Mr. Stomach Bug

Oh, how I loathe you.

Tuesday night he claimed his first victim, Amelia.  It was seriously a half hour until our connection group started and it was on.  The irony is that about 20 minutes before then Amelia was running and fell, quite hard, into the corner of a door frame.  I'm pretty used to these episodes so I really wasn't too concerned... until she started to get sick.  Then I couldn't help but consider the possibility that she had a concussion and might need medical attention.  We canceled our baby-sitter and decided I'd stay home with her.  After a little while I texted Andrew and had him come back from CG since it's hard to hold a little girl who is trying to sleep in your arms and change mats/sheets/pjs.  I won't go into all the fun details but poor Amelia felt the need to try to cleanse her system 7 more times before midnight.  She was feeling quite a bit better by Wednesday morning to my delight and was concussion free.

Wednesday: good day, mostly.  I went to the Dr. and had a friend come stay with Amelia while she was taking a nap.  She slept the entire time I was gone and I finally conceded to waking her up close to 4 so she would sleep at her normal bedtime.

Fast forward to early Thursday morning (like 1 a.m.) and I wake up... not feeling sick, but rather, odd.  My stomach is churning and almost sounds like the ocean even though I'm completely comfortable.  Well, this is interesting.  Somewhere in the next hour I diagnose myself with the same stomach bug.  The timing is terrible.  Andrew has an insane day at work ahead of him.  Every 6-8 weeks they shut down the plant and do massive cleaning and other stuff.  I'm sure there is a better description, but remember who is writing here.  Anyway, I dread these days.  They usually begin with Andrew leaving around 4 or 5 and not coming home until... well, it varies.  The earliest I think has been 8 and the longest time he's been gone was 24 hours.  A ton of planning goes into this so it's not like they can just change the date at a moment's notice.

I try to sleep between getting up and finally at 4-something I get up with Andrew.  He has already informed me before now that if I get sick he can stay home if needed.  He's concerned because he knows that dehydration can cause preterm labor.  We learned this when I had the stomach flu with Amelia.  I seem to only get stomach bugs when I have moving babies inside of me.  This is the 3rd time in two pregnancies I've gotten sick.  Today I remember how much damage a 4 lb baby (who apparently doesn't like the sound of the ocean) can do.

After not much discussion Andrew goes to work and I go back to bed.  I should have asked him to stay home.  Although, I didn't get hit as hard as Amelia did, it did wipe me out.  My poor daughter thinks I am no fun.  She had the most lame day.  I tried to rest on the couch while PBS babysat her.  I really was having a hard time giving her food (horrible, I know) because it made me nauseous.  I'm not sure she was caring a whole lot though because she didn't eat a ton of what I did offer her.  She had breakfast in our living room (and Yes, I need to vacuum-tomorrow).  I woke up on the other end of the couch to see her tearing up her waffle into minute pieces for fun.  I decided she wasn't hungry at that point.

Finally it was nap time.  I was so excited for this time of day.  I was in desperate need of some unconscious time.  She let me have an hour!  The girl who slept for 3 yesterday only gave me one hour today!  Aghh.  It worked out fine though.  I felt a ton better in just that hour and slowly throughout the afternoon started to feel better.  I'm still not 100% but I'd say I'm way better.  I even had some toast so we'll see the verdict on that shortly.  It's 10 o'clock and I'm hoping my (hopefully healthy) hubby can come home soon.