Our first tummy bug

This morning Sophie and Michael drank whole sippy-cups of milk, ate all of their Cheerios and bananas, and have been running and giggling away from me as I try to "gitch-ya, gitch-ya, gitch-ya."

This was not the case for the last four days.

On Tuesday the kids returned to their center after more than two weeks at home for the holidays.  Before the end of the day, I had gotten the center's "your child's health is important to us" email informing families that there was a case of conjunctivitis/pink-eye in the toddler room.

That night as we got the kids ready for bed, I noticed goo in Sophie's eyelashes and that her eye was a tad pink. Mike and I compared our schedules for the next day, and he planned to take time off.

In the morning, Sophie's eye looked fine.  Mike took the kids to the center, told the teachers we were concerned and to call him to come get her if necessary, but there was no call.  When I picked the kids up, I breathed a sigh of relief as the teachers said Sophie's eye did look a little pink but not to worry about it. 

What I did worry about was how slowly she climbed out of her chair at the snack table, how much of the snack was still there, and how she didn't smile when she gave me a hug.

As I got Sophie out of her car seat at home, she looked sleepy.  "Do you want to go in the house and snuggle with Mama?"

"Yeaaaah."  She dropped her head on my shoulder immediately as I lifted her out.  Inside she didn't want to say hi to the kitty, she didn't want to find toys in the playroom, she just wanted to take me up on my offer and cuddle on the couch. Luckily, Michael was happy to play on his own.

Sophie requested milk.  Moments later she was vomitting on the living room rug, and then again, and then again.  She didn't eat any dinner (as expected but very unlike her), and we skipped the storytime milk for her, having seen that her stomach turned it into cottage cheese earlier on.  Michael followed his usual routine. 

Since Sophie didn't have a fever, we chose to just wait this out, planning to call the doctor in the morning to be sure that was best and then the center to let them know what was up.  It was my mom's day to watch the kids, but we thought they should know one of their kids had a bug.

In the middle of the night, Michael let out a frightened cry.  Mike went in to check on him and called to me that Michael was puking.  The rest of the night is a blur of changing crib sheet after crib sheet including one of Sophie's, snuggling with Michael in the rocker, rushing him to the bathroom sink, Mike sleeping with Michael on the living room couch, helping Mike change a couple dirty t-shirts, a pile of stinky laundry growing in the hallway, and gagging a couple times at the sour milk smell.

Side note: Not long ago I was questioning whether we should have bought our Clouds and Stars zipper sheets rather than the less expensive elastic kind.  They were super helpful in the early days,  and this experience made me a believer once again.  Potty-training probably will too.

After our whirlwind night, I called my mom at 6:30 a.m. to suggest she bring a change of clothes like she did in the early spit-up days.

Both kids were sick again that day, and Michael threw up as soon as I took him out of his crib on Friday morning, so Mike stayed with them that day.

Saturday there was no more vomit (my mom was not so lucky--the bug got her), but both kids were still pretty lethargic with bursts of energy here and there.

Like I said, today they are milk-drinking, breakfast-eating, mommy-energy-draining giggle machines.

After their ear infection/coughing illness last month that turned into pneumonia for Sophie, this stomach bug (which the doctor's office said is going around) has me missing those breatmilk antibodies that seemed to keep the kids much healthier last year. 

I'm also starting to miss how breastfeeding kept the holidays off my waistline.  However, the "gitch-ya, gitch-ya" work-out routine should do some good.

1/16/11 Edited to add: The bug has reached my husband's stomach, and mine feels like there's a rock in it.  I'm hoping my wish to reduce my waistline is not granted with that particular solution!