Sick!

Rachel is soooo good at sharing! She shared her toys, her food, her books, and the thing she is the very best at sharing is...her sick germs. Last week on Monday, Rachel decided once again that she would rather go to bed early than eat her dinner, so we brushed her teeth and sent her to bed, and she slept! I was shocked when I went to put Kent to sleep and Rachel was in fact sleeping. At about 8:00 that night we heard one of a parents least favorite sounds...retching coming from our daughters room. Jacob went in to check on her (I was still wrestling Kent to sleep) and she had indeed thrown up...all over her bed, and her carpeted floor, and the bathroom.  Blech! Jacob was at a loss. He had no idea what to do. Last time the kids had a sick bug, he was deployed and took no part in the cleaning of the kids, bed, carpet, and bathroom. He had no idea he amount of bed changes and clothing changes that went on while he was gone, because as it goes with the deployment curse, we gt sick A LOT while he was gone! He asked me what to do and I simply told him, clean it up. I got Kent to sleep and went in to help. It was a mess, a sick mess. First things first, I got Rachel cleaned up and gave her a throw up bowl and then moved on to help Jacob with the rest of the room. Rachel threw up quite a few more times that night but thankfully she is finally finally finally big enough to use a throw up bowl!! Most of the time anyway. There was one incident where she came into my room to tell me she didn't feel good and ended up throwing up all over me. Sick!  He was very sweet about it though. She kept telling me afterwards in a puny sick voice, "Mom, I'm so sorry I threw up on your butterfly shirt!" I couldn't even get mad at her. She was so miserable. With the throw ups came fevers and body aches and she kept telling me over and over, "Mom, I am very sick." 

Two days later she was better. It was New Years Day and we went and saw the movie Frozen in the theaters. It was the first time we had taken our kids to a movie and it was so fun! The movie was sooooooo good, and Kent was a little wild, but in the morning on New Years, the theater was mostly deserted so it wasn't too bad. He ended up falling asleep towards the end and I got some good cuddles in. After the movie we went home and had lunch. Kent didn't eat much but I didn't think much of it. We put the kids down for naps and Jacob and I sat down to watch a show. My stomach started hurting a little but I didn't think much of it because I just assumed I had eaten too many sweets as happens this time of year. Kent woke up from his nap and once again Jacob went to check on him, and once again, he found a child covered in throw up. This time he knew what to do. He came and got me. :) My poor little Kent-Dude was sick. He was so sweet and he threw up so stoically. He is a silent barfer and then he doesn't even cry about it. He just does and moves on. I was even able to get him to throw up in the bowl which was impossible to do with Rachel until now. He is so sweet. He tried not to let a little thing like throwing up slow him down. He would go play and then come back to me to barf in the bowl. He figured out pretty quick that the getting up and playing caused him to throw up though and soon just sat on my lap and snuggled. Poor little baby. All evening long, I felt sicker and sicker and then Jacob admitted he felt pretty awful too. I made it until after our movie (Singing in the Rain which Rachel loved by the way) and after the kids were in bed. We were all 4 in bed with lights off by 7 o'clock that night. As soon as the lights were off though I had to make my way in to lose my lunch to the porcelain throne. That was the commencement to the longest night I can remember. Jacob held it in longer than I did, but not by much. Kent kept waking up all night an coming in to our room. The act of walking to our room would make him retch in my throw-up bowl. The act of me taking him back to his bed would make me retch. I would run to the bathroom and he would dutifully follow. He was quite worried about me and kept trying to lift my head up from the toilet. Jacob would come help and take Kent back to bed and then when I finished I would go take care of Kent and Jacob would go back to bed and a few minutes later I would here him run to the bathroom. Over and over this happened. I swear I threw up more than 10 times that night. Finally I pulled Kent into bed with me and he and I were able to sleep but Jacob wasn't. He. Got out of bed and went down to the couch. When I noticed he was missing I thought about going to check on him, but the thought of going down the stairs was nauseating. And then started the day of the worst headache I can remember, body aches, fevers, crackers, and Gatorade and more movies in one day than I've probably ever shown my kids before. I got up to feed Rachel a few time something other than the crackers that we were eating but we were pretty wiped out that day.  Thankfully the barfing had stopped at least. The next day we felt significantly better though still tired, and our house looked like a bomb had gone off in it. The dishes smelled bad from being in the sink since New Years Day and there were crushed up crackers mingled with toys everywhere! Jacob had to go into work for the morning and I spent it disinfecting everything. Kent threw up once randomly (on me of course) but other than needing a little extra rest we were better. Please oh please oh please, if your kids are sick or you are sick, don't come to church! You aren't doing anyone any favors. I'm so grateful we are all better and it only lasted as long as it did. Maybe next time I can convince Rachel that there are something's she shouldn't share.