The Week of the Weak

Last weekend Coulter was over at the Stewart's for a sleep over on Saturday night. He was thrilled. All went fine....to my knowledge....except... He got sick at about 4 in the morning. Throwing up sick. Nasty. We have known the Stewarts for about 6 years now. Why do you need to know this? Because we have been cleaning up after each other's kids both poop and vomit the whole time. Julie even joked that she'll be happy to continue the current arrangement. The one where our kids have gastronomic issues at her house and her kids have bowel problems at ours. We both laughed in a knowing mom way, like, when the hell does this end?

Sunday he seemed fine. He played, went to a birthday party and went shopping with Bob. All was fine until....he puked again in the late afternoon. Damn, he had been around a LOT of people that day. Up until then I had just chocked it up to something he ate, I guess I was wrong. Immediately after he threw up he was fine and continued to be fine. Kids heal fast.

Monday came around and I felt a bit blah but nothing major. Coulter stayed home just in case. I didn't need him throwing up at school. Apparently 25% of the kindergarten and first grade kids were out....It wasn't just Coulter.

Bob and I watched a bit of TV on Monday night and went to bed fairly early. I still wasn't feeling up to par and wanted to sleep it off. I laid awake for a couple hours and started thinking that I wasn't feeling better, as a matter of fact I was feeling worse and headed toward....we'll say, expelling my dinner. At 2 I did indeed "expel." At 2:10 Kees came to the door and I told him to go back to his bed, that I was sick. I fell asleep. At 2:25 Kees came back and I told him the same thing. He said, "I don't feel good." Awww, poor baby. I said, "Come up here and get in the middle." He did and then almost immediately said, "I'm going to throw up." I grabbed him and ran to the bathroom. He made it. Of course him throwing up didn't do anything for my condition. I went to Bob, who was totally asleep (How can he sleep through this?) and said, "Bob, can you take care of Kees? I have been throwing up and can't do it right now." He said, "I just threw up 10 minutes ago." CRAP! I have known Bob for 15 years and he has only thrown up 2 times.

So here we are the 3 of us running back and forth to the bathroom all night. It was gross and exhausting. At 7 Sophia came into our room. I told her we had all been sick all night. She backed away from me. She hates being sick. I asked her if she could help Coulter get ready for school. She did and was so sweet about it. They had breakfast and then she read him stories until it was time to go. I called a friend who picked up the kids and took them to school.

Kees, of course, felt fine but I was not going to let him go to school. He did sleep in but other than that there were no signs that he was sick. What's with little kids and how they get over things so fast? Bob and I were stuck either on a couch or in bed. We both slept the majority of the day. We did have to go retrieve Coulter at noon. He was feeling bad again and fell asleep in the office when they took him in there.

Now here is the silver lining. My friends all went into "candy striper" mode. They were bringing over remedies left and right. We got crackers, Jello, electrolyte drinks, soup, ginger ale, dinner for the kids, etc. It was amazing. They were all on it. It made me feel very loved and cared for by my friends. I hope they all know I would do the same for them if the tables were turned. I'm pretty sure they do. Anyway, if there was a silver lining, that was it. It just goes to show what an amazing group of friends I have right here in my neighborhood. Being that I have never lived anywhere for more than 3 years I had never developed these kinds of relationships before. It's very interesting and rewarding and I love it.

By Tuesday night I felt like we were starting to mend. By Wednesday morning Bob was better....totally unfair. I got everyone ready for school....except Sophia, she was starting to go down hill. After the super sister that she had been on Tuesday I let her stay home. She didn't seem super sick but she doesn't complain much and if she felt like she needed to stay home, I was going to let her. I babied her all day bringing her vitamin water, noodle soup and crackers. She watched movies all day and slept a little bit. Her big issue was that she had nasty stomach cramps. I still felt crappy but I needed to take care of the rest of my crew.

Thursday everyone went to school....except for Kees, he had a scheduled day off. We had mommy and Kees day but neither one of us was back to 100%.

By Friday I'd say Kees and I were back to about 95%, Coulter and Bob were fine and Sophia was still having cramps but was OK.

So that is the full story of our week of sickness. It sucked for the most part. I am eternally grateful to my girl friends that knew we were sick. They saved me and my family. I hope that NEVER happens again.