Whenever I see "Day Care" calling me, I dread the call. Is she okay? Did she get hurt? Did she hurt someone? Am I in trouble for something? But to find out my kid is sick I instantly feel the dread of knowing I'll have to sit and watch her suffer until her body can fight off whatever it is she has.
I get to the school and she's in the front office....I'm guessing they sort of "Quarantine" the kids whenever one is sick up at the front of the building? I arrive and find out she's now thrown up 3 times, and they hand me a plastic grocery sack in case she gets sick again. What? This kid? Nah, look at her! Smiling, happy, certainly the worst has passed!
Then the naive parent in me gets a lesson on how wrongly looks can be deceiving. As we pull into the garage she erupts again all down the front of her, leading me to come to the conclusion that after she'd thrown up the first 3 times they had fed her again at some point. My gosh. GAH-ROSS!!
This is where a mother's love kicks in and shuts down the squeamish girl inside as I use my bare hands to clean up what I can, unbuckle her from her car seat and carry her into the house to change her. Again, she smiles, talks, acts like nothing is wrong.
So what the heck? What leads a child to vomit over and over with no fever, no signs of pain, no signs of nausea, really until it happens?
From the 4:00 episode of sickness that happened in the car as we pulled into the garage until about 10:30 PM I believe a wave of nausea hit her every 15 - 30 minutes. I unwillingly opted to for-go eating dinner. Something about the whole evening left me without any sort of an appetite.
I let her sleep on the couch in the living room, because if she's going to yak, it's easier to clean up the couch than her bed. Jason put her mattress in the living room for me and I slept next to her. So at 2:30 AM it was extremely convenient for her to find me when she wanted me to get up and get her something to eat.
Throughout the evening as I held my child and made sure she didn't continually get sick on the carpet, herself, the furniture, or even the dog I started to notice that her eyes would roll back into her head and she'd go limp as she was getting sick. And I will freely admit it: I panicked. Is she having a seizure? Can I stop the nausea? Dear God, what do I do!? So I do what any other mother would do. I called my mom!!! Whew. My kid is normal. She's a toddler having a hard time throwing up so much. She's fine. Stop feeding her. Don't give her anything for 4 hours.
So that 2:30 AM thing where she's begging for something? I'm allowed to give her a SIP.....a SIP of gatorade. Less than 2 oz of a fluid, and perhaps some ice chips. You try explaining that to a two-year old who's hungry and thirsty and doesn't understand why her mommy won't give her something because quite obviously, she's fine! Needless to say, the wailing and tantrum commenced, pulling her daddy out of a dead sleep and getting herself so upset I thought we'd start the puking all over again. We're exhausted. She's uncooperative. My course of action: I let her cry herself out. Finally around 3:30 I had her bed put back together again, her in it, and I retired to my own bed where this child let me sleep in until 7:30, which is UNHEARD of in our household!
I followed instructions and only gave her little bits to eat and drink to see if the nausea had stopped. By 9:00, I figured it had passed and she was begging to go bye bye. I had errands to run, so why not? We head out and we're gone just barely an hour, when she erupts in the backseat again. We head home and I think everyone agreed it was best she just not venture out again.
For the rest of the day today she's not eaten or drank much, but after that episode in the car while we were out she didn't get sick again. I've given her almost 12 hours and I think the worst is behind us. I plan on heading to church with her tomorrow. Watch this be the first (and hopefully only) time I see her number up on the big screen in the church to let me know I need to leave the service and go get her.
However, as we were home today she did, on more than one occasion, ask me to get up and dance. I realized.....I have NO idea how to dance with a 2 yr. old. Mostly she just kind of hops on one foot and spins. She likes to spin....and fall down. I, however, don't like to do that. At one point she asked Jason to dance with her and he let her hold on to his finger and he twirled her like a ballerina. She loved it! So again I say, if THAT didn't make her sick, I think she's okay.
She took notice of the presents under the tree for the first time today. She grabbed one that was wrapped in gold, shiny paper and insisted on opening it. It was REALLY hard to tell her no. A few hours later after she'd forgotten about the tree, I did let her pick out one and open it. It was from Cindy, and it was a gorgeous hat! I love the bright and shiny colors! I put it on Rachel and said, "Smile!" This is what I got:
