Due to a run-in with the stomach flu, our household has had a week of semi-isolationism. When I was out of town last weekend, Bryan got to experience our very first child throwing up incident. Actually, it was the second. The first was on a trans-continental flight, and can be read about here. But that was more of a gagging incident.
At 2:47am on Saturday, January, 31; Bryan posted the following to Facebook:
Sylvia and I are getting matching T-shirts made up: “I survived the crib-barfing of 01/30/10”.
Unfortunately, the crib barfing incidents were followed by the dad’s-bed barfing incident, followed by several sitting on dad’s lap barfing into a bucket incidents. She fell asleep at 4:30am and has been barf-free since.
When I got back home on Monday, Sylvia told me in excitement, “I pehped! Pehp. Sylva bed. Pehp. Daddy bed. Phep. Daddy pillow!” She pulled me into my room, crawled up on the bed, pulled back the covers, and showed me where the “pehpping” took place. Understandably, it made quite an impression on her.
Bryan caught Sylvia’s bug on Tuesday night and was totally out of commission for two days. He’s better now and back at work today.
After Bryan got sick, I decided to attempt to sterilize the house. Jessica brought me some Lysol cleaner, I pulled my steam cleaner out of the basement, and I tackled each room in the house with a fierce cleaning energy. By the end of the day on Wednesday, my hands were red and dry from all the cleaning and hand washing I’d been doing. Andrew’s were too. But my house was cleeeeaaaaan.
Andrew held up all week, and was healthy for preschool, but this morning, he had a bit of an unfortunate experience in the bathroom. Looks like he’s got a touch of the bug. Sylvia and I have canceled nearly all our out-of-the-house activities this week. Wednesday night, she was up eight times in the night howling with a painful tummy. And her diaper situation has gone from normal to very unfortunately not normal.
So it looks like we’ll be canceling our weekend plans as well.
I’m just really, really hopeful that the germs will all have dissipated by Monday. Granny comes to town on Tuesday, and I want us to be germ-free by then. Oh, and that means that I also need to stay healthy. Please, please!!
Thinking back, the last time Bryan had the stomach flu was in 1999. And the last time I had a stomach bug was in Botswana in 1997. Oooo, that was a doozy. Liz and Janet, thank you for helping me through that one. Neither of my kids have ever thrown up before. So I’ll just be thankful for the amazing run of luck we’ve had up to this point. And we’ll keep drawing and reading books and watching videos until health is restored and we can rejoin society!
Well…gotta say, I'm really sorry for you and Bryan, Althea. Those aren't fun times, at all!! I'm not surprised Bryan got sick…holding a sick baby for hours usually does it! And…well, I have to admit, I would Amen your comment that hopefully you are over it all by Monday, but…c'est la vie!! See you soon.
Well, since I wasn't there for the actual barfing event, I'd say have towelsand a bucket available. Doesn't seem like babies have any sense ofdirecting their purge…
Any suggestions? I just picked Zachary up from daycare because he threw up today. Hopefully, he got it all out of his system there.
Well…gotta say, I'm really sorry for you and Bryan, Althea. Those aren't fun times, at all!! I'm not surprised Bryan got sick…holding a sick baby for hours usually does it! And…well, I have to admit, I would Amen your comment that hopefully you are over it all by Monday, but…c'est la vie!! See you soon.
Well, since I wasn't there for the actual barfing event, I'd say have towelsand a bucket available. Doesn't seem like babies have any sense ofdirecting their purge…
Sarah, glad you enjoyed this post. I always figure that there's no point in going through troubling times if you can't laugh about it afterward :)And Janet, sorry to hear that Torin has given you so much experience in the throwing-up department. Thanks again for your support back in Botswana!
ooooh, I remember the 1997 Botswana bug…we were sure you had some deadly exotic African virus… Anyway, I am pretty impressed that your children have never thrown up before. Torin is only 15 months and I have lost count.
Perhaps one of your funniest posts to date.
Sarah, glad you enjoyed this post. I always figure that there's no point in going through troubling times if you can't laugh about it afterward :)And Janet, sorry to hear that Torin has given you so much experience in the throwing-up department. Thanks again for your support back in Botswana!
KEDS just experienced the Great Christmas Purge. Milo started it – playing normally one minute, whining the next, pehpping the next (he continued to warn us with whines pre-pehpping, which was helpful – Thanks Milo!). Then Shara got it – on Christmas. I stayed in bed with her and read Great Expectations aloud to her between bucket bouts. Later that same night, Daniel went down. And then Stephanie. Mark, Mom and I were loudly proclaiming our superior immune systems – tempting fate, but none of us fell prey.
Karen,
This sounds terrible! I’m glad you didn’t get sick. And glad you were able to read a good book with Shara throughout her ordeal. What a sad Christmas experience. I think I threw up on Christmas Eve one year…
Ahh, at least it makes a good story!