When When All Fell Down

This sickness season has been no joke. After being so excited that we were all healthy throughout Christmas break, we were hit like a ton of bricks in January. Leah was so traumatized that she wrote about it in her journal. Most upsetting is that someone was sick every weekend in a row for 3 weeks. She told me I could share.

First Juliet got the flu. Poor girl had a high fever and was so upset that she couldn't come with me to pick out furniture for the baby boy like we planned. After a few days she was recovered, but had gave the virus to Chris. One of my favorite things about Chris is that he is not a whiner. He's a head down and power through type person. The second he said he wasn't feeling well, I knew he was sick. Chris also has the core body temperature of a reptile. So when his fever was 103, I was pretty concerned. I banished him into the guest room and he slept for like 20 hours straight. I was very scared I was going to get the flu, which is the last thing I need this pregnancy. In an effort to be a supportive wife, though, I threw him Gatorade and crackers from the door. Luckily, I didn't get that flu.

After Chris was on the mend, Leah invited a friend to come home from school on the bus with her and play. All the girls were having fun, and playing outside in the snow. After a few hours, Juliet came in and was ABSOLUTELY done with everything. She was melting down like nothing we had seen in years. I took her upstairs, took her temp (she didn't have one) and held her until she fell asleep (at like 7:00). We all went to sleep early. At 9:00 Juliet woke up and was hot. I gave her some Advil and put her back to sleep. 1/2 hour later she was completely delirious. She was crying with her eyes open, but couldn't make eye contact. She kept saying, "It's like.....It's like...." while pushing away air with her hands. It was so scary. It took her what felt like forever (but was probably like 10-15 minutes) to completely come out of it. At first she kept saying that she didn't know who Chris was. She eventually woke completely up. Then puked. We showered her off and then she puked again. Juliet then ran a low grade fever for the next few days, then got an ear infection, but was otherwise okay.

At the tail end of that, Leah woke up one morning saying her throat hurt. I told her that can happen in the mornings, but she would be okay. She promptly ran to the bathroom and threw up. The stomach flu took her down for a few days.

Finally feeling like we were all on the road to recovery, (Leah was still home because she wasn't eating anything besides crackers), I met a friend for dinner downtown. We had a good time, and I came home and went to sleep. I woke up an hour later to one of the worst stomach flus I've had. It was awful. I was in quarantine through the next day. That night, Juliet complained that her stomach hurt and then puked ALL OVER downstairs. Lucky me was still in quarantine. Chris cleaned her up, and she joined me.

Then Chris was on a mission. Despite that fact that we had been washing the towels, sheets, and bathrooms daily for the past 3 weeks, Chris was determined to end it without him getting the stomach flu. He did another big clean to the house. And it worked. And we all hope we don't have a big sickness run like that again.