Thanks Mom

 

 

If you know me you know that I am deathly afraid of throwing up and I often repeat the phrase, "I'd rather die than throw up."  There was even a time, in my 20's, when I had the stomach flu and I asked my mom to just shoot me and put me out of my misery.  (This all probably came from the fact that I had celiac disease for 32 years and didn't know it and every time I ate I felt sick.  Read more about this here.)  I hate to throw up but hardly ever do it so every time I feel like I am going to I freak out and try to talk myself out of it.  I knew this day would come, the day I had a child who was sick and who would throw up, and I also knew that she would probably get me sick too.  But, I didn't realize it would be so soon . . .

Almost two weeks ago on Saturday Lemon wouldn't eat her dinner.  We thought maybe she was just tired and didn't like her sweet potato pancakes (we also went out for lunch and thought maybe something from there bothered her).  So, we put her to bed.  That morning, she woke up with poop, pee and throw up all over her and her crib but we didn't think anything of it (because it was kind of all mixed together) so we changed her and then went on with what we were going to do that day.  She didn't act sick (kind of like she never acts tired), so I took her to Mommy & Me yoga and thought that maybe it was just a fluke that she woke up like that.  She didn't even seem to have a fever, but now I feel bad about dragging her there, and the fact that she probably got all of the other little babes sick!

That day she had an explosive diaper and wouldn't eat but went to bed and slept all through the night, just like the night before (silly me, this alone should have clued me in!).  I stayed home Monday because she had another "poop all over the bed episode" that night at 1am and in the morning seemed to have a fever.  I made her a doctor's appointment, because she was pulling on her ear too, and wanted to be home with her just in case.  The doctor heard a bubbling stomach but her ears were clear and just sent us home with some probiotics and told us to keep making her drink liquids like pedialyte and water, no solids if she doesn't want them and no breast milk (which I thought was weird).  She said if I did feed her to feed her in small amounts, which is hard to do if you have full boobs (so I did have to pump a lot just to keep up my supply since she wasn't eating a lot).  I listened but fed her whenever she wanted to eat and actually watered down breast milk to make sure she had liquids in her if she wouldn't drink just plain water.  We also got some bananas and rice cereal in hopes that it would "stop her up" a bit (it didn't).

She seemed to only want milk.  Forcing her to drink water or pedialyte was awful and even though we tried feeding her breakfast, lunch and dinner she wouldn't eat it.  I guess I didn't realize just how sick she was, and probably how nauseous she was, because she didn't act sick.  She played, didn't want to cuddle but did get tired more often and took 3-4 naps a day the whole week.  We changed A LOT of diapers, did A LOT of laundry, ran A LOT of baths, cleaned up weird, liquid yellow poop off of the living room floor (thank god for hardwood floors!), got thrown up on and pooped on (both of us) - so it was a really tiring couple of days.  The worst was on Wednesday night when we thought she was feeling better but then wanted to go to bed at 5pm, cried when we put her in her playpen and then threw up all over it.  So so sad.

After staying home with her Monday, and my mom coming over so I could run some errands, I started feeling bad Monday night.  I spent all night in bed, trying not to throw up, but finally did around 12am.  And then my legs hurt, for some strange reason (dehydration?), so I couldn't sleep and slept about an hour all night.  Ian had to stay home Tuesday to take care of the baby so that I could just lay around and I didn't really start to feel like myself again until Friday, even though I didn't get sick again.  Lemon's sickness lasted a whole week, she didn't really start feeling, or acting, like herself until Sunday.  And once she wasn't sick anymore we realized that she did act sick, and we just didn't notice.  She may not have wanted to cuddle, and she still played, but she wasn't her usual, chipper, talkative self; and after about a week she finally went back to normal.  I can't even imagine how bad she felt (wait, maybe I can) and I just wish I would have known sooner.  She was probably so dizzy and nauseous and her poor little tummy probably felt so bad - I just felt terrible that I didn't know she had the flu sooner (and dragged her out to yoga and left her to run errands!).  

Ian and I ended up missing 2 days each last week and it was a bummer because we were oh so close to finishing the school year with some sick days in tact (remember I took 3 months off and he took 6 weeks so we now have nothing left).  But, we had to be there with our baby and I didn't really want to make her go with anyone else, besides my mom, when she was feeling so horrible. 

Our "sick chick:"

 

Fed her so much oatmeal that first day and it all came up later.  :(

Nursing, still her favorite even when she's sick.  And clearly we weren't concerned about fashion last week!

Sick scrunchy face, is there anything cuter?

So, we survived our first stomach flu and I lived to tell about it.  I even showed up at school on Thursday and told all of my teenagers to go home and hug their mothers because they have no idea what they did for them when they were little.  Moms spend all day taking care of their sick babes, then all night sick themselves; it is absolutely crazy and made me realize just how much our moms do for us that we had no idea about.  Those couple of days at home were a blur and you spend all of your time worrying about your little muffin, that when you get sick yourself you are just so completely worn out. 

It is true, that you don't fully appreciate your mother, even if you thought you did and even said you did, until you become a mother yourself.  I now know why my mom still rubs my back when I sit next to her, kisses and hugs me hello and goodbye and checks on me when it's stormy out.  I was her baby once, and she took care of me while I was sick once, and she also watched me cover my skin in tattoos, the same skin that she used to rub lotion on after baths when I was just a baby.  I get it now.  I understand. 

I am sorry I didn't spend more time, when I was younger, telling her how much I appreciate her.  Thanks mom for taking care of me all of these years, I love and appreciate you.  And next time you see your mom, make sure you give her a big hug, she deserves it too.