Petri Dishes for Playmates

Jude has another nasty cold.

I thought we were maybe getting done with all this sickness.  I truly believed that his constant colds/illnesses were a combination of being so young, during the worst winter I can remember, combined with the fact that he goes to a daycare center and is around so many other young kids (or Petri dishes, as I prefer to call them).  The weather has just started to get warm and a sense of relief has come about that cold and flu season is nearing its end.

No such luck.

The first telltale sign that Jude is coming down with a nasty cold is eye drainage.  Ew.  It gets all green and gunky and seals his eye shut overnight.  Poor guy.  I have some drops that clear it up, but it's always the first sign that things are going south.  Congestion sets in.  Then the coughing.  Then the all night wakings.  At that point, our world becomes a sea of saline drops, nasal aspirators, cool mist humidifiers, and Boogie Wipes.
Our pediatrician has repeated over and over that the typical newborn/baby gets about 12 colds a year.  It seems like Jude constantly has one.  Hell, he was hospitalized for RSV for five days back in February.  I can't help but get sort of panic-y when he gets sick now.  Although the RSV virus was special, he ran a 102-103 degree fever the entire time and that was his first symptom before anything else.  He isn't running a fever this time.  Thank goodness.

I just hate when Jude is perfectly healthy and I go to pick him up from daycare and he is happily playing with a friend.  Then, the friend turns around to grin at me and all I can see is the river of snot pouring out of his nose and I know that Jude will have a cold in about 48 hours.  Ugh.

I guess it's the expected repurcussions in the glamourous life of a working mom who sends her kid to daycare.