'He started it!!'

If there's one reason I look forward to my kids growing up, it's vomit. (Yeah, it's a really LONG post about barf.. you may want to skip this one..)

Seriously, anyone who's been through an illness that involves regurgitation with a child too young to make it to the toilet/bucket/whatever will understand that. Yuck.

So Tuesday... We had our meeting with our teacher from the homeschool assistance program and not long after, Monkey starts complaining that his stomach hurts.

"Do you mean you feel like you're going to throw up? or does it just hurt?"
"It just huuurrrts."

A few trips to the bathroom and light snacks later, he finally hurls. In the toilet. YAY!! God bless you, my boy. You can get a stomach virus any time you want. He laid around on the couch for the rest of the day and just rested, having nothing but the occasional sip of water as prescribed by doctor mom. He was up and bouncing off the walls and eating everything in sight by Wednesday morning. And everyone else seemed good too..

Then Thursday came. J was feeling nasty and decided to stay home, knowing that if he went to work, he'd likely end up just coming back.. and get asked 'If you're not feeling well, why did you come in?' Cause I guess people in Iowa like.. don't go to work when they're sick or something.. hm. Weird.

J camps out in the office for the day, feeling crappy and wishing he could just yak and get it over with. No success. The kids and I head off to gymnastics, nearly missing Torrin's class thanks to some poorly marked detours - because if it's not winter, there's construction EVERYWHERE here and one intersection about a block before the gym creates an extra 20 minute detour.

We go home after gymnastics and J makes eggs and bacon for dinner. We're hanging out in the living room, enjoying our newly reinstated digital cable, and Punkin starts whining and grunting. I inform him that if he needs to puke, he better get his butt in the bathroom. He runs back and forth a couple times and then finally blows chunks while standing in the bathroom with his hand on the toilet lid. Nice. I hand him some paper towels and remind him again that it needs to go in the toilet. I then have the audacity to inform him that I don't want him eating dinner. He throws a fit and I propose a compromise of allowing him some toast. He sits on the couch and nibbles his toast... and then sneaks a piece of bacon. Which soon reappears on the couch cushions (again, so happy I have pleather couches) and in his hands. Yuck. He then agrees to not eating anymore.

Bedtime.

Torrin walks up the stairs, informing all who are listening that "I kept barfing and barfing and barfing..."

The boys are tucked in, the train tracks are pushed aside to clear a path to the door for anyone who may need to run to the bathroom, and a bucket is placed next to the head of Torrin's bed. As we're setting everything up and waiting for them to go potty and get into bed, my sweet little Cupcake looses her lunch (er.. dinner) on the boys floor. Oh, goody. Eggs, bacon, toast, and breastmilk on the carpet. I put her in the bathtub and grab a towel to clean up the mess. Mess is wiped up and boys are in bed. Good night.

I take the girls to their room and get them ready for bed. Princess is tucked into bed and I stand in the middle of the room rocking the baby to sleep.. Begging her big sister to stop talking to me and asking me questions and just GO TO SLEEP. Baby Jo is just barely nodding off and I feel her stomach start to lurch. Sheesh.

I inform Ellie that I'm taking Jo downstairs to rock her to sleep and I'll be back up to check on her. Once Jo is finally asleep, I put her in the crib and sit with Ellie until she falls asleep. I then go curl up under a blanket on the couch to watch some John Stewart. It's not long though, before my baby is up again.. pukes a little more and then insists on nursing. I let her nurse and she's out like a light. Once she's back in her crib, I decide I better get some sleep.. anticipating a LONG night ahead.

Boy, was I right.

Shortly after midnight, Princess barfs all over herself and her bed and starts crying.. J comes downstairs from the office to tend to her and of course little Cupcake is woken by her crying. I take her to bed with me to let her nurse a little more in hopes that she'll just go back to sleep. J gets Ellie into the shower and starts stripping her bed. J got her cleaned up and back to bed and then offered to rock the baby back to sleep so I could get some rest. Jo's response, of course, is to wretch all over the floor and his shoe. As he's busy cleaning that up, I hear Aidan head to the bathroom for his turn. Again.. missed the toilet. All over the lid, back of the toilet, and floor. (By the way, they'd all had red kool aid and their puke was a nice shade of pink.. thought you'd like to know that.) So we get him into the shower and then Ellie is up for round two. More in her hair, since she decided to just let it out while laying on her back in bed. Nice. Back to the shower. We change the bed again, get them cleaned up and back to bed, and I head downstairs to sit with J while he gets the baby to sleep. He puts her to bed and we soon drag ourselves up to our own bed as well.. sometime around 1am.

Through the night, Booger vomited a few more times.. some in the bucket, some in the bed. He'd just go back to sleep and end up rolling in it.. Once I think between 2 and 3am he woke up enough for us to take him in the bathroom, get his nasty jammies off, and give him a little washcloth bath.

Later Princess threw up in her sleep again, waking the baby.. again.. and then just fell back asleep when I went in to take Jo. Who, thank heavens, just nursed back to sleep and slept next to me in bed.

I think I slept a little last night.. I'm not sure though. I don't really remember.