To The First Sickness...

To the first sickness comes dirty sheets, dirty clothes and a bathroom that looks like a Chinese Laundrymat.
Nugget will be a year next week and he's come down with his first major illness. I guess that's the upside of it, along with the fact that this happened a week before his birthday and Christmas. And to think, maybe breastfeeding did do the trick-I mean for him to be just under a year and all and to have been around tons of kids and some sick ones from time to time and never really come down with anything besides a runny nose once. But when he got it boy did he get it. Both ended that is. For the weak in the tummy, quit reading. For the mommies who've dealt, I have to say it makes you a stronger person in a way. From the day Nugget was born I feared the sickness. In the beginning, when I was exhausted, alone and unsure what to do with this new child of mine I would literally cringe when another child coughed around my son. Where they sick? Why would they bring their child around my son? And as he got a little older and I began to feel more confident as a mother I ignored the little coughs, but still pulled all the library toys in music class away from my sons mouth, made sure he was always well rested, politely pulled him away from other babies who I thought might be sick, and so on.
So, suddenly on Wednesday when I heard a loud noise come from Nuggets rear end, followed by a horrific foul smell and a mess that dripped out of his pants and on to my floor in a moments notice I went with my gut. I carried him, arms length away, dripping along my floor as I went, into the shower, clothes and all. For someone who just pooped his pants he seemed pretty happy. He splashed his hands in the water that swirled around him and laughed as I stripped of his poopy clothes. I redressed him for the day, only to do the same routine twenty minutes later. Floor dripping and all. Three poops later I had a pattern down and wasn't praying for a clean butt. Especially since he was now projectile vomiting. All over my kitchen. I literally stood there for a second, shell shocked, wondering what do I do first-clean up my crying baby or my kitchen? Then I felt a rumble of my own. But it was in my head, right. I couldn't be sick too.
The next morning my head was clean, my son was a bit happier, but I was now hanging over the toilet. I had Nuggets stomach bug and I had it bad. Nugget's diahrea had stopped and so had his puking, but mine had just began. The only thing I had to be thankful for was that my husband could have been home. There was no way I could have handled or cared for Nugget myself. Not while I was having diahrea and puking in the tub. Speaking of which does anyone know if you can hire a maids service just to sterilize your tub?
So the next day I thought we were both better, a bit lathargic, but better. We took it easy, took some naps and drank our fluids. So why was it that he woke up, after a healthy day without any poop or vomit, twice during the night, projectile vomiting all over his crib? Ah! It was a sleepless night, and what made it worse was that Nugget now had a strange heavy cough.
Dr. Cohen, our beloved Pediatrician-I swear by him-he's young, fresh and explains this to me without making me feel like an idiot, took Nugget in at 8 this morning. (See why I love him!) Not only does Nugget have a stomach virus that Cohen says is polluting his office with babies for the past two weeks, but he's got upper respiratory infection-remember the straneg cough. So like I said, when he got it-he got it good.
Nuggets on his meds now, his humidifier is plugged in and steaming the room and I'm shoving all the white grape juice I can get down his throat. This evening I got so nervous about him getting dehydrated that I took a medicine syringe and started squirting juice in his mouth. This is due to the fact that Nugget has closed his mouth and turned his head away to any form of bottled drink or scrap of food.
But what I did find was a nifty little trick that camne down from my family. It's known as the Jell-o trick. What you do is double the amount of liquid, two cups hot and two cups cold, and poor the Jell-o into cups for your baby to drink. Doubling the liquid will cause the Jell-o to remain liquified and be sweet enough for your baby to drink down, while being gentle like Jell-o on their tummy. It feels good to know that I've had my first sick child pass down trick from my family, and that I've done a better job handling my ill son that I ever imagined I'd have. It sounds strange, but I'm proud of Nugget and I'm proud of me.