Hey…yeah…sorry I didn’t invite you all to this morning’s Vomit-Fest 2008.
While many of you were perhaps enjoying your Sundays eating brunch, drinking coffee, reading the paper, etc. we were awake since 5AM cleaning up soiled clothing from numerous amounts of vomit and diarrhea. Poor us.
Let me just say this. I’m all ‘down with parenting’ and stuff but sometimes I gotta say – it kind of bites the big one. For example – we had a lovely but long day yesterday. After throwing our child a small b’day party we then cleaned up the place while watching the kid (who these days has the energy equivalent to someone who has eaten 15 bags of candy) and then hubs went to work a freelance job returning at 3AM. The guy is amazing! What a day!
By the time he returned early morning at 3AM and we both hit the hay after a quick hello – Lilian woke up around 5AM. Hubs goes in to check on her and is met by (and this gets really gross so warning WARNING don’t read any further unless you are a parent yourself or like gross things) a horrible stench which could only be one thing – a vomit/diarrhea combo.
Immediately we jump into action. Hubs wipes down the kid – literally wipes her down while handing me various soiled items – pjs, changing pad cover, etc. I then wiped down everything in existence that had been puked on – bed sheets, blankets, stuffed animals, floor, side of crib, mattress, mattress pad, etc. How did such a small child produce so much vomit & diarrhea?
The day continues – each of us giving the other small breaks – taking our child otherwise known as VOMIT-D to various parts of the apartment for distraction/entertainment. Several times she had to be wiped down and put in a tub after close to 8 adult size vomits that occurred in various rooms of the apartment throughout the day including our all over our bedding, my hair, hubs legs and arms, all over the washing machine we are trying to sell, down the hallway, in her room between the cracks of her plastic playmat squares, etc. Lets just say I look forward to the cleaning woman coming this week. And PS – I’m sure any Mom friend reading this is already planning to never come over to my home ever again. Great.
As I type this I sit in a vomit stained shirt (my third of day), vomit stained pants (second of day) and just picked up off the floor hubs vomit stained pants (second? of day).
But this my folks… is parenting. True love. Making a commitment. Living outside yourself. Thinking always of others. Letting go. Embracing all that is beyond your control. The joys (?) of parenthood. Loving the one(s) your with.
I can’t tell you how often I thank God for our removable-cover couches.
we’ve had this happen a few times to both of our girls. Day one was vomit, followed by a week or two of really messy diapers (diagnosis: rotovirus) Hopefully it’s only a day long bug for you and hopefully you guys don’t get it too.
Ugh, so sorry to hear this! Hope she’s ok. We had a week of really messy diapers about a month ago. Don’t know what caused it — prob some dirt or gross park substance that I didn’t clean off his hand before he started sucking his thumb! I just kept thinking: this is how he builds immunity. I hope the same is true for you guys, and that it passes quickly.