The Sound, or Sickness, Take One

My kids have always been great sleepers at night time, even when they were newborns. I remember when Lindsay first slept through the night at close to 2 or 3 weeks of age and I woke up alarmed that I'd slept that long. I don't function well on little sleep, so it was a huge blessing that both of the girls were good night time sleepers. (Now, napping was a whole different story and neither of them did that well. Oh well, you get what you can, right?) The only time that the girls consistently wake up at night is if they don't feel well or have a bad dream. Both have had "achy legs" (or as Kera sometimes calls it, "eggy lakes") from growing pains that have required ibuprofen in the middle of the night. Kera often times has bad dreams that require some middle of the night or early morning loves. And last, but certainly not least, then there is the sound.

You know what sound I'm talking about. It comes in the middle of the night and wakes you up abruptly from sweet slumber. There is no slow waking up to this--it is eyes popping open, jumping out of bed and hoping, hoping, hoping she made it to the toilet. And it comes with surrender to the fact that you probably won't be going back to that sweet slumber, tonight at least. Yes, I'm talking about distinct sound of retching, (aka vomiting, puking.)

That is the one sound I dread to hear in the middle of the night, and on Tuesday at around 2 A.M., I got to wake up to it. It was Lindsay and no, she didn't entirely make it to the toilet, besides my best hoping. So that meant both Erik and I were up, dragging out the shop vac, the spot shot and finding a trashcan/bucket she could put by her bed. We cleaned everything up and got her back to bed, but for the rest of the night she continued to be sick at irregular intervals. I would doze between episodes, but I never really got back to sleep, and she surely didn't either. Poor thing, she continued like that until almost midday on Wednesday. She was so miserable and I was miserable for her. I hate that there's nothing you can do for that besides let it run it's course. There is nothing worse than being helpless to ease my daughter's pain.

She finally was able to fall asleep to take a nap around 2pm after eating some saltines and drinking some Sprite. (Is there anything better after being sick? I think not.) She woke up around the time Kera got home from the bus and I could tell she was on the mend, thank goodness. She went with us to Kera's first piano lessons and then ate some toast for dinner. I kept her home from church and had her to bed early to try catch up on lost sleep, I was so grateful she was feeling better.

Now, my four year old nephew has been staying with us part of this week while his mom is off playing in the sand. Yesterday morning I had him and Kera stay very clear of Lindsay before I got them out the door to school and daycare. I did not want those germs spread! Unfortunately you never really can tell when a kid was contagious or even where they got something, so I was still a little scared that Lindsay would be only the first sickness and not the only one. Well, last night around bedtime, my nephew started to complain about a stomach ache.

Remember, he's only four so the communication isn't a clear and precise as with my girls, so I wasn't sure if he felt sick or if he was hungry or if he just had to go poop. I got him a bucket and tried to explain that he had to use it if he felt sick, and put him to bed sort of early. He fell asleep before I even had the light out. Lindsay went to bed the same time and so the house was quiet. I read for a bit while I waited for Erik and Kera to get home from church. It was about the time they got home that he started to cry a bit. We decided Kera should sleep with me (she'd been sleeping on her top bunk while he was on the bottom bunk of her bed) because he was crying and writhing around. After she got settled and the house was quiet again, he also got quiet.

I went to bed soon after with the thought that I'd better get some sleep while I could. I wouldn't have been surprised to be woken up in the middle of the night by the sound again. I slept fitfully at first, waking with every cough or weird noise from his room. And he coughed quite a bit. But I finally must have fallen into a deeper sleep because all of a sudden it was morning. Blessed morning!  I cannot tell you how grateful I was that no one else got sick!!  I know that illness is a given with kids, but I just didn't want to deal with two nights in a row of it, especially not the pukies. Everyone is off to school, work and daycare like normal today and so my main goal is going to be disinfecting the house, Hallelujah!