I’ve always been fairly healthy.

I eat well, do a bit of exercise, never really had anything major wrong with me - you know, apart from the obvious.

But that all changed about 3 months after P (I’m officially dropping the ‘Little’ as I nearly put my back out trying to pick him today) was born. Since then I’ve fallen in to a cycle of coughs, colds and sickness.

And currently, I’m in the middle of a cold that has lasted, ooh, since just before time began, or so it seems. I just can’t get rid of it. This isn’t unusual either, I have a perpetual cold (if only science could harness th epower of my perpetual cold we need never rely on oil again!), which is starting to get more than a little annoying.

As I’ve already implied I get a feeling I know why I’ve always got a snotty nose at the minute, it’s all P’s fault.

It’s probably a little hard of me to lay the blame for my constant illness solely at the door of P. He can’t help the fact that he gets colds at nursery then passes them onto me. Him catching colds is all part of his immune system developing its defences and at the rate he’s going I fully expect his defences are going to be strong enough to hold of the viral Normandy Landings by the end of the month.

As a side note, this is one of the things that really pisses me off about having a sick baby - people telling me it’s “good for him”. A sick baby means a baby who doesn’t sleep properly. It means a baby who is grumpy all day long (I wonder where he gets that from). It means a baby who does shits the consistency of coffee (the drink not the bean) that more often then not cover him head to toe. It means I’m worried and knackered all the time.

Telling me “this is good for him” may well be true, but it’s not something I want to hear when he’s sick. Alright? Glad we’ve cleared that up.

Where was I? Oh, yes.

Nursery is definitely where P gets most of his diseases from. We fully expected this. We watched my Brother-in-law come down with everything from conjunctivitis to hand, foot and mouth after he put his son into nursery. It’s all part of signing your child up to nursery and it’s impossible to avoid - kids mix with each other and pass things on. Then when P gets home and pokes me in the eye/slaps me in the face/punches me in the mouth (as he’s becoming inclined to do) he passes it on to me.

Tiredness also plays a major part in this illness merry-go-round. When you’ve spent the week looking after a child who wont sleep (day or night) and needs constant attention, just because they feel so miserable, it wears you out. Having your sleep pattern interrupted again after it’s been pretty stable for the last 9 months, makes you question how you survived without sleep when your child was first born. Being run down makes you more susceptible to catching things - so when the tiny hand grabs for your mouth, the deal is made - you’re getting this cold too Dad.

But as a parent to a small child there’s never any time to get over things. You can’t just have the day of being a Dad.

So I’m sat here at the computer with my toilet roll stuffed with snotty tissues and my multivitamins, hoping this cold will go away and waiting for the next one to come.