Sunday, February 24, 2008

Flu Blug

My boys caught a flu bug of some sort last week. Both awoke Wednesday morning puking. It was a crazy day. I've never had such an experience; a 2 1/2 year old and an 18 month old, both throwing up within minutes of each other(every half hour to hour). But God is so good....he gave me much strength and just the ability to handle it all. Since my husband had to work, it was just me doing my best to catch the puke on me(I lost track of how many times I had to change my clothes!) or something that would be easy to wash(it's hard to make it to the toilet or to just get them to puke into a bucket). They could not keep any food or drink down at all. The poor things couldn't really understand what their bodies were doing, why they felt so horrible and what to do when it shot out of them. Fortunately Moses was only sick one day and by the end of it was so hungry he wanted to eat anything, but wanting to be careful not to feed him too much I had him eat slowly and only toast and applesauce. Elijah kept some food down for about 4 hours and then threw it up again. He threw up several times in the night and the whole next day. But at least I only had one sick child. He got better by late evening, and the next day was no longer puking but still not himself. It was hard, all they wanted when they were sick was to be held, so that's all I did. I held them and did my best to stay on top of the laundry since they soiled about every available piece of linen that we have! (I am so thankful for modern conveniences such as the washing machine and running hot water:) Overall, it was a sweet time of just being close with my boys . I really did enjoy them just wanting to be held. So now that the sickness is past, we are trying to get back to normal. Ryan and I have not gotten sick--praise the Lord, hopefully we won't at all. So, the house is still a mess and I feel out of sorts. Hopefully we'll get back in order soon.

One last thing: I'm not too impressed with Pedialyte. Just because it's soooooo sweet (though I do understand why and it's purpose), but because my boys never eat sugar. When they have juice it is usually about 6 ounces water with 1-2 ounces juice. So they did not like it all. Plus they threw everything up so it was a waste of money for me. I tried some home remedies, but they didn't work either. Oh well, my boys survived and their appetites are picking up.

1 comment:

Rebecca said...

Oh, Candice! I feel for you!!!

I remember those nights when 1 or 2 or 4 kids were up half the night puking or worse and the laundry just piled up more and more and more. Ugh.

Y'know what I started doing? If a child woke up puking, I took them to the bathroom and then when the first round of ickies was over, I made a bed for them in the bath tub. I know it sounds weird, but usually they were up several times running for the toilet and never made it. I'd be scrubbing carpets, mattresses, couches, etc. for a week to get the "grosses" out. When Sarah outgrew her toddler bed, I confiscated the mattress as a "sick bed". Then I would put it in the bathroom on the floor for the sick person. It just made sense to me, weird or not!

And I never have cared for Pedialyte, either. Everyone here swears by it, but the only time I ever gave it to my kids was when Jess was one and burned his hand...badly. I took him to the ER and the nurse gave him a bottle to "pacify" him. When Seth saw the bottle, he had to have one, so she gave one to him, too. (At the moment, I didn't have it in me to agrue.) Generally, I give the kids hot lemonade for cough and sore throat, hot tea for colds and hot mint tea for upset tummies.

Well, I'm praying that all are healthy in your home!!! Blessings, Sister! I miss you!!!