Sunday, February 24, 2013

How I spent my school vacation week & parking update

feb21a

The week before last, Rich and I were commenting on how healthy the girls have been this winter.  They haven't had any sick days from school and there haven't been any unscheduled appointments with the pediatrician.

And then last Tuesday happened.

I received the following text from Grammy on my train ride home:

Allie is throwing up.  Call me.

Ack!  I called home and Rich informed me that Allie had thrown up that afternoon in the car.  At first, Grammy thought she was just car sick but no, she was really sick.  Rich picked me up from the train station and I walked into the house to find Grammy scrambling to clean up after Victim #2.  Anna.  At one point, we had two kids each throwing up every 15 minutes.

Rich and I had brought Anna to a routine gastro appointment that morning while Grammy watched Allie and Emily.  Grammy was then going to bring the girls to her house on Wednesday for an overnight visit because it was school vacation week and it would give Rich some time to study.

Tuesday night, Rich and I decided to divide and conquer.  I slept with Anna and Rich slept with Allie.  They both threw up all night and only stopped in the early morning hours.  We slept for two, maybe three hours.  I had been keeping my fingers crossed that Emily wouldn't get sick.  She didn't that night but I did find her wandering the hallway at midnight with her pillow pet and buddies.  She told me that she'd had a bad dream about a fisher cat.  I convinced her to sleep in our bed by herself and she did for the rest of the night.  Funny how that comforted her even though she was there alone.

feb21b

I called in sick to work on Wednesday because I was barely functioning with only a few hours of sleep and would they really want me in there after caring for sick kids all night.  I ran laundry the entire day and bleach wiped everything that the sickies had touched.  I was also constantly washing my hands.

The sleeping arrangements started off the same Wednesday night.  Allie and Anna, although better, were still fairly sick.

1:00 - I fell victim
2:00 - Grammy
3:00 - Emily
4:00 - Rich

Rich stayed with Emily while I went between Allie and Anna, as needed.  I'm not going to go into the gory details but I will say that this virus, which I believe is the new norovirus, is absolutely disgusting.  I don't think I've ever been that sick and I had the norovirus when I was pregnant with the girls.  Aside from the puking, I was so achy.  My skin hurt.  It felt like someone had hit me in the lower back with a bat and I couldn't stand up straight.  I had the worst headache I've ever had, for 24 hours.  I never thought that cathing my child would be a physically challenging task.

On Thursday, Allie napped in her bed until 1:00 that afternoon.  She napped again on the couch that afternoon and promptly fell asleep that night when we all went to bed at 7:00.  That's how much this virus knocks you out.

feb21c

I'm on Day #4 and I still have no appetite.  I have to force myself to eat and drink and I can't seem to stay hydrated.  I have very little physical energy.  Rich usually doesn't get stomach sick (or "man-sick") so while he still was sick, he's been able to do more than I can.  Thank goodness Grammy didn't go home on Wednesday or my dad may have caught this.  It could have been a lot worse - we could have been traveling or it could have been a normal school week.  Based on how fast it moved in our house, we believe that they picked it up at gymnastics camp Monday morning.

So now I have my list of foods I want to eat but can't.  Does anyone else do this?  I really have absolutely no appetite so it's kind of an odd thing to thing about.

  1. Nachos
  2. Chicken parm with garlic bread
  3. Avocado, anything with avocado
  4. Cadbury creme eggs
feb21d

****
Parking update - That incident happened the last day before school vacation week.  School starts up again tomorrow.  Rich sent a very nice email (I couldn't have worded it as well as he did) to the principals of the school after it happened and even though it was vacation week, he received a response back.  He told them of exactly what happened and how we had been in contact with the police.  The school agrees that the behavior of the other parent was unacceptable and that they will assist in monitoring the parking situation.  They also told us that the police department has been very helpful in dealing with these situations, which to me implies that there have been other issues in prior school years.  

Thank you for your supportive comments and suggestions.  I'll keep you updated!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope everyone is feeling better soon.

Kristin said...

Ugh. I feel ya. My daughter got it the Thursday night before vacation. Even though I'm a teacher, I obviously took Friday off to be with her and because I was non-functional from lack of sleep. Tuesday evening I came down with a bout of pancreatitis (long story) and ended up in the ER. While we were waiting in my curtained area, my husband came down with it. I came home from the hospital Thursday afternoon and got it Thursday night. My mother-in-law, who saw my husband on Tuesday, got it last night. Terrible. I hope you're all feeling better!

Spring said...

Ugh... That is terrible stuff, my partner & I got it just days after moving to GA last year, 2 out of the 3 of our trio had it (they were 11 months) & my mom & step dad got it (whom we were staying with while house hunting) it also lasted days & was the worst sickness I have ever experienced. I felt so bad for the babies!!!
I hope you all are much better & ready for a new week :)

Unknown said...

I hope you all feel better soon! We had norovirus last year, and it was so awful.

I'm glad to hear that the school is taking the parking situation seriously.

Lily said...

when I had mono, i made a list of things to do when I was feeling better!
Hope you all feel better soon! Sounds terrible :(

Wendy said...

I hope you all feel better soon -- what a rough rough week!

I'm glad the school responded quickly to your husband's email. Hopefully they will monitor things as well.

Sarah said...

Thanks for the well wishes. The girls are back to normal for the most part. I'm still half eating and really tired.

I can't imagine babies having this - how terrible!

Marion said...

One of my twins got it last year (at 8 months old) and my husband got it the next day. She got it again this year, and gave it to our babysitter and her whole family. Norovirus is no joke! I hope you all feel better very soon!

Unknown said...

Poor babes, and poor you!!! I didn't get the norovirus, but I had something that caused me INTENSE nausea, horrific stomach cramping and everything but puking, and it lasted a week. I sort of wanted to die by the time it was done. I'm so glad you guys are better!

As for your prior post, I can't believe the audacity of that woman. I wouldn't have been nearly as polite as you were. My mom actually once tried to ask someone at a restaurant something about how her kids were behaving and she just started SCREAMING at the top of her lungs at my mother. In the middle of the restaurant. It was insane, and intense. My husband (big dude) stood up and walked over, and said something like, 'excuse me, she asked you a polite question. If you want to scream at her, we should take this outside' at which her husband looked at my nervously and hussled his psycho wife and their screaming children away. It was a pretty awful situation. People do NOT react well when confronted about things they think they are in the right about.

Sarah @OMGTheresThree said...

Sounds miserable. I hope your all feeling better.