Today's Dirty Little Secret

I almost sent Jake to school with a fever today. Almost.

Today marks the fifth workday that I have been home with a sick child in the last six. I was home with Owen and his pinkeye last Wednesday and Thursday, worked on Friday, Monday was a holiday, worked until lunchtime on Tuesday when I got the call that Jake had a fever (double ear infection), and stayed home with him that afternoon and all day Wednesday.

Last night I set the alarm for 5:30, ready to get up, put on some clean clothes and some heels and go back to work. But when I heard him crying at 4:30 I knew it just wasn't going to happen.

He went in and out of sleep for about an hour and I finally grabbed him at 5:30. Poor little guy. His forehead was really hot, his face was covered with ... well, who knows what, and he could barely keep his eyes open. He clearly had a fever again.

So we had a choice to make. Dave's day was non-negotiable, plus he has no sick time. We gave Jake some Tylenol, calmed him down and tried to figure out our next steps. The choices were pretty bleak: send him to daycare and await the call mid day (which would result in him having to stay home tomorrow) or suck it up and stay home one more day.

Seriously, I was close to sending him. My week's been shot to hell, I'm way behind on just about everything at work, and who knows if my boss even remembers my name anymore. I went back and forth in my head, trying to devise a plan that would keep him fever free until at least late afternoon...

... and then I just stopped myself. Because really, what the hell was I doing? Setting aside the fact that I'm climbing out of my skin from being in the house nonstop for the past week, giving Jake another day at home to get better is far more important than anything I had on my work schedule for today.

So that's today's dirty little secret. I almost sent a feverish 16-month-0ld to daycare, but thankfully realized what an idiot I was being before I dropped him off. As a result, he's sound asleep in his own crib right now, hopefully getting healthy enough to go back tomorrow.

If you haven't seen it yet, check the comments on my last post - Meredith left a secret of her own. Does anyone else have a good one?