The house of sick

It's winter.  The kids are sick.  Pretty standard statement from a parent with young children.

Elektra started out with a cold: runny nose, nasty wet cough, lots of sneezing.  At some points, she'd just stand there with enormous crocodile tears streaming down her face.  She wasn't wailing, just tears.  She also had a fever, and it was persistent.  After a 4-5 days of this fever, Steve took her to the doctor.  The doctor found she had a really bad ear infection in the one ear, and prescribed The Pink Stuff (antibiotic).  Elektra loves "my pink medicine".  It smells like it tastes great (bubblegum), but I think she'd love if it tasted like feces because it's PINK.  Elektra is really into pink right now.  When she's getting dressed in the morning, she picks out pink socks every time (if they are available).  By this past Saturday, two days after she started the "my pink medicine", you could see her appetite was coming back and she was starting to feel better.

DJ, on the other hand, has got it rough.  His fever comes and goes, it's always a low grade fever (99 or less), and it's not around for days at a time, and then will make an appearance.  He's had a runny nose and nasty wet cough for over a week now.  Then on Saturday night, he came into our room to sleep in our bed but without Pillow and Tiger.  Usually that means he woke up disoriented.  Well, he came into our room, asked to be picked up by just raising his arms, and while Steve was putting him in our bed, I went to get his pillow and Tiger.  I wasn't gone 10 seconds, and DJ had vomited in our bed.  Steve tried to catch it, but that's, well, impossible. 

Awesome.

I cleaned up DJ while Steve stripped the bed.  Luckily, none of our blankets got hit, so we really only had to change the sheets and clothes of everyone involved.  We all snuggled again, and an hour later, DJ threw up all over me. 

Awesome.

Once again, the blankets were spared, so we changed the sheets and clothes of all involved.  We hunkered back down, with towels around us.  DJ dry heaved a few minutes later, but then slept the rest of the night. 

DJ was pretty snuggly all day on Sunday, and even wasn't quite himself even when he got to see Spiro, Sophia, Thio and Thia.  But he ate well for dinner, including pounding down 4-5 strawberries and red velvet cupcakes.

Sunday night, DJ came into our bed again.  I had a towel nearby... just in case.  3 hours later, DJ got sick on me again. 

Awesome.

This time, it was a pretty red color, too!!  Fantastic for staining things!  And he'd managed to get all of the blankets dirty, too.  I don't keep a full second set of king sized blankets around so... I went and slept in DJ's twin bed with him, and Steve stayed in our room with throw blankets.  Clearly, neither of us really slept yesterday.

We took the kids to daycare yesterday as neither were sporting fevers, and DJ seemed to be feeling relatively ok.  It turns out that at around 10:00, he asked Eleanor to go to bed, and he slept for 2.5 hours.  Then he was very clingy, and didn't want to do anything but sit right next to Eleanor.

On our way out the door to go home, DJ vomited all over Eleanor's rug.  Well, at least it wasn't on me...but I felt bad because it's Eleanor's new rug!!  DJ was clearly feeling terrible. 

We were only home for an hour when, at 7:00 PM, DJ turned to me and said, "Mommy, I want to go lay down.  I want to put on 'jamas and lay down in my bed."  And that is exactly what he did, and was asleep in 10 minute or less.  That means he went to bed over an hour and a half early for him.  He slept until midnight, and then crawled into our bed. Having learned my lesson, I had towels EVERYWHERE.  Naturally, DJ slept for the next 7 hours without incident.  In fact, he woke up in a pretty good mood.  He drank some water when we got to the kitchen, and then started to wimper.  I went to give him a hug to comfort him and .....

Awesome.  Why am I a barf target?!

Got us all changed into fresh clothes again, and then DJ cuddled on the couch with me and watched some TV.  About an hour and a half to 2 hours later, DJ asked me to go lay down.  And lay down he did and was asleep in 5 minutes or less.  He slept for 2.5 hours, had some lunch (chicken dipped in Greek yogurt), and seems to have a little energy now.  Hopefully, he's turned a corner on whatever is plaguing him.

The one benefit to DJ throwing up on the bed (and the kitchen floor) is that it makes for easy clean up.  No stench... unlike trying to get that out of a rug.  On the other hand, well, it's pretty clear what the downsides are...