Half-pint Gets Sick...

This past week has been one to mostly forget. It began well, with fun things to look forward to..and then as we were driving home from the zoo in rush hour traffic...Half-pint got hit with his first ever bout with the stomach bug. I know it's a disgusting thing to blog and read about. As he woke up from a fitful nap throwing up all down his front (all his clothes and the car seat) I quickly veered to the exit lane and somehow got off the interstate, pulling into the nearest parking lot (a hotel and busy Starbucks) and pulled him out of the car. I cleaned him up the best I could in the dark, parking lot and changed his clothes. It was a tender mercy that we hadn't gone home after preschool and still had his backpack loaded with TWO complete changes of clothes. I also cleaned up the car seat the best I could, but admittedly there was much to desire as we still had about 20-30 minutes of interstate driving before we got home. I called my Mom. somewhat frantic and we decided to buckle him into the only remaining back seat with the seat belt and drive home VERY CAREFULLY on the residential roads (opposed to the interstate). I emptied a paper cup and instructed Half-pint to aim for the cup if he felt sick again. We got about 10 minutes down the road and he got sick again. By this time it's completely dark and I had no idea if he actually aimed for his little paper cup. He quickly confirmed my worst fears as he said "Sorry Mom, I got it on the car seat." (meaning the seat of the car, NOT his car seat). Bummer! The first time was all contained on him or in his car seat. Thankfully we were very near Grammy's house, so I pulled in to clean him up again. I made him stay in the laundry room (tile floor) and got the kitchen trash can-just in case. Quarter-pint was at the end of his rope too; I had to get him out of the car. Half-pint was feeling a little better; so I ventured to give him a soda cracker and some water. Bad idea. We finally were ready to go home; I decided to just put him back into his wet car seat and cover him with a car towel. No sooner than I had him buckled, and he got sick again. This time I had the car towel (bath sized) to catch everything, but he still managed to get his shirt. I pulled him out AGAIN and took his shirt off. He was a really good sport up until this point, but as I told him we didn't have any more clean shirts, the poor little guy fell apart. "No shirt? But I be told! (cold)" I put him back into his car seat, but this time I took the remaining car towel and wrapped it completely around his body, then buckled the car seat belt over him in the car seat. "Mom, I don't think we make it home!" Thankfully, he did make it home, and quickly fell asleep.

As I pulled him out of the car to put him in the tub and then straight to bed, he got sick again. This time I caught it-all down my back. Did I mention we had a really busy day the next day? "Mom, I don't want Baby Buddy to hug me-I too sick!" After a through soak and cleaning in the tub, I read Half-pint some bedtime books. "Mom! I be sick!" Sure enough, he was sick again! This time he managed to get it all in a "barf bucket". He quickly decided he was ready for bed (which was draped with bath towels-covering his pillows, etc.) He was tuckered out-poor kid. When I checked on him a little while later, this is what I found...

I cancelled or rescheduled most of the things on my calendar for the next few days, but Grandma still babysat for me the next day. As she arrived in the morning, Half-pint got sick again. He came upstairs to where I was getting ready, in tears "Grandma said I can't eat cereal!" He was hungry, but was still having trouble keeping anything down. Thankfully, that was the last time he got sick! Now he has a really clean car seat.