The last entry, I wrote about my mother-in-law´s visit. She stayed with us for about three weeks and we made the most out of her time with us after the first unfortunate 3 days thanks to Hannah. We went out almost every day... to buy fabric, to buy crafts supplies, to have coffee / tea, to see ruins in Antigua, to the Zoo (Hannah´s first trip but really not memorable since she is still too little to notice, all she cared about was people watching), to see relatives, etc. All in all, it was quite enjoyable and I got so used to her presence that it was sad to see her off. She was supposed to leave on Saturday, July 27, but when we arrived at the bus station, the morning bus to Malacatán had just left. My husband had several things to do that Saturday so instead of driving back for the afternoon bus, he decided she would leave Sunday. As I always say, everything happens for a reason, and it was a good thing she didn´t leave because later that Saturday what started out as a mild cough and runny nose on Thursday went into full blown supercold. I came down with a fever and my whole body felt weak and very much like I assume being run over by a truck would feel like. It was so bad, my mother-in-law, who is a very religious Evangelist, spent a good portion of her last night with us praying for me at my bedside. It was great having her there to look after Hannah, but I don´t know if it was her presence or the fever, but I fell into a mini depression over being so far away from my mother and spent the entire day and night feeling quite miserable.
On Sunday morning my fever was gone but despite my protests, my husband wouldn´t take us with him to the bus station so Hannah and I had to say our goodbyes while in bed. After dropping off his mother, my husband rushed back to care for us because by Sunday my baby´s nose was runny as well. Monday came and my baby´s symptoms turned into a cold, but thankfully like the last time she got sick, she didn´t come down with a fever. That was about a week ago, and we have spent this entire time in bed, hence the horrible case of cabin fever. By "entire time", I truly mean that the entire week (in my case add two days cause I came down hard on Saturday) was spent living in our family bed. We ate there, drank thyme tea, slept there, breastfed, coughed and blew our nose, watched TV there, played with some toys on and off, breastfed, watched old movies on +Netflix, coughed, slept some more... well, you get the picture. I was surprised my baby didn´t get restless sooner, but I guess she felt as groggy and tired and beat up as I did. The worst part about our cold was that she had made so much progress walking the week before we got sick. So much so that she was walking by herself with the aid of the dinosaur/Loch Ness monster/dragon fisher price walker she got for her first birthday from her Guatemalan grandmother (my BF´s mother). I named the walker Nelly, why? because she kind of reminded me of the Loch Ness monster and I thought the name suited her. Yes, the walker was also christened a "she". Anyway, all of that progress came to a sudden halt due to illness. I helped her walk on the bed once in a while, but yeah, not the same.
This past Saturday, I knew I was better because I started getting completely restless and had a full cabin fever reaction to having spent so much time in bed. I hadn´t checked my email, hadn´t written in my blog, hadn´t left the house, hadn´t felt the sun on my skin, hadn´t breathed fresh air...ARRGGGHHH! But of course I had to take care of myself, lest the supercold turn into... gasp!.... Pneumonia! I know several people who have reached pneumonia stage, including my BF´s mother, so I had to make sure neither I nor Hannah reached that point. I don´t want to have to take antibiotics that would mean an abrupt end to our breastfeeding. So the bed rest and TLC continued, but on Sunday I felt well enough to make some peanut butter/nutella oatmeal cookies and gluten-free pancakes for dinner. That was another sign I was better, the urge to cook. While cooking I realized that we had run out of pretty much everything, since I am usually the one who does the grocery shopping, but I didn´t want my husband to leave us alone on a Sunday, so I asked him to do the shopping for me on Monday. Yesterday, when he got home from work I wrote up a shopping list for him, complete with brand names and bag sizes and weights. Let´s just say I am very particular and kind of OCD about my grocery shopping. He looked at me and knew how bored I was and said he thought we were both well enough to accompany him, but warned that we´d have to stay in the car just to be on the safe side hahahaha! I didn´t care if my trip would be limited to the car, I was so excited about the opportunity to leave the house!!
I was in my pj's of course, so I put on a big comfy warm robe and my slippers and put Hannah in a comfy sweater (she started squealing in delight and doing her Flamenco hands and feet so I knew she knew she´d be leaving the house and was just as excited) and then carried her to the car close to my chest so I could wrap her in my robe as well. Into the back seat we went and off to run errands with my husband. It was great to be outside and see all of the people and cars pass us by as we waited in the bank parking lot, the grocery store parking lot, and the local market parking lot. On our way home we were also treated to some take-out +McDonald's french fries so all in all it was a great break away from our forced confinement. Today, I woke up and actually had the urge to sit at the computer and catch up on emails and my blog so YEY! I am officially on my way to recovery! I even decided I´d recreate a recipe I saw Gordon Ramsay make during the tons of hours of TV I have watched over the past week. A delicious Garlic Roasted Chicken, and I added a twist by flavoring the butter with garlic, sage and rosemary. I don´t mind saying that it was quite scrumptious. The best part of my lunch was that I could actually SMELL and TASTE the chicken, I have spent so many days without a sense of smell or taste because I had horrible nasal congestion.
Hopefully, Hannah and I will feel well enough by Thursday (2 weeks after coming down with the worst cold I have ever experienced in my entire life, which is why I refer to it as the supercold) so I can see my BF. I haven´t seen her in a month because she has been out of town and, even though my mother-in-law´s visit kept me busy enough to not miss her so much, this illness induced cabin fever made me go into serious BF withdrawal.
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