Parents are superheroes, did you know?

For the past two nights, Eli has had a lot of trouble sleeping because he can't breathe through all the junk in his nose. We've bought saline drops, nasal bulb suckers, essential oils to soothe the nasal passages, and at least 14 different humidifiers, but the only thing that has worked so far is to put him in his carseat so gravity keeps the snot away from his face. Daniel and I have been up with him the past two nights between about 11pm and 2am when things seem to be the worst in terms of congestion. He falls asleep multiple times over this period, but wakes up crying within a few minutes, usually right as soon as we settle ourselves back in bed. During the days he has been pretty cheerful, but he crashes hard when he needs a nap. Things he used to let us do with no problem are now an immense struggle, including all the things that his cold necessitates, such as wiping his face, giving him Tylenol or Motrin, or putting him into the carseat for the billionth time.

This is just to say, to all those parents out there reading this, especially mine and Daniel's: we salute you. I knew parenthood is challenging and requires a good deal of self-sacrifice, but I didn't really know until our kid got sick, and this is an extremely minor version of sick. When it occurs to me how many times we will nurse this kid through colds--nine to twelve times per year for the first 5 years or so--when Daniel and I are both expected to be at work the next morning, I quake in my boots. I'm sure with some distance and a few more colds under our parental belt, this will not seem like a big deal. But at 1:30am, as I drag myself out of bed for the 7th time in 2 hours to comfort our miserable and deliriously tired kiddo, it's all pretty overwhelming. It makes me wonder how our friends with kids who have really been sick, in the ICU for weeks or months, get through it with any shred of sanity intact. They must be superheroes.