Time Away…It’s A Good Thing

Last week, we left C overnight for the first time. For three nights. In a row.

For the last week, I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts on how it felt to leave my boy. And I still don’t know what I want to say.

I was nervous about it, to be honest. Husband was too. But I knew that since C was going to be sleeping in his own house, in his own bed, he would be fine. And that Curly, Mimi, and Mom would all do a great job taking care of him.

I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to focus on the meetings I was going to be attending. I was afraid I would think about him all the time. I was afraid that we would not be able to enjoy ourselves when we were supposed to be enjoying ourselves.

But I kept telling myself it would all be ok. That we would all be ok.

And then he got sick.

The Friday before we were to leave (on Sunday), C came down with a fever. Actually, I think it popped up on Thursday night, but I was in denial and refused to check his temperature when I put him to bed, thinking that if he indeed, had a fever he’d be awake in a little bit anyway.

After all day with a temperature, Friday night the fever went away on its own and I thought we were in the clear. But on Saturday it came back with a vengeance. And I knew we were supposed to be leaving the next day.

But let me tell ya’ll something. I was not about to leave my baby overnight for the first time when he was sick.

So I took him to the express clinic on Saturday afternoon. It was not a good experience. C usually does great at the doctor – never fusses or complains when they poke, prod, and peek. But by the time this lady finished C’s exam, he was screaming, blubbering, and begging to go bye-bye. Poor thing.

And she didn’t have any answers for us, either. Maybe his ear hurt because it was possibly a little red. And while he might possibly need antibiotics if he didn’t get better, we might want to just come back tomorrow if we needed to get them. Um, no thanks. We’ll take the antibiotics now, thankyouverymuch, and I’ll just wait until tomorrow to start them ifyoudon’tmind.

So Sunday came along with fever. We made some calls, changed some arrangements, and Husband went ahead and left for our retreat with plans for me to follow on Monday morning, all the while praying C’s fever would go away.

And it finally did. Right before bed Sunday night, C’s fever broke. We both got a good night’s sleep and he woke up normal. Well, as normal as possible, anyway. I left him with Curly and made my way to the retreat.

So after all that drama, stress, and the changing of plans, leaving C was quite anti-climactic. I was just so relieved that he was feeling better and thankful I’d gotten to spend that extra night with him while he was recouping that everything else just seemed, well, not that big of a deal.

I mean, I still missed my boy. But I was able to focus when I needed to and enjoy myself when it was time. It was nice to eat at a restaurant without having to worry about someone pulling things off the table or throwing food on the floor. It was nice to only have to get myself ready in the mornings. And it was really nice to be around people who spoke in complete sentences.

And of course, Curly, Mimi, and Mom (and everybody else) did a great job taking care of C. When I picked him up, he was absolutely worn out from all the fun.

But I was very happy to get back to my boy. I missed him. I think he missed us too.