The flu that wouldn't leave

It began over a week ago. My poor ds refusing lunch and then throwing up over both of us when I tried to take him out of his carseat. No sooner had he recovered than I succumbed. It wasn't horrible. A day of nausea with only one trip driving the porcelain bus followed by 4-5 days of general fatigue (worse than my usual pregnancy fatigue).

I'm not the kind of person who gets sick. I can count on two fingers the amount of times I've thrown up from illness in the past 15 years.

Yet, on Friday (two days ago - a mere 6 days after my bout with the "flu"), my throat began to tickle. I felt fine otherwise, so I ignored it. Yesterday, I had no appetite and felt achy and exhausted all day. DH played with ds in the afternoon so I could lie down. I spent 1.5 hours dutifully in bed with my eyes closed. No sleep.

I forced myself to eat some chickpea salad when I woke up wondering if I was in desperate need of proper (read: vegetables and protein) food. I did feel better for about 3 hours, but the throat tickle had turned into a full-blown cough and a slight fever.

Last night, I finally managed to fall asleep around 11:30 (I started trying at 10:30). Then, I woke up at 3:30 to pee and I haven't been able to get back to sleep since.

The exacerbating circumstance is this: I've been waking up this early every morning for the past two weeks. If it's not up to pee, it's up from a nightmare of the family-members-losing-limbs variety. In the end of my pregnancy with ds, I would wake up every morning before 5. I didn't set an alarm, it just happened. I didn't have to be up, I just woke up. I would eventually get back to sleep around 6:30-7:00 and sleep as long as I needed. Now, I have a baby who sleeps really well, but often wakes by 8:00. If I can manage to get back to sleep, I'm lucky if I make up 30 minutes.

Ugh.

I just want to sleep. I want sleep to be easy and pleasant. So, now I'm sipping herbal tea with honey and hoping that when I crawl back into bed, sleep comes quickly and completely. I can't take another 6 months of 5 hours/night.