A Week of Sick

Please be adivised: This post is not for the weak stomach or if you plan on eating while reading or very soon after reading. You have been warned, proceed with caution!

My goodness, I'm not really even sure what to think about the past week. First off, let's hope we never have another one like it anytime soon.

Monday morning, Isabel was laying in bed with me and Alexis and she was really fussy and squirmy, then she sat up in the bed and threw up every where. She only threw up that one time, but she didn't have an appetite at all that day and wanted to sleep a lot. I thought maybe she had just eaten something that didn't set with her well. We've been giving her quite a bit of table food lately, so I thought maybe that was what happened.

Monday evening we went into town to feed the ducks at the old park and meet Ross while he was on his supper break from work. I started feeling kind of yucky, but didn't think too much of it. I was planning on starting hard core on a diet Tuesday morning, so I had ordered a cheese burger, fries and ice cream for my one last, bad meal. I picked it up from Bouse's, but even the smell of it kind of made my stomach turn. We got back home and I felt horrible. Just the thought of eating was making my stomach turn. I laid down on the couch, but didn't stay there long. I was in and out of the bathroom several times with diarrhea.

It wasn't fun at all, I had to call Ross to come home because I knew I wouldn't be able to take care of the girls. This all started a little after 8. Ross got home around 9:30 and I went straight upstairs to my bed. Alexis came and laid with me after her bath and Ross took care of getting Isabel down.

About 12:30 or so, Ross came upstairs to come to bed. The sheets had to be put on the bed still so he asked me to get up. I was sitting in the glider in our room and was very hot, sweaty and nauseous. I laid down after Ross got the bed made and then got right back up and ran to the bathroom. This time I was vomiting. I got myself cleaned up and brushed my teeth, drank some water and went back to bed. I thought maybe the worst of it would be over. I woke up again around 3:45 with the same feeling as before. I had another round of diarrhea and was barely finished with that when I started vomiting again. I've heard of people having both things happen at the same time, but it's never been like that for me until then. Oh....my....goodness, not fun. After I got all that mess cleaned up, I came downstairs and slept in the guest bed in the playroom.

I woke up Tuesday morning feeling terrible still, I had a dull headache and was dizzy every time I tried to stand up. Isabel woke up and and wanted to nurse, so she was laying with me for a bit, and then she threw up again. Got that mess cleaned up then her and I slept for a few more hours. I finally got up after 10 sometime and started moving around a little bit. Well, I say moving around, I moved from the bed to the couch. Around 1 I got up and showered and started getting ready for work.

Isabel slept pretty much off and on the rest of the day and evening. I got a message from Jennifer around 5:30 saying that Alexis was now puking. Great, it's going to make it's way around the whole house before it finishes. Instead of asking Jennifer to deal with a sick kid, Ross came home from work to take care of the girls. Alexis threw up several more times that evening before she was finished. I had started feeling better and better the later the night went on at work. Thankfully, I was working in the AC office, otherwise I would not have been able to be out working in that heat after being sick like that.

When I got home from work Tuesday night at 2:30am Wednesday morning, the first thing I hear is Alexis holler, "Mommy, I'm poopy." She was awake beside my bed and had just finished pooping, so I got her changed and back to bed. Ross was laying in our bed with a bowl on the floor beside the bed. He was sick too. He only got the diarrhea part of it though, not the vomiting, but he felt horrible for the better part of a day and a half too.

Wednesday for Ross was like my Tuesday had been. Sleeping until it was time to go to work. Isabel started with some diarrhea on Wednesday as well. But, she was eating dry toast and banana. I got a message from Jennifer saying that Isabel hadn't peep or pooped in a long time and she had stopped taking drinks of anything from her. When Ross got home after Midnight, I had him call the Dr.'s offce. Dr. Rao called him back and said not to worry yet, it was probably just her resisting the babysitter since she was sick, she just wanted Mommy or Daddy. She started drinking for Ross as soon as he got home. She finally started peeing and pooping again by Thursday morning.

It seems like we are finally all getting better now, but man that was quite a week. And go figure, it was a busy week at work, so I put in a full 40 hours which means I didn't get a lot of sleep, so yesterday I did pretty much nothing at all. Hoping next week is going to be so much better than this one was.

A Good Weekend

This weekend was so nice and relaxing. I needed it.

