My Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day

Claire learned some new words today. Barf. Vomit. Throw up. Yeah. NOT words you want to experience first hand. But, I was also thinking about how it's about time she got sick...we've managed to escape the entire winter without even a runny nose. So strange...she just threw up in the car about 6 times in a row today. YUCK! She was so sad and pathetic though because after the first time she says, "Mommy, what's happening?" in a worried/concerned voice and then starting crying and saying, "Wipe it! WIPE IT!!! SO YUCKY!" Ok...you better just stop reading now if you get grossed out...(cough ahem, Dad!!!).

She had had about 8 oz. of grape juice, cheerios with milk...maybe about 4oz. of milk, and then was in the car drinking chocolate milk...she had consumed about 8 oz of that as well. SOOO needless to say...there was a lot too clean up. NOT HOW I PICTURED MY MORNING...pulled over on the side of the road with cars whipping by while I tried to wipe vomit off of Claire's face, neck, and the chunks off her her...I used up about 40 disposable wipes...sigh.

I ALWAYS have a clean outfit with. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS. Today I did not. Figures. I had taken the shirt out of the diaper bag because I was too lazy to go upstairs one day when Claire spilled food on her shirt, and I had yet to replace it. But I don't think I would've changed her anyways because I didn't see a way I could change her on the side of the road in 35 degree weather without freezing her to death...not to mention spreading the mess.

So looking on the bright side of things, I AM SO GLAD that our washer is immediately inside our backdoor. Several times a week when I schlep laundry up and down the stairs I wish we had our washer/dryer upstairs like my parents house is set-up, but today...boy was I glad I could just strip her clothes right into the machine which I promptly turned on along with our coats. It had soaked though the blanket on her lap, through to her undershirt and everything. It was on my coat from carrying her in. I didn't want her to walk in and spread it all over the garage floor. Sigh.

Looking again to the positive, I am VERY VERY glad we have a full bath downstairs. In a 2 story house, it would totally suck to carry a barfy toddler up the stairs for a bath. I was able to plunk her in and get her cleaned up and warmed up right away.

But that was only the beginning of the clean-up. That was just the clothes and the kiddo. I had to get her redressed and snuggle/nurse with her a bit. I turned on the TV...ha...but she was more interested in watching what I was doing...then I had to take the trash bags out to the car and gather up all the wipes and Cheerios chunks...without gagging myself. So I'm standing there cleaning, and Claire's asking "Why I throwed up?" Good question!!!!!! NO IDEA!!!!

I washed the 2 rugs in the backseat in the next load along with a bag that was in the middle, so none actually got on the floor. I put a bag of random crap under her carseat basically as a step so she can get up in her seat on her own. That was load 2 of barf laundry.

The rugs turned out so well, I decided to wash the 2 in the front as well! I think my car is going to need to smell as fresh as possible!!!!! It was about this time Claire started asking for lunch. Eeep. Of course she was hungry. She didn't have any food in her! So I gave her an applesauce cup and then a 2nd one and she was still hungry. It kind of felt like that very hungry Caterpillar book. Then I made her a peanut butter sandwich (she doesn't eat jelly...can't get her to try it!) thinking bread is on the BRATT diet...right...TOAST? Hoping the peanut butter would sit well, and it did. I heated up 2 pancakes for myself (we love breakfast for dinner around here about once a week!), but then she wanted those too!!! So I gave them to her, and by golly, she ate those too! I figured those were mild as well for digestion.

I kept her busy at the table by giving her playdough. I was afraid to let her down and onto the carpet in case she chucked up her lunch. I was so glad she was happy to play for so long alone...so then I went on a frenzy. I decided that since I had just cleaned out all my expired meds/toiletries, I should check my cupboards/fridge!! Nothing bad in the freezer since I just did that recently to make room for the freezer meals I made. The only thing bad in the fridge was some salad dressing that expired in Nov. 2009. Not bad considering I don't eat the stuff, and it usually appears after we have company.

Moving to the cupboards, it wasn't TOO terrible since I just trashed some rice/oatmeal cereal seemingly not too long ago because Claire...well never did eat that crap although she does love cream of wheat now....I wonder if she'd like it now! HA! I did find some kidney beans that expired in 2005...eep! I guess I normally buy the canned ones since they don't have to soak. Otherwise there was nothing else too terribly old or interesting. I did dump a few spices from 08/09, but that's not too terrible! The one really old spice I found was ALLSPICE from 2003...yikes! And some peppermint extract from 2005.

I had decided that there had to be something in my cupboards that Claire had perhaps recently ingested in the past couple of days to make her sick...I WANT A REASON...no such luck...nothing that she had eaten was bad. So anyways, then she took a three hour nap...score!!! Meanwhile I tried to get the carseat out, but had to wait for Josh to get home to start the next load of laundry...the carseat cover and protective pad under it. That thing was strapped in there so tight! I was able to leave my windows in my car down and the garage door open to get some of the smell out. Thank goodness we actually keep our cars in our garage vs. junk like seemingly half of the neighborhood does.

So where did Claire catch a bug? Who knows? Did she even have a bug??? She ate like a horse the rest of the day, which made me nervous...especially because she wanted a bowl of cheerios with milk for a bedtime snack. Along with a pudding cup, and applesauce cup, a full string cheese stick, oh, and some chips. Holy crap. I've been expected to hear the sound of chucking come from the baby monitor, but I think we are past the worry time zone.

