Poop Sandwich

It's just after 4 AM and I am standing above Lukas' crib with a hand on his chest trying to convince him, in a gentle maner, that it's still 'sleepy time'. I, to my surprise, am starting to feel like crap. I have that feverish sweat, that raw throat, that stuffy nose. I say 'to my surprise' since Lukas and the Mrs. have had this virus for almost a week now and I have yet to catch it from them. That is despite being home with a very mucusy boy, who every few minutes would lean his head back and with all the force his 7 month old body could muster, sneeze right at me, blowing great gobs of slimy snot all over my personal space.

I have to admit that after a couple of days I started to get a bit cocky and confident that I wouldn't get this bug. I'm sure that I was thinking "I'm Invincible Man!" envisioning myself with a white suit with a large Block letter 'I' on the front. After all, I do generally have a great immune system and the things I do get tend to be gone almost as quickly.

I was actually joking about it a couple of days ago with a friend who knows about my days growing up on the dairy farm.

me -'I was exposed to so many bugs growing up, no wonder I don't get sick often'
him -' Yeah, I'm sure you could eat a poop sandwhich and not even get e-coli''
me - 'Probably have had more than one in my day'
both - 'ha-ha, ha, ha-ha, ha-ha, ha, ha, ha!

I'm not laughing now, though! I feel like a poop sandwhich right at this moment as I look to Lukas who is just beginning to get over this bug. It has been a couple of months since Mrs. LIAYF has nursed Luke to sleep in the middle of the night. I go in to calm him when he wakes in the night and, since I don't have the boobs, he goes to sleep much quicker and wakes much less frequently. So, mom is not nursing him at night . . . with one exception . . . when he is sick and draining and needs the fluids. He is feeling much better, so I try to stand firm and convince him that he should go back to sleep without nursing.

He reaches his hand out from under the cover and with big eyes, gives me a clear ASL "milk" sign. My response is to give him the "sleep" sign in return. He is not appeased! After about 20 minutes, I need something for my dry throat so I go to get my glass of water. I bring it in to his room (the irony totally lost on me at this point) and take a drink right in front of him. My son, with the dry and sticky throat, is watching me chug down a refreshing drink as he politely asks for a drink of milk. I am a bad dad sometimes.

Anyway, after a few more moments Mrs. LIAYF suggested that we just give him some water in his sippy cup. She's the smart one in our relationship. I was prepared to wait him out, to prove that I had more resolve. Lukas began to cry intensely, Mom handed me the cup through the door, Lukas drank, Lukas fell asleep shortly thereafter. Dad felt like a poop sandwich.