It was 12:30am. I was sound asleep, dreaming of macaroni and cheese. Wha? Kate woke up screaming, and I rolled over to check the clock. I promptly pulled the covers up over my head to try and drown out the racket. Tim, who has not yet caught up on his sleep, bolted upright in bed. He was up before he was awake, and stumbled to Kate's room. How nice to have him home again, I thought.
I usually ignore the random cries in the night, unless they persist for longer than a few minutes. Luckily, Tim did not, and a few minutes later I heard him open her bedroom door and call in an urgent voice: Jen, I need you. Uh-oh. To put it succinctly, Kate had vomited all over her bed, and was distressed by the mess. I'm pretty sure we were just able to change the sheets this time around, calm her down, give her some water, and go back to bed.
Then, at 2am, more screaming. More vomit, this time requiring a bath, another change of sheets and yet more jammies. I started a load of laundry, adding a generous sprinkling of baking soda, silently thankful that I have a washing machine. It's times like these that, for some reason, I always think of my Gramma and wonder how the heck she managed things like this back in the 1940s with no washing machine, and probably less assistance from her husband than I get from Tim, who is incredibly helpful. I don't know why I always think of her, but it never fails to amaze me what our grandparents' generation must have had to deal with decades ago when they didn't have some of the modern cleaning marvels that we have now. Can you imagine running out of toddler sheets (oh, I bet they didn't have those!) at 2am and running downstairs to the basement to do some laundry by hand? And then having to wait until the next morning to go hang it up to dry outside?
We all went back to bed until the next round of the barf toss started at about 4:30am.
I had hoped that Kate would sleep in to make up for all her lost sleep throughout the night, but she was up just before 7am, mostly because of more vomit. She threw up, or tried to, every few hours almost all day today, and took about 6 hours worth of naps. Right before bedtime, she seemed to gain some of her strength back, and was even speaking with some of her famous voice inflection. So far the rest of us are fine, minus the lack of sleep.
House update:
Bars removed, new paint applied.
7 comments:
Sorry to hear about the illness. Give Kate a big hug from Grandma Cheri & we hope you don't all get the bug.
p.s. I'm really glad I had a washing machine too. I seem to remember clothes line after clothes line full of cloth diapers, sheets, etc. I'm so glad we don't have to do that anymore
Love, Mom
Oh, ick. I can only hope that Ben will be so helpful!
It is nice that you can reflect and appreciate our modern amenities, we don't stop and do that very often.
That pouty picture of Kate broke my heart. But the front of your house looks amazing! I think you should have your own HGTV show about home staging.
Does the baking soda take the vomit smell out of the clothes? How much of the box did you put in? I am seriously odor-whelmed.
Odor-whelmed. Ha! Yes, it works WONDERS. If it's really bad, use half a box. Last night I probably used 1/4 box, and the laundry smells great now. Also use it in the bath when they are stinky. Soap doesn't always take the smell off skin and hair, but baking soda does.
YUCK. Poor poor Kate. I hope nobody else catches it. Reading stuff like this makes me seize up in fear.....
I, too am so thankful for washing machines and helpful husbands. Mom raised 'em good! Baking soda also works wonders if the vomit gets on the carpet or furniture or mattresses. Sprinkle it on and let it absorb the wet and them vacuum it up.
PS Kate looks soooo big in that high chair!
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