Friday night I got off work at 12:30 and headed up to Rolla to get the shopping out of the way for the week. It was so nice not fighting a crowd while I was shopping. I think that's when I'm going to do the majority of my shopping from now on. I got home around 2:30am and was unloading the car when Isabel woke up and wanted to nurse. I brought her downstairs and fed her. She didn't want to go back in her crib so her fussing woke Alexis up. They both ended up coming downstairs with me around 3am and didn't go back to bed until 3:45am. It was after 4am before I got to sleep and the girls were ready to get up for the day by 7am. Needless to say I was a little tired yesterday.

I spent most of the morning holding Isabel. After a week at work, she is ready for some serious Mommy time by the weekend and it's pretty pointless for me to try and get anything done. In the afternoon I did some straightening and cleaning.

My best friend Amy and her man Chris came over with their 2 girls, Katelyn and Callie for supper. Ross grilled some burgers, brats and hot dogs and we just had a salad and some baked beans. Simple, but great summer time food. We had a nice visit and the kids had a great time playing. We made plans to go to Elephant Rocks with them this fall when the leaves start changing. There are some awesome views there in the fall.

Ross and I crashed hard last night around 11:30, we were both tired. Isabel does the bulk of her nursing at night and last night she was up at 12:30, 3:00 and then again at 6:00. I was exhausted when I got up at 7 this morning. Ross and I fixed biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then I headed to the couch. I didn't intend to sleep for very long, but I didn't get up until almost noon.

We loaded up and headed to the creek. They were having a birthday party for 5 different birthdays. We had lunch, presents, cake, ice cream and then creek time. We got home around 6. It was a great day! We are all showered, bathed and fed. Now I'm going to play a game with Alexis and get some serious snuggle time in with the girls and then Ross after they go to bed. I love these kinds of weekends!!! Hope yours was great too!

Reader Poll

I'm looking for your input on my current situation. This includes stay at home mom's and mom's who work outside the home as well.

Last night, I asked my husband to let me know when he would like to take the night shift duty with the kids. This will be the first time since Isabel's birth nearly 5 months ago that I've asked him to do this. I'm home with the girls every night while he is at work and then I get up with them if they have needs during the night.

Unfortunately Isabel has started nursing during the night again. I need to work on getting her to eat more during the day, but for now she gets a middle of the night snack. It's not really a huge deal to me, but it would be nice to sleep for 6-8 hours without having to get up.

I could get more sleep if I made myself go to bed after the girls go down. But, I'm trying to somewhat stick to my late night schedule so it's not so hard for me to transition back when I return to work in April. So a typical night goes like this:

• Isabel goes down around 10pm.
• Alexis goes down between 10:30 and 11:30.
• Then it's Me time until Ross gets home around 12:15-12:30.
• We usually watch TV together until about 1:30-2 then go to bed.
• Isabel has been waking up to eat between 2 & 3.
• Then she's awake for her early morning feeding between 7 & 8.
• Up for the day usually around 9.

As you can see from this schedule I don't get a lot of sleep at one time and I'm really not getting that much sleep period when you patch my few hours together. Now, like I said before, it's no ones fault but my own. But, I've been working nights since December of 2006 so old habits die hard I'm afraid.

Anyway, back to last night. I was asking Ross if he would take the night shift some night when he was up for it. I was thinking it would be a weekend night when he didn't have to work the next day.

You should have seen his face when I asked him. It was like he couldn't believe such words came out of my mouth. I kept looking at him waiting for an answer and this is what he finally said. "When you go back to work I'll consider taking night duty."

"So, because I stay home all day long I'm not allowed to get a full nights sleep?" I told him that was the most sexist, pig-est thing he's ever said to me and I shut off the light and went to sleep. (Actually I didn't get to go to sleep until 3:30, because I was up with Isabel and then Alexis too.)

I really couldn't believe that he acted that way, it shouldn't surprise me though. He almost acted mad the other day when he had to put away clean dishes and load dirty ones into the dishwasher.

I'm sorry, this may sound a bit selfish, but I don't think it's too much for him to help me just a little. Just because I'm a temporary stay at home mom does mean I don't need a little help or want a break from time to time. Is that asking too much?? 

I would love for him to walk in my shoes for one week, and I would gladly go to his work for him too. I know that his job and our remodel project are stressful to him too, but I don't think he really understands that just because I stay at home right now, that everything is not peaches and cream for me.

I would really appreciate some feedback on how you and your spouse handle similar situations and if I'm being unreasonable.

FYI: I never asked him to give Alexis bottles of breast milk so I could sleep, I always nursed her. I was going to try something new with Isabel and let him give her a bottle while I slept and then pump in the morning. I'm extra, super careful about never giving bottles unless I'm at work, just so they don't start to prefer bottle over breast and so my supply stays good.