My last post talked about each small mommy/household task being an act of service for my family. Little did I know that I would get a crash course in service, in a way that I purposely left out because I just don't like thinking about this aspect of my job... caring for the sick.
Friday night Emily woke up crying at 10:45pm. She had gotten sick and was terrified. Jim and I worked together to take care of her over the next few hours and around 1am, I set myself up in the twin bed in her room to stay with her through the night, using my cat-like reflexes to catch puke at the slightest gag from her. Thankfully by 2am she stopped vomiting. At 4am, she was feeling much better because she kept trotting herself out of her toddler bed and over to me and over to the night light and eventually over to the door, trying to escape. Game over, I tucked her in, prayed the puking was behind her, and went back to my own bed. I was able to get 3 solid hours of sleep in before the day started.
As an aside: Through this awful story, there are a few silver linings or positives or blessings or whatever you want to call them. Basically, it could have been worse, and I am thankful for the things that made these days a little "easier." The initial positive was that since she got sick on a Friday night, I had 2 days with Jim home to help... without work and schedules getting in the way. Saturday went fine, besides trying to keep Emily from contaminating the house (feeble effort that it was), and then Sunday came. Jim and I went to separate churches, taking no children. Lunch came and went and all was well. In the 2 o'clock hour Jim decided to take June and Josh to Walmart to look at bikes and get helmets. They were healthy, so off they went. On the car ride home, Josh lost his cookies, into his new helmet and all over himself. This would kick off the 17 hours of Josh throwing up every 15-45 minutes. I lost count after he hit puke #20. No lie. His body would.not.rest. I set him up on a "sick bed" in our room, on our floor, with a bowl that night. Like clockwork he would continue to get sick. June actually wanted to sleep in our room and was the one who would call down to me when Josh started getting sick. He was such a good brother. However, when it was nearing 10 with no end in sight, I moved June over to the top bunk in Josh and Elizabeth's room so he could get some sleep and not be awoken by Josh.
Before I continue I will add 2 "tips" that really helped in this instance. I read a blog this Winter that said once a stomach bug enters your house, feed ALL your children like they are sick so if they do get sick, it's easier to manage. I've cleaned up chili and spaghetti puke before and I TOTALLY know what she means here. So all the kids had been on a pretty light diet. Also, the blogger recommended sending every child to bed with a barf bowl, even completely healthy ones. I am soooooooooo glad I took that advice. SO glad.
Onward...
As I was tucking June into the top bunk, Elizabeth was stirring and claimed she felt sick. I really didn't know if she was calling my bluff, just awoken by the commotion or if she was sick, but I set her up on a sick-bed on the other side of my room, bowl and all. 45 minutes later, she started. It was about every 45 minutes to an hour of her throwing up for the next 8-9 hours. So, you can imagine Josh AND Elizabeth taking turns.
To catch you up, in case I lost you at all: Emily puked Friday night. Josh was barfing since Sunday afternoon and now we have Eliz consistently barfing since 10:45 Sunday night. Enter June. Thankfully, since I had him upstairs and with a bowl already we were set and at 2 AM, he joined the ranks. Jim fell asleep downstairs and I let him sleep because 1. He had work and 2. I could handle it and 3. I didn't want him exposed more than he already was. So literally all night I jumped up between 3 very sick kids. The last episode happened at 8AM Monday morning and right around that time I decided to call the pediatrician... I know nobody needed to be seen, but the scary thing was that none of them could even take a sip of fluids without their bellies rejecting it through the night. Josh hadn't had anything new in his system for 17 hours and he was consistently losing fluids. I needed him to stop getting sick and start drinking. I called the doctor to see if they would call in a prescription to ease his system. I figured if Josh didn't get fluids in him soon, we were looking at a hospital visit. Jim stayed home long enough to get the prescription ordered and picked up.
A less bright side was that when I went to get Emily up, I found she had thrown up once through the night. I am almost glad she didn't cry for me because I would have felt very torn leaving her alone but needing to be with the other 3. Her bed was stripped, clothes were changed, and Monday continued. The big kids laid on the couches and re-cooped. Emily was her normal self.
Another positive: In the course of 3 days, all 4 kids had been taken down. It wasn't enjoyable at the time, but I could tell this was a highly contagious virus and it somehow feels better for them all to have it and be out of the "who's next" woods from the get-go.
While the kids rested I tried to reclaim the house and since only bleach can kill this virus, I got out the cleaner and started sanitizing things. Being 14 weeks pregnant, I don't have my normal stamina, at all, so cleaning and washing and taking care of everyone was exhausting. (It took extra skill and will power to get through barfing kids while feeling icky yourself... woo!) Thankfully when Emily took her morning nap, I was able to get about an hour of a nap too.
Jim came home from work early too, to help, and already wasn't feeling well. By Monday night, he too had started, thankfully not throwing up, but he got hit hard nonetheless. Thankfully, the kids all slept through the night so I got good rest. Jim slept downstairs again so I didn't even hear him getting up.
Friday night through Monday I powered through... I took care of those who needed it, I cleaned, and I did what was necessary.
Today (Tuesday) I woke to feeling frustrated and angry and overwhelmed. My morning sickness symptoms were rough today: nauseous, headache, tired, and gaggy. The kids had regained some energy and were more destructive around the house and rowdier and I knew I had zero help that day since Jim was sick. I felt somehow very alone and like the odds were against me to get out of this unscathed. I was pissed, I was tired. I even cried. I'm not a crier. I felt very overwhelmed, especially when you don't know where the end of all this is.
This isn't a run-of-the-mill 24 hour bug so I am still holding my breath to see if the kids are "done" with symptoms. Hopefully it's a quiet night. Jim has confirmed that it's a really uncomfortable and awful virus. One of the worst he has had. Wonderful.
The good news is that the worst for our family is likely over. I'm praying that it is, indeed, over for the kids. The bad news is that I'm still needing to power through, clean and sanitize, and not get taken down by this. HOW am I possibly going to dodge this?! We are 5/6, people!
One of the saddest things about this is that June had a field trip today to a school play. He was really looking forward to it and when I told him he couldn't go, he broke down crying. I felt so bad for him. Stupid virus. I know I've always taken issue with stomach bugs and never liked them or their symptoms, but really, there just isn't any good that comes from them. I know the symptoms serve a purpose in our bodies to get the virus out, but they are so hard on those who have them, especially littles, and so gross for those who clean up after those who have them. I don't see a "win" here.
Before I crash into bed tonight, and pray that we all sleep through, I am determined to get the house tidied and set back to clean, so maybe I can feel less defeated by this giant monster that has invaded my house... I already have loads of laundry so that ALL the beds in the house have clean sheets, fresh and un-germy. To think, this virus came in in such a teeny tiny 14 month old body. Go figure. Almost impressive, if I didn't loathe this virus so much...
No comments:
Post a Comment