It's something I was able to avoid for the first 2 years of mommyhood...but March 12th changed that.
Until now I had not been able to put the "I've caught my child's throw up multiple times" patch on my Mama vest. But now I can. Yeah!!
I was feeling pretty tired yesterday and actually thought I was going to take a nap while Benjamin napped. So after he went down, I grabbed Jonah and we tried to lie down. 15 minutes later Benjamin whimpered on the monitor but went back to sleep. 10 minutes later he was crying again and I thought it was the crazy strong wind outside that was waking him up. But he stayed awake. So I put Jonah down in the playpen and thought I would lay down with Benjamin and get him to go to sleep. He laid with me but didn't sleep so 20 minutes later we got up because Jonah was crying. I grabbed Jonah and walked halfway down the stairs....Benjamin was at the top of the stairs and started crying hysterically. I turned around and said, "Benjamin, what's the matter buddy?".....and he puked everywhere. I'll never forget the look of fear on his face because he didn't understand what was going on, my poor little boy! I immediately put Jonah downstairs, stripped Ben of his pj's, gave him a quick shower and settled him on the couch with a blanket and Finding Nemo.
I cleaned up the mess on the stairs then came back to hold a crying Jonah. 5 minutes later Benjamin puked again, this time all over the couch and on his clean pj's and all over me while I picked him up. So again, he got a quick shower and clean diaper and I put him on a sheet on the floor with a bucket. I cleaned up the couch and he seemed to be doing okay cuddling on the floor.
Jonah needed to nurse so I thought I would try to do that quickly. I was feeding him and Benjamin said "Mommy, please hold me" I told him "Mommy is coming, snuggle your Floppy." But he ran over to me and before I could do anything he threw up all over me and the other couch again. So it was round 3 of getting clean. After that I finished nursing Jonah while sitting next to Benjamin. We sat together on the floor and I caught his puke the next 2 times in a bucket.
Of course, Peter was at one of the schools that doesn't have cell coverage because its out of town so I couldn't reach him. He was there because one of the servers was down and he's the only one who could fix it so he couldn't come home. Of course! So we snuggled together on the sheet and watched Little Einsteins until Daddy came home at 6:30. Benjamin didn't want to eat anything but a tiny bit of applesauce so we got the boys ready for bed and I crashed when they went to sleep. Benjamin slept through the night and though he doesn't have any appetite this morning he seems to be doing okay. I think Jonah may have a bit of the stomach bug too because he was really fussy last night and spit up/threw up really big this morning.
Let's hope the worst is over and we can just veg together today and all feel better.
Not every side of Mommyhood is glamorous...in a weird way I feel like I've been inducted into some weird "will do anything for my sick child" club. It is just so hard to see your baby hurting and even though you're covered in nastiness your only concern is for your child. I kept thinking that I was blessed to be able to be home with him while he was sick.
I know this is kind of a long boring post to most but I wanted to remember our first family stomach bug....is that bizarre? Ha! :-)
I took a picture of him on the couch to "remember" his first stomach flu....little did I know he would throw up 4 more times!
taking a picture of my little sick boy while I was feeding Jonah on the couch
lots of Little Einsteins helped distract him from his tummy
