coming to you from the house of pain...

"What? Do these shoes not go with my tails?" Enjoy the cuteness. The following post is not cute.

It's Easter Sunday. But we're going to pretend that its not because I want to be totally full of joy over the Resurrection, and the vomit and the horrible cold and cough and the diarrhea have sapped a good bit of that. So we're having a do-over later, TBD.

I'm writing this so I'll remember exactly how bad it was for later. Later, when the kids are older and we don't fall victim to stomach bugs so badly. Later, after I've gotten them all to eat greek yogurt with honey every day for breakfast so that we don't have it so bad ever again...

So, Evan threw up on Monday, and we came home from Mom and Dad's. Tuesday was fine, though Evan was whiny and had some diarrhea, so I kept him in a Pull Up. Wednesday all day was fine, though by that time all of us had a bad cold and a hacking cough (which we all still have, to greater or lesser degrees.) Wednesday night, Ben threw up right before he got into the bathtub, but he was cheerful afterward.

David was feeling bad enough with the cold and cough that he decided to go to the doctor on Thursday, just to rule out something worse than your typical cough. He came home a little early and took a nap. I got Ben up from his nap, and he was feeling awful. He lay on my chest, and then he threw up on me.

We put everyone but me on the BRATT diet, and I ate more cautiously. David had decided that his stomach didn't feel great, so he had nothing but rice for dinner. Thursday night, Seth woke up and threw up. Then, as we're changing and washing those sheets, Evan woke up and threw up. (Keep in mind, he hadn't thrown up since Monday, and now it's Thursday.) Then Seth threw up a second time. Strip the bed again, give him a bowl again, etc. He woke up periodically through the night, crying out with stomach pain.

There was nothing good about Good Friday. Seth lay on the floor or on the couch all day. He slept a lot. He couldn't keep anything down. He had diarrhea. All the Gatorade came back up. I was getting worried. I called the nurse at our pediatrician's office in the afternoon. He'd just thrown up yet another tablespoon of Gatorade. She suggested a teaspoon of Gatorade, but she said if he couldn't keep that down, we should probably take him to the hospital. I texted friends to pray, and we gave him a teaspoon at 7:30. He kept it down, praise God, and we got another teaspoon in him before he fell asleep.

Saturday morning, Ben threw up all his dry cereal breakfast. He spent the rest of the day crying and sitting on our laps. He could drink, but we didn't try to give him much to eat. By Saturday, Seth could eat again, but its been slow for him. We figured out he had nothing but Gatorade and 1 saltine cracker in 48 hours. Evan was begging for more normal food, and we gradually upped his intake of food. We tried giving Ben some scrambled eggs for dinner. He wolfed down a teaspoon of them and promptly threw up. 

So now we've arrived at Sunday. David and I are very tired. I still don't have the stomach bug, but I've been bothered by the cold and cough. David hasn't been able to eat normally since Thursday, and that frustrates him a lot. Ben is grumpy and lethargic, and Seth is lethargic. Nobody can eat much, except Evan, and he's whiny. His stomach isn't perfectly normal, either.

We've had stomach bugs before, but never anything recurring like this. I have no idea how long it will be before we're back to normal, but its looking like a week or more per victim. I'm praying for no more vomit.... 

I sincerely and devoutly hope that I just made all of you feel more thankful for your normal Easter weekend. I hope to feel more thankful for mine next year if God grants us a normal Easter. :)