A Tough 24 Hours

WARNING: This blog is uncharacteristically mooshy. Beware!!!

So I'm sure most of you have experienced this a million times, but this was a first for us.

Andrew is close to 3 years old and has really never been sick. He has been really healthy and we have been very fortunate. Saturday and Sunday were wonderful days (as you all know) filled with sunshine. Andrew took full advantage trying to stay outside all day long. We were looking forward to the 80 degrees promised for Monday and even had some good ideas of how to spend it. Unfortunately, someone decided to bring their child with the stomach flu out into public to contaminate some surface or toy waiting to be touched by my child. So 12:30 am rolls around and I heard Andrew (who is usually a great sleeper) whining. I went in to talk to him and he just fell back to sleep. This happened a few more times; some whining, a little coughing, and him falling back to sleep. But the 3rd time this happened there was vomit and a lot of it. Ewwww!! I have a very sensitive stomach and this almost put me over the edge. So we threw his sheets into the wash and made his bed with some random blankets and put him back to bed. When 5 minutes later we heard, whine, cough, blaaaahh!! I couldn't believe he threw up a second time. I figured his tummy was a little upset. We put him to bed a second time, but the barf monster wasn't going to budge. Andrew spent an entire 24 hours throwing up. His wonderful Dad took such great care of him. We were so worried about Leah getting sick that we played a man on man defense. This meant that I had to get up 2 or 3 times with Leah and Jason had to say up all night. This was great for me since I hardly function with little sleep. However, listening to the whine, cough, barf, cry cycle was breaking my heart and I couldn't fall asleep. I felt so horrible for Andrew. We made it through the night sleeping for about 30 minutes at a time. I'm sure you're all rolling your eyes as you have probably done this a million times with your children. But as a first timer we were so pooped.

We spent the day trying to give Andrew ice chips and Gatorade and lots of love. It was so hard (and secretly nice) to see my son who is usually bouncing off the walls, just lay around all day. He was so hungry and thirsty but couldn't keep a thing down. Luckily Jason was able to cancel what he had yesterday to stay home and help. We were just so concerned with Leah getting sick that we didn't want to take any chances. What a great hubby, I have no idea how I would have gotten through the day with out him. I know I could have called on neighbors and friends for a favor or two. But when it comes to the stomach bug, you don't want to involve any extra people.

Andrew is doing better and made us so happy when he woke up at 3:30 in the morning starving. Jason had a little tiny picnic with him on the floor and it just melted my heart. Both seeing Andrew getting back to normal and Jason getting up with him so willing to do anything for him.
Jason and I both woke up this morning free from any symptoms, thankfully. It might have something to do with going a little crazy with the can of Lysol.

Side note:
We watched a movie last night called Martian Child. It was a good movie and reminded me, along with the events of yesterday, of how much our children depend on us. They trust us and our judgement. Makes me want to strive to be the parent that my children will be proud to have. The parent that my children will come to with the deepest of their fears and the grandest of their mistakes. I love my little family dis-functions and all. I have learned so much as a parent and every day realize that I am so blessed to have these two beautiful children in my life.
I'm thankful to have Jay by my side to raise them and enjoy them.

So glad our little buddy is feeling better.