Sick week

So this post will actually come into play in several future posts, I'm sure, but I experienced my first "everyone-in-the-family-is-sick-and-the-____-has-hit-the-fan" moment as a mom.

It all started a few weeks ago, April 2, when Bean was just acting more irratible and difficult than usual.  She loves watching Dora while she has her bedtime snack but this particular night, she reached her #3 and ended up losing her Dora priveleges.  This led to a huge tantrum with resulted in her going straight to bed, kicking and screaming.  She ended up falling asleep right away so I figured she had just been really tired.  I went in a little while later and she complained that she was thirsty so I let her have some water and told her goodnight.

The next morning I got up with Boy and smelled this really strange smell from what seemed to be coming from the bathroom.  When nothing seemed apparent, I just figured it was residual from who knows what.  Bean had slept in a little that morning, so when I went to get her up the strange smell overpowered me as I walked into her room.  Her bed was covered in puke and as I got her up, I could tell that she had slept in it!  I asked her why she didn't cry or come get me and she said, "Because you were sleeping, mommy!"  Sweetheart!  But I felt so terrible to think that for some reason she didn't think she could come and get me!

It was a very long day getting everything cleaned up.  After she had a bath and two bites of cereal, she spent the greater part of the day like this:

I put her down for a nap and she went right to sleep.  In fact, I think we all did!

A few days later S complained that he wasn't feeling too great and, sure enough, Friday morning he and Boy woke up puking.  Awesome.  S thought that if he could just sleep for a few hours, he would feel better enough for me to go to work.  Needless to say, I ended up staying home that day.  That evening Bean started complaining that her belly hurt.  I figured she was just having sympathy pains or something so I didn't think too much of it.  Then, just as Boy started throwing up again, her illness, um, hit the other end and she spent the better part of an hour on the throne.  Poor kids.  Poor S.  He was in there feeling rotten trying to take care of screaming Bean and I was in trying to get screaming Boy settled down for bed. 

Bean's appetite had been nonexistent most of the week so I ended up having leftovers by myself after the 3 of them had gone to bed.  Wasn't exactly the day I had planned on, but I was so grateful that I was able to stay home and take care of my family.  Goodness knows there was no way S could have taken care of 2 kids, let alone 2 sick kids, feeling the way he did.

The sad part of the whole situation is I was supposed to run in the Salt Lake City Challenge race with my friends the next day.  When I could tell things were going down the crapper (ha), I regrettfully backed out.  It's a good thing, too, because 4 a.m. the next morning--BAM.  My turn!  Luckily S and the kids were feeling better enough the next day that I was able to spend most of the day in bed. 

So there is my pity-blog post of the quarter.  Having sick anyone in the family isn't fun, let alone everyone at once.  And I'm sure it's just the first of many to come.  But I did tell S amidst all of it that I felt more compassion and patience for the kids during/after the ordeal than I had for awhile.  So if there is a silver lining, I guess that is it.