I’m having one of those weeks that every working mom can appreciate.  In my case, it started Monday morning when day care called at 10:30.

“Chris is running a 102-degree fever.”

I still don’t understand how a child can go from being fine at breakfast to being very sick by snack time, but that was the reality.  I called my husband, who was just pulling out of the driveway to head to work, and had him swing by the day care to get Chris.  We made arrangements to do a baby swap halfway between.  The alternative was for Chris to have to wait 45 minutes for me to make the drive from downtown Tampa to Lutz. 

“Yup, he’s sick,” my husband told me 10 minutes later.  “His face is all red and he’s very lethargic.”

After spending two hours at the doctor’s office, we knew my 15-month-old did not have an ear infection or strep.  The swine flu test was negative, but the doctor started him on Tamiflu just in case. 

I called my boss and gave him the bad news: Chris MIGHT have swine flu.  Which meant I MIGHT have been exposed to swine flu.  We decided it would be best for me to work from home on Tuesday so I didn’t pass it on to the entire office.

I was up most of the night with a cranky baby, so it’s a good thing I didn’t have to wake up at my usual 3:45 a.m. and drive downtown.  Carter got the kids up and dressed and fed and took Jay to school.  Chris seemed a little better and came close to unplugging my laptop only once.  It helped that my husband was home, too.

Then the baby broke out in spots. 

I took my 13th furlough day of the year on Wednesday so I could take care of Chris.  We were back at the doctor’s office where we got the happy news he did not have swine flu, but does have hand-foot-mouth disease, which is apparently a common childhood illness that causes spots.  The good news is he should be fine by the weekend.  The bad news is he can’t go back to day care this week.

So now it’s Thursday and the tricky balancing act of making money and caring for my sick son continues.  I worked in the office from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., then met my husband in a parking lot on Dale Mabry Highway to do another baby swap.  Now Carter’s at work and I’m at my kitchen table feeding Chris ham and cheese while I telecommute.

It’s not easy.  Let’s hope Chris takes a long nap!