A Sick Day..After Day...After Day...

We caught a virus this past week, it's about the 3rd bad one that's gone around the county this winter though this was by far the hardest hitting. It started on Sun.morning.

It was one of the few Sun. mornings that I was on the ball, there was cut up cantaloupe, stacks of sourdough pancakes, eggs fried, ovaltine pre-mixed, & supper in the crock-pot, all by 8:30. I was proud, this is a relatively rare event. It's usually oatmeal & ovaltine w/ unwashed dishes on the counter as we hurry to leave by 9:30. Everyone looked happy & gratified, though Victor only picked at his food. I could tell he wasn't happy about something. Charlotte ate 5 pancakes, her egg whites, all of her milk, cantaloupe & everything Victor didn't touch. Miranda ate all of her breakfast & left only a bit of milk in the glass. For the record, sourdough makes very thin pancakes, 5 is not gluttonous.

At my repeated attempts to urge more food down Victor failed, he said at 9:25 that he didn't feel good & didn't want to go to church. I was crestfallen. The girls were loaded & buckled, he was nice & handsome, Mike was outside smoking his pre-departure pipe, waiting on us to lock up. I figured it would be me staying home but Mike immediately volunteered as he was also gastrointestinally unhappy. So the girls & I left.

During the service both girls napped which is not unusual. After the service as I was visiting, Charlotte's breakfast came up. A seemingly enormous quantity.  Happily it was at the back of the auditorium. We meet in a high school so I was happy that it hadn't occurred on one of the seats or on the downward slanting floor. The doors are too heavy for her to open & she must have been desperately trying to escape to the bathroom, poor unhappy wretch.

The lovely security gaurd & my mother in law helped me to mop up the floor as Charlotte went to finish her expulsion in the bathroom. I really was surprised there was anything left. I keep a toddler's potty in the van for toilet training, but in the last couple of years as everyone has completed their toilet training, it comes in very handy as an on the road vomit pail. She had to use it 2 more  times & was visibly wilting.

When we got home, Victor & Mike were both laying down, Victor w/ a tupperware bowel & announced that he had thrown up in the sink, so he was glad he hadn't gone to church, as was I. I was trying to make them take a sip of water every 5 min., but their stomachs were on strike & at 3:00, Miranda's joined in. It's funny how they all react so differently to vomiting. Victor feels violently betrayed by his own body & cries & carries on & makes the biggest angry fuss. Charlotte accepts it w/ quiet despair & settles into a monotonous languor on the couch. Miranda is smiling & being cheerful & goofy right up to the point that her food exits, & then she is smiley again immediately after.

I keep a dishpan under the sink for used dishcloths until washing day, & usually just dump them out & give it to the sick child, but I don't have 3 dishpans to use. Miranda got the biggest one as she hasn't had any practice aiming. The carpet is witness to that. Charlotte got an ice cream pail that was kept around & Victor stuck w/ his tupperware bowel. It went on all night until about 10:00 when whatever had gotten through their systems started coming from the other end. Every 15 min. someone was throwing up needing a damp cloth, a sip of water & a rinsed out bucket. This is a downfall of having children in upper bunks though Charlotte slept on the couch for 2 nights in order to be by the stove.

For the first time since entering motherhood I was called to perform a 40 hour shift. I spent a lot of it praying, not only for their little systems as it was just foam & bile at that point, but also for myself to get some sleep.  Mike tried to give me a nap break when I stumbled to bed at 7 am. but I had a day planned & started it at 9:00 feeling surprisingly good. The vomiting ceased & they just hung out in the living room all day w/ low grade fevers.

We bankrupted the woodshed during the long night & got a call in the morning asking if we wanted a truckload? How awesome is that? It's the kind of stuff I've read about but we were very thankful for God's provision. They spent the next 2 days resting & drinking w/ an occasional vomiting relapse. They were not themselves until Thurs. I looked at the week of no school gone by & declared spring break. Friday & Sat. they focused on eating & drinking.

Mike & my mother in law came down w/ it a week later. So far I've not been touched & I can only see this as Providential. Pregnancy is supposed to render you much more vulnerable to germs. I've gone through the whole term of carrying this baby avoiding even a cold or sinus infection & my hand washing is only average.At least if I should come down now every one else can take care of me.:)

Victor said he likes being sick because they got lots of movies, no chores & drinking out of straws. W/ all of them down, I found it pretty easy to get all of their chores done plus my own. They weren't making a mess or fighting w/ each other or eating 3 square meals a day. Mike had to collect eggs as I'm too round to bend over in there. We're back on track this week & I've decided to lay in a supply of ice cream pails, so I splurged & solaced our last weeks fast w/ 5 quarts of fudge swirl.