Last weekend, Julie flew to Kansas to attend her cousin's wedding. So i got to be Mr. Mom for 3 days, starting that Friday morning. Piece of cake. No problem. A rotavirus had other ideas.
There was absolutely no sign of David being sick that morning. But soon after i got home from taking the older kids to school, David threw up. I didn't think much of it. I mean, that's what little children do. Of course, i was thinking more of a little baby - they puke all the time - and should probably have been a bit more alarmed. Instead, i just cleaned up the kitchen floor, changed his shirt (i started to type "onesie" but couldn't leave it that way), and went on with the day.
Julie had left me a short page of instructions, and one tip said to make sure David gets at least 3 cups of milk daily. OK, let's get that started, since he's thirsty. One bottle of milk coming up. And did it ever come up! All over our big leather recliner, while David took his mid-day nap. Down in the cracks and creases. Nice. It's on now. Me against whatever bug has invaded my little guy's body.
I should mention, i suppose, if it's not too selfish, that i was suffering from a severe sinus headache myself. A sick kid and a sick sole-parent is not a good combination. It was a wonder to me, though, to note how the headache seemed to disappear whenever duty called. (Speaking of which, David also kicked in with frequent bursts of diarreah. We've got it coming out of both ends, and i'm not sure which treasure smelled the worst.) And then the headache would suddenly reappear as soon as it was over and i could (theoretically) relax.
By the time Julie checked in from the Atlanta airport, David had thrown up 3 or 4 times, and had dripped diarreah across the kitchen floor. When i gave the report, she didn't believe me, thought i was messing with her. Combined with her missing two flights out of Atlanta, and the specter of flying into a big thunderstorm in Wichita, i thought maybe she'd see the signs and come home. Selfishly, of course.
The kids soon came home from school (but not before David puked in the car seat while we were in the car pickup line), and Caroline proved to be a tremendous help. She held David a good while, giving me a much-needed rest. He slept a lot, and couldn't / wouldn't eat much, and so he grew lethargic. We made sure he didn't get dehydrated, an effort confirmed by his frequent wet tears, with lots of gatorade.
On Saturday, there was fortunately no vomiting, but we did have a rise in fever. So i gave David a dose of children's Motrin, and that helped. His diet was still mostly gatorade, a cracker here and there. Mostly, Caroline & i felt like we were just hanging on, trying to make it through the 2nd of 3 days. But things were looking up, especially once my headache broke Saturday night.
But Sunday we were back to the puking. David would alternate between lethargy and bursts of energy and sunshine. Meanwhile, we all waited for mom to fly home. She said she would try to catch an earlier flight, but didn't. And then they were long-delayed in Atlanta again, waiting for storms to clear here in the Triad (we actually all gathered in the basement in the late afternoon, after a nearby tornado warning). And then Leah's luggage didn't arrive, and they had to wait for the next flight for it. And then they had to stop for gas, and got lost in Greensboro. By the time they got here, everyone was already in bed, and David was little better than he had been all weekend.
The final tally for our 3-day ordeal was somewhere around 30 diapers, one full packet of wipes, 3 crib bedspreads, 5 kid t-shirts, a dozen or so kitchen towels, a tube of diaper rash ointment, and a full roll of paper towels.
My dad asked me later what i'd learned. I told him i didn't have the mental energy during it all to come up with any grand themes. It wasn't a pure object lesson in being the stay-at-home-parent, because the kids aren't normally taken with a rotavirus. But i did think about the plight of the single-parent, because there were plenty of moments where i just wanted somebody, anybody to come help me.
P.S. As i touched on, Caroline was a great help. I was enormously impressed with her.
1 comment:
Sounds like a not-so-fun weekend. Charlsie and I both had less severe cases of probably the same virus a couple of weeks ago. Less throwing up.... Fortunately Annette and Trent were spared (knock on wood).
But you seem to have handled it as well as anyone could have.
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