Keep Your Hands Off My Baby!

I've had to lay down a new rule: Keep Your Hands Off My Baby! Two evenings ago, a neighbour and I, with Delilah in Snugli, were at the neighbourhood convenience store, where we ran into yet another neighbour ,"A", with her little girl, "H". "A" immediately had her hands on Delilah's face, as most of the neighbours are wont to do. Directly following this hands-on greeting, I learned that "H" has been ill, coughing and sneezing and the like. I immediately retreated to the other side of the store away from further contagion, but "A" came back over to me when it was time to check out and made to touch Delilah's face again. "Don't TOUCH her", said I, and was given a dumb-cow look and questioned, with the reasoning, "I'm not sick"...I directly challenged the lack of intelligence in that statement by insisiting that, if not sick, she's definitely a carrier.

Fast forward 16 or so hours. Delilah began coughing and sneezing mid afternoon yesterday and had a bit of an elevated temperature. I was mildly concerned and hoped the antibodies in my milk would kick the germ-invader's butt. I think she IS resisting the bug, but all last night she was restless and would go bouts of congestion which would prevent her from breathing easily. I was awake for a stretch of about 4 hours, where she would stop breathing for a second then cough and sputter, trying to clear her nasal passages. She settled down around 5 AM or so, seeimingly comfortable. Every little sound she made woke me. Needless to say, she's tired, I'm tired, and I hope she kicks this thing soon. I'm not looking forward to another night spent awake, fretting over my daughter.

Which brings me around to the topic of today's post: Keep Your (disgusting, dirty, germ-infested) Hands Off My Baby! You don't go around touching random adults' faces, you wouldn't consider touching ME without permission, so why do you think touching my child is acceptable? I admit, I am partly responsible for allowing it in the first place, but no more! Future attempts will be thwarted and the evil-doers will be reprimanded!