Praise God We Made It

The weekend had started out very relaxing.  Everyone slept in and after breakfast we enjoyed some family time outside.  Right as I was about to fix lunch, Ryan crumbled to the ground screaming that his stomach hurt.  This was not the first time he had complained about his stomach so I thought he was hungry.  I picked him up and carried him inside.  That's when the mayhem began.  He got sick all over me.  Not knowing what to do, I froze.  Thankfully, Matt was close by and told me to get into the garage.  I did, and moments later, more came.  My smart husband, closed the garage doors so that Ryan and I could strip down and head to the bathroom. He had no fever so after the bath I put him into bed.  About 30 minutes later I heard him crying. Yes, he was still sick and it was everywhere in his bed.  Again we cleaned up and I brought him downstairs with a big towel.  Ryan got very good at getting "things" in the bucket on Saturday.  That night we put him to bed since it had been hours since his last "event", but at 1am we awoke to a familiar sound.  Poor little guy.  On Monday, Matt and I were singing our praises that it looked like we had weathered the storm and things were over.   At 3:15 I left for a doctor's appointment and errands (of course I left the cell phone at home).  At 4:30, Matt got sick and he had to take care of the kids.  Unfortunately for him, I had prepared hot dogs and broccoli for the kids' dinner and he had to warm it up in the microwave.  When I finally returned at 7pm, he looked like a dead man.  From that moment, I started antibacterialing everything and washing hands every 10 minutes.  Though sick, Matt is always thinking forward and told me to get a bucket for Madeline and me in case we got sick in the night.  At 9:30, as I crawled into bed (in the hallway on a sheet, because there was no way I was going to share a bed with Matt), I heard "it".  I rushed to Madeline's side and helped her aim for the bucket.  All I can say, is thank goodness for the vinyl covers on the mattress and pillows!!! We had already thrown away 2 of Ryan's pillows, but Madeline's were saved.  Sick Matt made his way into Madeline's room and started cleaning up the mess while I took care of Madeline and myself.  The poor guy had to take a "break" in the middle of cleaning things up to visit the bathroom.  We moved Madeline down to the family room on a carpet of black, plastic bags and towels.  She, too got very good at getting it in the bucket.  By now it was 11pm and I was very, very scared.  Part of me was hopeful that I would not get sick and part of me was horribly scared, as this stomach bug was violent and long lasting.  At 12:30 the nausea came on and I joined my family.  Since Matt's onset was 9 hours before mine, he took over with Madeline. Praise God for that.  Though the vomiting was over by morning yesterday, Matt and I were weak, exhausted, and afflicted with horrible body aches.  Little Ry was feeling great and so was Madeline.  I am amazed at how resilient children are.  Let's just say that Matt and I have NEVER been as grateful for cable and playhouse Disney, as we were yesterday.  We could barely get up.  When the children told me they were hungry, I told them to go to the cupboard and get something (though Madeline was on a Ritz crackers and Gatorade diet yesterday). When I awoke today, I realized that Ryan had pulled all the clothes out of my drawers upstairs and had pulled out every dvd and cd we owned and placed them in a pile in the hallway.  But guess what, I did not care!!!  We now feel irreversibly bonded with the Flynn's, who went through this two weeks ago.  

So. . . stay away from the Wells' home for the next few days!!! :)  We would never want to pass this bug on.  

A few things I learned from this:

-do not feed hot dogs to children when there is potential for a stomach bug

-cover all children's mattresses and pillows with vinyl covers

-always have gatorade and crackers in the cupboard

-do as much laundry as you need to without feeling guilt that you are adding to the water deficit

-always make sure that toilets are clean so that you have something nice to look at while in the bathroom