Motherhood Hell

I officially enter Motherhood Hell on Tuesday morning.

My mother in law usually keeps Gage on Monday nights. He spends the night.
Phone rang at almost 6.
They'd been up since 2am, vomiting.
(they, meaning...Gage was up vomiting.)

So, I go out to her house to get him. Call into work. Look for an open store at that hour to get: pedialyte & carpet cleaner (mother-in-law has brand new, super-light-colored carpet).
I do all of those things--not in that order.

Get to mother-in-law's house.
Take the baby home.

What I learned: Babies just spit up. No big deal. When my child THROWS UP, he has no idea what he's doing. He coughs first, doesn't lean forward, & gets choked up on his vomit. He started crying. He was freaked out. I started crying--I was freaked out.
Now, let me back up....Scene: in the nursery, we're in the rocker, he's in my lap. He's leaning back against me, starts coughing, then starts throwing up. My 1st instinct (dear lord, don't ask me why...) was to catch his vomit in my left hand. Then he's still coughing b/c he's still kind of leaning back onto my right arm/shoulder. I lean him forward, press his chest against my left vomit covered hand, and pat his back with my right hand. His vomit hits the floor.
Somehow--something in my brain made me think that baby vomit wouldn't be so bad, couldn't possibly be that much...it would somehow be sweet because it came from my baby. I WAS SO WRONG. It's nasty. It's still vomit.

So, we overcome that episode.

And...then, the diarrhea.
There isn't a diaper on the market that will contain baby diarrhea.
Up the back, out the leg holes. Soaked through his clothes...soaked through mine. This, as I'm searching for a towel to clean vomit off the floor in the nursery.

So...that was Tuesday. Spoke with the nurse at the pediatrician's office. Probably just a virus (he wasn't running fever...we had none of that peanut butter that's being recalled...so it wasn't that...besides, we don't give him peanuts anyway b/c of his other food allergy...) Anyway...she said to just let it run its course. Keep him hydrated, watch for fever, & monitor his urine output (at least one wet diaper per 8 hours).
"Um, it's all diarrhea. How will I know if he's peed or not?"
Solution: 4 inch square of saran wrap. Put a wrapper on that tally-wacker! So, you put the saran wrap around the penis, and when/if he pees, it will be caught in there.

Wednesday....same symptoms.

(you simply must look beyond my super-messy house.)

Thursday morning rolls around. Dry diaper. My child just should not wake up with a dry diaper. that meant 12 hours with no urine. Called the pediatrician. Little-Miss-I-Answer-the-Phone-&-Protect-the-Schedule answered the phone...
"Yea...we don't really have anything until later in the day. You could probably just take him to a CareNow clinic..." So, I accept the "later in the day" appointment, and load my baby up. We went to CareNow. Get there...."he needs to be in an ER."
So I debate... which ER shall I visit? I work in an ER, so my 1st instinct is to go there. It's about 45 minutes away from the CareNow clinic. There was another ER about 5 minutes away from the CareNow clinic. I don't trust them. They...well, they don't know me, they don't know Baby Gage, and they aren't well known for anything. Forget that. So, I think about Children's Hospital. They are kid experts. But...then I think about waiting with my child in a dirty-filthy-germ-infested ER waiting room. Forget that. He can endure a 45 minute car ride...it's not like he's got chest pain or something! So...off we go to Mommy's work.
We could....draw blood & check his electrolyte levels & get an IV of fluids.
Or...
We could take 2mg of Zofran (quick dissolve tabs for the mouth) & try to keep liquids down. That equals no needles.
I chose that route for my little man.
Zofran like that...$60 per tab. He takes 1/2 a tab like every 6 hours. After the 2nd dose---no more vomiting.
That medication is worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY!
Thursday after the ER...


Friday...still some diarrhea. Diaper rash that snuck up on us....oh, it was bad. I let him have naked-baby-time. Um...thank goodness we don't have light colored carpet b/c he crapped 3X in the living room. That was 3X in less than an hour. (No wonder he had diaper rash, right?)


Saturday...feeling much better, and actually ATE some solid food.
Sunday...had 1.5 eggs for breakfast, some saltines later, and Pasta-pick-ups after that...drank a ton....peed a ton! Poop is back to normal!


Now, here's something that kind of took me off guard...sometimes, Gage would be fussy like he didn't feel well. I expected that. But, other times---he would be smiley, playing, running around, and then all of a sudden....he'd stop, run over to me, and say "uh-oh"...and then he'd vomit. I was like his own personal puke target.
But, what I wasn't expecting: him to be acting & playing like normal. It was bizarro...
And so, we developed a little system.
When Gage felt like he was going to throw up, I heard "uh-oh", and had about 3 seconds to prepare.
If he had diarrhea in his diaper, he would come & say "bo-bo". That's if I didn't smell it first, or it didn't leak on me first...

So, at least we got a system down!

And...just looking at the pictures...you wouldn't think it was that hard. We look happy in the pictures. I know.
That's because when we were both crying & covered in diarrhea & vomit, I didn't have the camera anywhere around, and wouldn't have posted those pictures anyway!

At the end of the 4 day N/V/D spell...my house looked like a bomb went off. We no longer had any clean towels or sheets or blankies.
He took all of my energy, and I had VERY little motivation to clean.

And, all the sippy cups were dirty too!


...but, all in all...I was thankful that I was the one he wanted when he didn't feel well, and I enjoyed SOME of the being at home...
:)