Then I was talking to my mom. She suggested maybe Claire gagged herself on something and wasn't actually physically sick. Hmm...except her sippy cup wasn't the straw kind and couldn't have gotten back in her mouth far enough. She had 2 rounded type toys, but that's it. Oh, and those toys, TRASH. One was a McD type toy that someone had in a free box at a garage sale. Ha...bye bye! And the other, sadly, was her much beloved "real" toy cell phone. But I wasn't wasting anymore time cleaning puke out of little button holes that would still smell a week from now. I'll have to dig out another "new" old phone for her.

Anyways...my day...I pictured having fun and playing with friends...reality...NOT SO!

Then I screwed up the carseat by getting the straps wet in the tub. Apparently, they are now CRAP and won't work right. I have to buy new ones. But I think she needs a taller carseat anyways. Looks like we're not going anyplace for a couple days. But how the crap else are you supposed to clean so much liquidy vomit off of the straps without getting them wet...they were already wet. The carseat actually made a puddle on the floor in the laundry room when Josh set it down in there for me to strip the cover off. Should I have pulled over the first time she barfed?

If I would've and gotten her out quickly, she probably would've barfed ON ME...sigh. Thankfully the trash gets picked up tomorrow so we won't have that garbage lingering in the garage.

I told Claire happy half birthday, and she goes, "Me get cake?" HAHA! She connects birthdays with cakes already!!! So we made a carrot cake this evening! But she wasn't interested in eating it after tasting the cake mix...we'll frost it tomorrow and see if she's interested then!

Oh well, I guess it's good to have a crap day once in awhile to make you appreciate the normal ones. Like the ones where you don't feel like you need to have a big bowl on hand in case your toddler starts to make a coughing/retching noise. It could've been worse, but it could've been a whole, whole lot better.

So where did she pick it up? Who knows? We've only been like 20 places at least in the past week...dry cleaner, grocery store, library yesterday while getting her her very own card....how long do the barf bugs take to go into effect? Maybe it's from leaving her in the church nursery on Sunday...but aren't these things 24 hour bugs? Why do I always want to have a reason for an illness? Thank god the barfs are not an everyday thing. I better go to bed.

Night!

It gets worse before it gets better!

So I haven't posted for awhile...Claire got sick. Ugh.

I will warn you now. This post will talk about baby poop and barf. So if you get grossed out and do not want to read this (my DAD!) then do not read this post. LOL!

Last Thursday she was fine. We went to story time and played at the library afterwards, etc. She had a few loose stools, but I thought maybe she had been having too much fruit and/or fruit juice for her system...Then Friday morning we went to the Teddy Bear Picnic at the library and swimming at the Community Pool. Well, if already had the runs at this point, we did our part by spreading it around. She did not go poo in the pool, but still... She did have a swim diaper on, but she had more loose stools the rest of the day.

On Saturday, I knew for sure it was "the runs" like I have never seen before, and we went through several outfits. Ugh. During the night between Saturday and Sunday, she vomited in the bed. I was right there, THANK HEAVENS FOR BEDSHARING! I was able to quickly scoop her up to keep her from gagging worse on it and got her to our tub so fast! She threw up two more times in the tub. She was crying of course. This was 2 AM. And I had to give both of us a shower. Josh stripped the bed...ugh. I had messy clothes to strip off of us. So nasty. Well...she also had the runs several times during the night...it was worse than a newborn. It continued with vomiting and the runs Sunday. Luckily by Monday, it was just the runs, no more poops. The runs were the worst Sunday to Monday, with about 7 runs between midnight and 6 am. I felt like I hadn't slept all night. I told Josh he had to stay home to help me. Thankfully he did. He also took Claire for a couple hours in the morning so I could sleep for a solid 2 hours uninterrupted.

Yesterday, we just had about 6 runny stools all day, but none of the outfit leakage like we had before. I have so so so much laundry right now it's not even funny. It's all clean, but just piled sky high waiting to be folded. Want to come over and help? LOL!

So today is Wed. and it's pretty much the first morning she's eaten a substantial breakfast. She also had a mushy poo afterwards...yay! I've never been so happy to see that mushy consistency!!! I am glad that we are still nursing or she probably would've ended up in the hospital with dehydration, or had a bloody butt from the acidity of the stomach acid going right through her without any breastmilk in there to neutralize it. Her butt got a little red but I took her outside in the backyard and let her run around nekkid a few times to "air it out" --nothing like fresh air and sunshine! I am also glad that she never got sick like this before!!! Wow. I can't imagine a younger baby/child going through this! We've made it to almost 2 with only 2 ear infections, herpangina once, and the runs/vomits this once...I wonder if it would be better if we stayed home all day everyday...riiight...I so want to get her out and explore this world!

Anyway, I think Sunday to Monday night was the worst. I can decide if vomiting or the runs is worse. I don't like the vomits as it gets everywhere, esp. at an age where she just vomits anywhere...not in a bowl or trash can even if there is one. I don't like the poops as that is harder on her skin I think, but it stays "more contained" even if it leaks out. So we are on the mend! Now I just need to Google if I should take her out yet, like to the store. She's had one mush stool, so I'm wondering if she's better. It was almost like a breastfed mush stool, but I could tell it was still slightly the runs, but enough about the poops and the barfs...did anyone even read this far? LOL!

I'm glad I didn't take away her immune system (my breastmilk!) and wean her early! She nursed nursed nursed like crazy for a few days there! It could have been a lot worse!