Turns out Dallin coming back from Hungary with COVID made it really easy for both me and Teddy to get sick as well, so we all spent a week at home with the doggos. Fortunately, Dallin’s test came back negative the day I tested positive, so at least we had someone who could run out to get supplies for us.
I didn’t get too sick in that I mostly just had some body aches with a fever and (later) some congestion. I actually thought I had mastitis AGAIN, which I was a bit panicky about because I’d told myself that if I got mastitis for a fifth time, I really should stop breastfeeding. Also I did not have easy access to more antibiotics. But as soon as I thought about stopping breastfeeding, I got really sad and realized I wasn’t emotionally ready to stop, even if it kept making me sick. So I was SUPER glad to find out it was not mastitis, though yeah, also very bummed I tested positive for COVID after having avoided it for two and half years of a pandemic.
Way worse than my own body aches (which I could treat with tylenol) was seeing Teddy get sick, even though it didn’t last very long for him. One afternoon after a walk, he very suddenly spiked a fever of 104.9 and I flew into a panic thinking our baby was going to die in Germany and it was my fault for dragging us here. I rationally acknowledged that babies get sick literally all the time and usually don’t die in this day and age from a fever. We still called our pediatrician (and PA brother-in-law for good measure) to get some advice (namely: keep him hydrated+baby tylenol).
He woke up basically every half hour that first night and felt so hot every time. When morning finally came, he just kind of looked dead inside and his eyes wouldn’t focus on me or anything and he just wanted to be held. He is usually such a smiley, active boy and it was heartbreaking to see him be this sick shell of himself for about 40 hours. His fever broke that second night and it was so relieving to see him giggle and coo like normal the next day. He was basically fine after getting over the fever, though he also seemed to have lost his voice a little bit (did someone say old man coos?).
One of the big bummers about getting COVID was that my brother Taylor was supposed to come visit us last week and I was worried about the timing after testing positive. He booked a hotel for the first couple nights he was supposed to be here, just in case our symptoms were still bad. However, my 5 days of quarantine technically ended the first full day he was supposed to be here and I was feeling much better by then, so we thought it would work out. Taylor had two academic conferences in Europe with a few days in between them, so he had arranged to stay a few days with us.
You have probably heard about or experienced the massive flight delays and cancellations going on due to staff shortages all around the world (is now the right time to become a commercial pilot?!?). Turns out COVID was the least of our concerns because Eurowings kindly canceled his flight the day before he was supposed to leave without rebooking him. So he rebooked independently to arrive on Friday instead of the original Thursday. However, his flight on Friday was so delayed that his 2.5 hour layover in Cologne was too short and he missed the second leg of his flight to Berlin. He stood in line for 6 hours at the airport to try to get things sorted and though unable to get him on another flight, the airline did get him to a hotel by midnight and pay for him to take a train from Cologne to Berlin the following day (Saturday).
We finally greeted Taylor Saturday late afternoon instead of Thursday night. We were really happy to have him here, even if it was for a much shorter period than expected. He babysat for us so we could go out in the evening after Teddy had gone to bed and we took him on a short Spree River cruise where I received an excellent sunburn, to the Berlin Wall memorial which is pretty close to our house, and to a flea market. It was a whirlwind, but nice to have another visitor!
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