Difficult weeks / difficult decision

Last two weeks were very difficult.

On Monday two weeks ago Alex didn't sleep at night. She was screaming her lungs out. She had very bad runny nose. We originally thought it's just a cold. Hubby was looking after her until 3:30am then I took over, because he was so exhausted. So that night I got like 3-4 hours sleep all together and went to work at 7am. Nearly falling asleep there, I had to ask to leave early as Alex stopped eating and got even worse. 

We went to the doctor who found out what's wrong. Ear infection! That was the reason for her runny nose. We got antibiotics and the following night was a bit better. We had to give Alex some baby painkillers to calm her down as well, but she didn't need them that often. She still didn't want to eat, but our doctor said the most important think is to get her drink, anything to drink, that the appetite will come back as soon as she starts feeling a bit better. 

She did start feeling better, and after a few days even started to eat a little bit, but me and hubby got worse.

Doc said we could caught a viral infection, but nothing else. Well we both had sore throat and bit of sniffles, but in my case it was even worse.

With the low amount of iron, tiredness caused by the lack of sleep from Monday and the low iron levels and the viral infection, I was very weak. Thursday morning I didn't feel good at all, went to work, still OK, but after about an hour there I fainted. As I know when it is going to happen and how it feels, I was able to sit down on a chair before I collapsed. My colleagues called the company nurse and she took me to the office. On a wheelchair!!!! Oh, how embarrassed I felt, but I wasn't able to walk. Everyone was looking at me. That was something I didn't like.

Spent nearly an hour in the nurse room, lying down with cold compresses, then we agreed I'll rather go home to sleep. My colleague had to drive me home. When I came, my hubby dropped her back to work and I went to bed. Slept for two hours, but felt still lightheaded and weak.

I couldn't go to work on Friday either, so I had longer weekend even though it was no fun. Monday morning at work I wasn't well again, but it got better by lunch time, so I thought it might be over.

Tuesday, I had to go home again after two hours there. It was a day of my regular maternity appointment with my doctor. 

As soon as she saw me, she said she can see I'm struggling. I had low blood pressure, the cold was over, but still felt very bad. There was a decision to be made. Do I go back to work, do I go part time, or not at all?

As I spoke to one of our company nurses just that morning, she said, my body is probably telling me to take it easy. She used to work as midwife, so she explained to me that the following two weeks will be very difficult for me as the baby has a growth spur and the placenta must work even harder now. Using all my blood supply for the baby and with the low iron level, there is not much left for me. My maternity leave was supposed to start in 2.5 weeks.

So after consultation with my hubby, the doctor and after getting all the information I needed, I decided to stay home. 

No more work for me before the baby comes. The health of both of us is more important and I wouldn't risk driving around in a car with the possibility of getting dizzy or even worse. So that's it. 

I'm actually very happy I decided to stay home because today I felt pretty bad again. Had to go for afternoon nap and woke up feeling very weak again. Now I'm trying to sort out my diet to get more energetic food for me and the baby and I hope it will help. Of course I'm taking my iron supplements as recommended, two per day, so we'll see if this gets me back into good shape.

BTW as Alex is completely fine now, she sleeps through the night! So our sleep training worked :)