Lockdown

In the Tree House: Under Lockdown

By: Samantha S. Daviss

I’m not sure who lost their mind more in the 96 hours of quarantined lockdown that my 19 month old and I endured together this last weekend.

I knew he was feeling bad early last week, because he was a little cranky and wasn’t sleeping well through the night, and towards the end of the week his fever starting to spike. Come to find out, he not only had the flu, but to top things off he had strep throat. So luckily my parents were available to take the two older boys in order to prevent this mess from spreading.

Needless to say from Thursday to Sunday, was an adventure. The first two days were tough because the baby was still feeling puny. So we stuck to fluids, meds, and lots of naps. Then by the third day, the fever finally broke, and we were so bored that we just went for a drive in the truck with all the dogs and to get Mommy a cup of coffee. Mainly just so the two of us could see the light of day.

By the end of the third day, we were both turning circles around each other with absolute boredom. It was actually kind of funny. We took lots of baths, lots of showers, and played in the backyard some, but no too much because the temperatures outside were dropping.

We worked on new words, we did puzzles together, and we played all sorts of games. I have to admit, even though it was under “yucky” circumstances, it was kind of fun to have some alone bonding time together, seeing how he is the caboose (#3) of our brood and has really never had one-on-one Mommy time. So we did take advantage of that. But with my husband having been out of town…the baby garble was starting to get to me and the lack of getting to play with his brothers was starting to get to him.

By day four (Sunday), I think we both had officially lost our minds. He was so bored and feeling such cabin fever, that he actually ran up to the glass door of our front door and started beating on it like he was some sort of caged animal. I couldn’t help but laugh, because I was feeling the same way.

There are only so many ways you can fly toy airplanes, so many naps you can take, so many loads of laundry you can do before you start to lose your mind. But we wanted to be safe, lay low and get well, and definitely not infect any one else.

So needless to say, by Sunday, the fever had been gone for over 24 hours, and our big outing (at least 5 times) that day was to walk to the end of our sidewalk and back, considering the temperatures outside were now in the low 40s.

We were down to the final hours of my husband coming home and his brothers returning to the house. I have never used so many Clorox wipes or so many cans of Lysol in my life, but our house was completely disinfected from top to bottom. We decided to take one more bath, then eat, and in the mean time of waiting for everyone to return home…he and I decided it was time to “rock” out to some 80s music together. And I have to say, this little guy loves to dance so when the 80s started blaring on our stereo, his little feet started moving…and we were startled by the surprise of our “Daddy” sneaking in the back door, just standing there watching us dance.

Even though he and I were starting to lose our minds, there was one point during all of this that I realized this was a once in a life time opportunity for he and I to bond and have some alone time; but I also realized just how much I missed all the noise and chaos of our home. The first day was nice, second day was okay, then the last two days it was just down right weird with everyone gone.

So even though you may get tired and burned out…just remember that all the chaos and noise in your life can be taken away in a heartbeat so always tell those you love just how you feel. Luckily mine was just a temporary silence, but sometimes that silence is permanent and can be absolutely deafening.