Sitting at 38 weeks pregnant, the inevitable 2-week before delivery cold came on full force. Runny nose, horrible cough, no voice. Being so pregnant, with a toddler, made things extra awesome (I’m being sarcastic). 

In talking with a number of other mamas this cold right before you have your baby is “a thing.” It is as if your body is saying if you are not miserable yet, let me throw one more thing at you before you push a small human out and you go months with little-to-no sleep.

I am 2-for-2 when it comes to this cold. Both pregnancies I got a horrible cold 2 weeks before delivery. Any mama who has been in this situation knows it is AWFUL. You cannot take cold medicine, sit in the sauna or steam room. You just suck it up, throw a box of Kleenex in your bag and some cough drops and power through your day. 

When my husband got a cold while I was pregnant, he learned not to mention it to me. I noticed his coughing, sneezing, etc. but had no sympathy given the reasons above. Yes, I sound a bit heartless but as I would remind him he could take cold medicine for his Man Cold. Ah yes, he made sure I read the article that Man Colds are a real thing proven by research. Insert my eye–roll.  

Fast forward to now, three weeks postpartum. Our toddler brought home a cold from daycare. Living in the same house we could not quarantine him or stick him in a bubble, so we did the best we could by telling him to: “Cover your mouth, don’t cough in your brother’s face, kiss him on the hair or feet not his face….” but inevitably the newborn got his first cold. If we thought we weren’t getting sleep then, cue no sleep now.

Here I sit, with another horrible cold. Runny nose and cough (due to the drainage). Sexy I know. My husband put his “doctor” hat on and said I should take cold medicine so I would stop coughing everywhere. He reminded me how annoying I am to him when he is sick and telling him to stop coughing everywhere. He also wanted to make sure I was resting to get better when the baby was napping. I reminded him that the laundry and house do not clean themselves (although I would be genius if I could figure out how to automate those things…our Alexa Dot needs to step up her game). 

I am exclusively pumping, which I did with our first son (future blog posts on this coming soon), so I told him I cannot take cold medicine. My husband who thinks he is a doctor this week clearly did not believe me, so he consulted our local pharmacist. 

Our cute little toddler walked through the door holding two family size bags of cough drops and said “Mama I got your medicine.” I thanked him and turned to my “doctor” husband and asked, “So where is the cold medicine?” Trying not to laugh as he knew what my response was about to be he said “The pharmacist said you are doing everything you can given since you are pumping.”

I am really hoping next week my husband thinks he is a professional housecleaner or laundry man. As I think his “doctor” hat needs to be put back on the shelf.