Honestly. I think about this blog all the time. As in, "I need to write this on my blog. Um, if I were actually doing my blog, that is." That sort of thing. I set this thing up a year and a half ago and wrote a few times. I wasn't really happy with it, because the perfectionist in me never is. There was also the issue of the mechanics of the thing. We still had dial-up and every time I tried to change anything I crashed and it just got too frustrating so I abandoned it. Then, last spring, in a fit of inspiration, and after finally getting high-speed internet, I came back in and just deleted the other blog and started over again. Whew, that was so exhausting that I had to leave it for the next four months and here I am. Don'cha just love do-overs? I do. And when I finally get the hang of doing this, I might actually let people read it!
It's been an interesting week around here. I started the whole thing off on Sunday. I was feeling sort of queasy all day and by bedtime I was decidedly nauseous. I went to bed and laid there, miserable, for the next three hours or so, trying to sleep but just tossing and turning and feeling worse by the minute. I finally went downstairs and ended up spending the night going between the recliner and the sofa and the bathroom. I finally fell asleep sometime between 2:30 and 4:30 when I woke up for good. My sides hurt from throwing up and I was exhausted.
After Val and the kids left, I laid around in a daze until I had to go get Riley from Kindergarten and the rest of the day is a blur. I think we had cereal for dinner that night because I couldn't manage anything else. I felt shaky on Tuesday, but definitely better. Then, right before bedtime, Riley started complaining that her tummy hurt. Half an hour later she puked all over the living room carpet. I was upstairs getting towels to prepare for the inevitable so Val got to supervise. Did I mention he doesn't do so well when the kids are sick? He held it together, though, and did bravely hold her hair out of her face so that she wouldn't puke on it. BIG help. Oh, I forgot to mention that my little Miss Picky Eater eschewed the casserole we had for dinner and chose instead yogurt and raspberries. A lot of raspberries. The carpet was beautiful. Technicolor pink. She continued to throw up about every 45 minutes or so, all night long. I set her up on the couch and had my little "sick station": puke bucket, cool washcloth (set on a saucer so as not to ruin the finish on the brand new coffee table Val made), hand towel (in case we need it), hand sanitizer (like it makes any difference at this point), dish of ice chips and laptop so that I could cruise the 'net in between bouts of sickness. I was a long night, but I found some killer craft sites and blogs!
Poor Ri. I felt so sorry for her. When she first started getting sick she was panicked, anticipating the horror of actually throwing up. After the first time, she kind of got the hang of it and calmly, bravely, grimly did what she needed to do. Throughout the night she'd be sleeping soundly and then suddenly rouse and sit up. I'd place the tub in front of her and she'd be sick in it, then allow me to sponge her off, accept an ice chip and lay back down and go back to sleep. She broke my heart. There's nothing worse than when your kids are sick. She finally stopped throwing up around 4 am and I laid down beside her and slept for about two hours.
Needless to say, I was a bag of crap the next day, this being the second night in three with no sleep. I don't nap well, so I didn't catch up much. All seemed well on Thursday. Riley was back to normal and I was feeling really tired, but my stomach didn't hurt any more. Bed time came around and Travis started complaining that his stomach hurt. I was completely spent. I went downstairs with him and told Val that I needed him to take this one. I couldn't do another all-nighter. I think he was thinking it was a false alarm anyway, that maybe Travis was trying to get out of school the next day, so he agreed. I went to bed but didn't sleep very well, too consumed with Mother-guilt. I kept thinking that I needed to be the one down there with him. I slept intermittently and not well at all. I finally gave it up at around 5 and went downstairs to relieve Val, who was crunched up alongside Trav on the sofa. By this time, Val wasn't feeling well either and he went to bed. I sat watching tv until it was time to get Riley up and ready for school. Around 7, Rachel called to ask if it was okay if Daniel hang out with me because he had been throwing up all night. I just started laughing. "Sure," I said, "Send him over. Travis is sick too. They can be miserable together." After all, the poor kid probably caught it from us in the first place, it was the least I could do.
After I got Ri off to school, I came home to my houseful of sick boys. Travis was excited at first at the idea of Daniel coming over on a school day. "Can we play video games?" he asked. "Why not?" I replied, thinking that that would be a great way to quietly waste the day away. But after about fifteen minutes of playing, Travis laid down on the floor. "I feel wobbly," he said. I felt his forehead. Hot. Crap. I found the thermometer. 103.7. I should explain that Travis very rarely has a low grade fever. It's usually 104 or nothing. He climbed onto the couch, we put a movie in and he was asleep. Val never came downstairs again until last night, so it was just me and the Dan Man. We watched ALL of the Star Wars movies we have (episodes IV through VI). I felt like my whole body had been run through a wringer. So exhausted I wanted to cry. But nowhere to really get comfortable. Travis was on the couch, Daniel in the recliner and Val in our bed. I wandered all day. By the time Daniel went home at 4, my throat was starting to hurt and I just wanted to sleep, but I was determined to be the nurturing mother figure so I made the Magic Chicken Soup that seems to have healing powers. No one felt like eating it, including me. By 7, Travis's fever had broken and he was feeling better. Both he and Val managed to eat some scrambled eggs and toast and then the kids and I went to bed. Today has to be better!
