K woke up from her nap on Friday afternoon screaming. Unfortunately, waking up in such a manner is not unusual for her. D went upstairs to talk with her about her behavior (let's wake up happy, ok?) only to find her covered in vomit. She must have started throwing up in her sleep and then decided to walk across her room while throwing up. She was covered and so was her room. D did the heavy lifting and cleaned the bed, wall, and carpet. I sat with my little sicky in the hall by the bathroom.
At three years of age, K now knows when she is going to throw up. She successfully threw up three more times Friday afternoon into the toilet. At the end of said throw ups, her stomach was empty and the vomiting stopped. She was not feeling better, but at least could lay down somewhere other than the bathroom floor or in the hallway. We decided to move into our bedroom where we watched The Sound of Music and just relaxed.
We put her to bed early - tired, thirsty, dehydrated and still feeling awful. About 45 minutes after she fell asleep, I decided to go to bed - expecting it might be a long night for all of us. As I approached the steps, I thought I heard someone in the hall. When I got upstairs, K was in the hallway sandwiched in between a laundry basket and the open door to our linen closet. She was crying.
When I asked her what happened, she sobbed, "I couldn't make it to the bathroom in time."
I asked, "Did you throw up in your bed."
She replied, "No. I have... poop."
Poor thing had awful diarrhea. AWFUL. So bad that she needed to take a shower. I whisked her off to the bathroom and D started another load of laundry.
K took a nice long shower. When finished she asked if she could lay down in our bedroom so that I could be there with her. Of course I let her. She was very still and calm for about 15 minutes. Then she started to get restless and uncomfortable. One minute later she was throwing up water all over our bed. Turns out she was so thirsty during her shower she drank some water. And it all came back up. After throwing up, she was so tired she laid back down - right in all of her watery vomit.
Lovely!
D suggested I take care of K - get her changed, dry-wash her hair, and get her back to bed in her room. He took care of the sheets. Another load of laundry to do. And some pillows that needed to be washed and Febrezed. I got her back to sleep, and thankfully, it was the last tuck-in of the night. She woke up on Saturday feeling ok - not much of an appetite, sick to her stomach, dehydrated, and very low energy. We spent most of Saturday laying around; watching The Sound of Music for the second time in 24 hours.
By the time Saturday night rolled around, she was feeling much better. I fully expected us to be back to normal by Sunday morning. (I can be so stupid)
C woke up around 2am on Sunday morning. He appeared to just be hungry. As I was getting ready to nurse him, I laid him down on the bed for a brief second. When I picked him up he puked all over me. I yelled to D to get a towel (or two) and by the time he returned C had thrown up again. He then proceeded to dry heave several times - demonstrating that his stomach had been completely emptied. I then rocked him back to sleep and made sure he was sleeping on his side in his crib. Thankfully he and K slept until a normal waking hour after this.
D got up with K on Sunday morning and made her breakfast, which she proceeded to throw up. Probably the result of a little too much food too soon. I nursed C and put him back to bed and then proceeded to go back to bed myself. We all stayed inside all day on Sunday.
Around dinner time on Sunday, all of K's imaginary friends returned. She started telling us endless stories about her dance class (which is imaginary) and we knew she was back - in fine form and over the illness. C was holding down milk and aside from some diarrhea and being a little cranky and tired was doing well. I, unfortunately, felt a little discomfort in my stomach. By the time K was in bed Sunday night, I knew I was going to be sick. I went to bed at 9:15 hoping that some extra sleep would keep the vomits and the 'rhea away. I slept for about two hours before waking up and feeling oh-so sick.
I laid in bed for nearly an hour willing myself not to throw up. I believe I would have succeeded but the diarrhea got the best of me. I yelled to D to get me a bucket set up in the bathroom. When I was ready, I made a mad dash to the bathroom - only to have the vomits and the 'rhea at THE.SAME.TIME.
I was living out one of my worst nightmares.
I was in the bathroom for what seemed like an eternity. I went back to bed (after brushing my teeth) and was woken up by a screaming, hungry C less than an hour later. I nursed him (further dehydrating my poor sick self) and got him back to bed. We all slept until morning.
K got off to school on Monday. I stayed home with C. D worked a half day and then returned home to care for me, C, and K. I showered and left home around 3:30pm - with gatorade and saltines in hand - to go to school to administer a mid-term exam. It was a miserable experience. I was aching from head to toe and feeling dehydrated and sick all at once.
The exam ended late at night and I drove home. I woke C, fed him, and then raced off to bed. By Tuesday morning we were all feeling much better. The sickness had truly left our house.
D avoided most of the illness. He had a little bit of an upset stomach late Monday night, but it didn't amount to much.
We estimate that we did a total of nine loads of laundry as a result of the virus. And three onesies were lost to the diarrhea.
We are all SO thankful that it was only a 24-36 hour bug and that it swept through our house quickly.
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