You know that crappy feeling when you get sick? Yeah, I wrote about my experience here. And then the awesome feeling once you recover? Of course I wrote about that, and you can read it here. Well, that crappy feeling is back, but not because I am “Down With the Sickness” (old song by Disturbed), it’s because now my family is.
Probably no thanks to me. Before I turned ill, all was honky dory in the house, and then Blam-o (or some other weird word for a noise), my body hurt and I was decommissioned. Several days and excellent spousal support later, I was feeling better and ready for a pint night date night with Kelley.
Not so fast, the sick bug or whatever it is/was must’ve grown tired of my old carcass and wanted to move on to something better. Like, for instance, my wife and Avery. Damn you, bug/virus/whatever you are!!!
After returning home from our date night, we had just enough time to read a book to Avery before she went to sleep. A few hours later, in the early morning, we woke to the sound of our daughter crying. Nothing new there, but it was worse and lasted longer than normal.
Kelley and I were both in her room and it was confirmed; poop. She had just let a hefty poo out for G-Ma while we were out, so we figured we’d be safe for the night. Ha ha, rookie parents, you’re never safe from poo!
This has happened before, so we cleaned her and Kelley nursed her to sleep. Done, problem solved. Ooooorrrr, problem just starting, rather.
Not long after getting her back in her crib, no baby monitor was needed to hear a hacking cat sound throughout the house. At first I thought is was our cat, hacking, but instead is was Avery, throwing up. Oh yeah, another first! She’s spit up plenty of times, but this was a first for real food to appear.
Poor girl, it was all over her sheet, blanket, and pajamas. Off with everything dirty, and replaced with clean items, Going Mom, looking a little weary (besides the fact is was 2am), nursed Avery to sleep yet again. Or so we hoped. Instead, she had round two, all over her new pajamas and Mommy.
More cleaning ensued while Avery seemed unusually happy as she flashed us smiles while we scurried around in clean-up mode. Kelley needed to take a shower and was only looking worse, so after we finished cleaning, I took a shot at just holding and rocking Avery to sleep. Milk seemed to not be what was needed anyway.
Upon finishing her shower, Kelley needed to get some sleep and went to bed after checking on Avery and me. Luckily, after tossing and spinning around my lap, Avery found a suitable position to fall asleep and we stayed like that for around 3 hours. I was in and out of sleep, and after G-Ma (she stayed the night since we’re close to her work) got ready and left, I laid Avery in her crib and made it back to our own bed.
Our freakin’ nursery chair doesn’t recline, so laying in our bed was like having giant pillow hands gently lifting me off my feet and soothing me into a nice sleep. I woke up to find Kelley still in bed and found out she turned even worse and was staying home for the day. Time for me to pay her back for helping me so much!
I cooked pumpkin teff for her and Avery in hopes they would keep it down, which they did, and tried to help them relax. Avery had several “runny” messes through the day on Thursday, but seemed to get over her symptoms by night came around. Kelley was weak all day and not up to much, but thankfully she’s kept everything down, unlike yours truly.
At the time I’m writing this, both of my lovely girls seem to be on the mend. Mommy has an extended weekend with us, so I gave her strict orders to get better so we don’t have another weekend of sickness!
How do you feel after giving your illness to others in the house?
What can we do differently to limit this happening, or is it just something that must “run its course”?
