Stomach Bug

Last Friday, James and I played outside in the beautiful spring weather. Then the recycle truck pulled around the corner - one of the highlights in James' week. The guys are so kind to him. They usually honk the horn, wave and greet him cheerfully. This day, one of the guys put out his hand, and James (after a quick look for approval from me) shook it. I think it made the man's day.

Unfortunately, it also made our week a little different than originally expected.

Before James & I came in and washed his hands, those pudgy little paws made their way to either his nose, mouth or eyes. And about 30 hours later, poor James lost his dinner. God kindly allowed James to be outside, making clean up easier(!). And our boy continued his merry way. So I didn't know what to think - did his dinner just disagree with him or had he picked up something somewhere?

I knew that we'd know soon enough if he continued vomitting, so we played outside past his bedtime. Sure enough, the water he'd drunk came back up. After a bath, we rocked for a short bit... and everything else in James' belly evacuated onto me and into the towel I'd mercifully brought with me.

Saturday night he continued to dry heave. Since Ben was out of town, I brought our sick little guy into bed with me to make it easier on both of us. I don't know if he slept, but for sure I didn't! Finally at 3:30, God gave us both rest... until 5:30 when James woke up and desperately pleaded for water. Poor thing!

Ben's mom brought over some Pedialyte, some of which I froze into ice cubes. I gave James an 8 oz bottle. I don't know what I was thinking because this parched boy proceeded to drink 6 oz all at once... and the vomitting began again.

Thankfully, I was able to slow down his fluid intake, and he stopped throwing up. Meanwhile, we played outside with the hose for as long as possbile. At lunchtime when he started asking for food, I offered him a waffle. He nibbled a bit and then announced, "Too much."

After a good nap, our friend Taluli (who lives with us) got him up. Unfortunately, when James had been saying he didn't want to eat dinner on Saturday night (prior to getting sick), I'd offered to have a bite in between his. And then I'd cleaned his plate. So after I realized that he had a bug, I fully expected to be sick within 24 hours. Sure enough, by late Sunday afternoon I was not feeling so hot, and went to bed.

Unfortunately for Taluli, James decided to throw up one last time on her watch. I could hear her ushering him into the bathroom and getting him over the toilet. Bravo, girl! And so far, she has managed to avoid it.

Poor Ben, though. Just as he arrived home, I got sick. Talk about timing! After just two more episodes, my stomach settled down, and we all slept through the night.

Despite the fact that I was no longer vomitting, Ben took Monday off to allow me to rest and to keep James occupied. Sweet servant!

Life returned to normal on Tuesday (except James & I skipped the preschool field trip to the Zoo). But that night, Ben joined the family in our "experience." And he took a sick day on Wednesday to recover.

I wish I could say that was the end of that... but James decided to give our hearts a bit of a gulp on Wednesday night. More on that to come.