with me pretty much since the day she was born that she would have so much support.

Both Joshua and my mom are constantly trying to help me but 9 times out of 10 she won’t let them. It’s a horrible feeling for me too because I have so much help waiting at the ready but I’m not able to use it. Some days it kills me because I’ve never imagined that I would have negative feelings when my child’s reaching up for me saying mama, but sometimes, when I think I’ve had mama cried at me 100 times in one day, I just can’t help it. By that time, I feel like I need someone to pick me up and comfort me, let alone have it in me to comfort someone else.

This has been going on for quite a while and it’s been challenging to even bring myself to write about it. I don’t mind writing about the challenges I face, but I usually wait until I have some sort of solution or plan to tackle the issue and with this, I’ve got nothing. We’ve tried so many things to help her feel more comfortable and secure with everyone in the house and with not being in my arms 24 hours a day but it seems like nothing is working. We’ll never stop trying though, I’m too stubborn for that. For now, we’re focusing on getting everyone feeling better again and I think that will help a lot.