Sick

We’ve been very blessed. Except for a minor sniffle, Emry wasn’t sick a day in her life until she was nearly 18 months old. Since then, we have had quite a few colds (thanks to a winter where it would be 60 degrees one day and 30 the next…for weeks on end). Ethan, having someone to share germs with, has not been quite so fortunate. Still, he’s never had more than a slight cold either.

Until this week.

I got it first. Who knows where from. In all likelihood, taking the kids to the doctor where germs abound. Anyhow, I haven’t been that sick to my stomach in a loooonnng time. No vomiting, but certainly the opposite and one night my gut was in so much torment I tossed and turned most of the five or six hours I barely manage on a nightly basis as it is. I’m still recovering a bit as far as appetite goes, but it was over in about 36 hours. Then Ed got it.

Ed’s was a very minor case. Hardly worth mentioning except to point out that my parents taught me well and I know how to share.

Then Emry got it. I thought she had a very minor bout – so minor it didn’t put even a slight dent in her energy level. Until 3:13 Monday morning, that is, when I heard a little voice calling, “Mama! Mama!”

I couldn’t imagine what she was calling about. If she has a bad dream, she might cry a bit. There was no way she thought it was day as it was still pitch black out. I got out of bed and went into her room. She had turned her stars on (a stuffed zebra that shines lots of stars on her ceiling), was sitting next to her bed rail and simply said, “Mama! Sheet wet.”

With only the stars to see by, at first I thought she had merely had a REALLY leaky diaper. When I turned on the light, though… Except for a brief bout of car sickness, Emry has never vomited.  Until Monday morning. It wasn’t a huge mess, but it did call for a change of sheets and a quick bath to wash her hair. She took it all quite cheerfully, telling me she had “spit”, getting her bath toys out to play with and generally thinking it was time to start the day.  Because her room smelled, I put her on the floor in our room at first. It wasn’t 45 minutes later before I had to put her back in her bed (thankfully the plug-in had cleared the smell) so she would actually go to sleep again.

She didn’t throw up again, but she did have diarrhea. Other than her appetite, she was her usual energetic self all day. I worked, but Ed took care of it all until I got home. He let her take a nap in our bed since we have a ceiling fan to keep her a bit cooler. When I went to get her up from her nap, I laid down next to her and she told me again how she had “spit” in her bed so her sheets got wet and I had to change them. Then she looked at me and simply said,  “I sorry Mama.” I almost cried…and told her she had nothing to be sorry for.

Thankfully Ethan hasn’t gotten this bug and I pray he doesn’t. But he has had his own bout of “sickness”. It’s called teething. Biting EVERYTHING, pulling his ears, restless and fussy, inflamed gums, drooling. He does, however, sleep pretty well after I rub his gums and give him some herbal based teething medicine. And since I know some kids teeth much worse (like my nephew Curtis), I’m not complaining. I just wish those things would break through the gum and be done with it!