In Recovery

We have all been sick.

Thursday night, we heard Phaedra coughing in her bed. She had done that a little the night before. She cried out, so I went to comfort her and put her back in her bed. A few minutes later, around 1:00 (technically Friday morning), she cried and started coughing again. Then the sound changed, and we knew we had to get in there. She had thrown up in her bed. I started cleaning her up while Grant worked on cleaning up her bed. She didn’t cry. She just sat on the edge of the bathroom sink, her little body trembling while I wiped her off and changed her clothes. Eleanor amazed us by not waking up, even with the light on and all the commotion in her room. That was a blessing.

We figured Phaedra had only thrown up because she had gagged during a cough, so we tried to settle her down and let her lay with us in bed for a while. Then she puked again. After that clean-up, we moved to the family room with a bowl. Phaedra was wide awake, so we started a movie. Grant sent me to bed to get some rest. Around 3AM, I got sick . . . a different kind of sick. Phaedra threw up all night and finally fell asleep around 6:00. Grant stayed home from work without me having to ask him. When Eleanor woke up a little later in the morning than usual, she was sent directly to the TV while the rest of us tried to sleep it off. I was sick most of the day.

The next night was almost an exact repeat, but with Eleanor. This was the first time our girls have ever really vomited. Eleanor threw up her morning milk for a few days a year or two ago, but she has never thrown up actual food. There is definitely a difference in the way the two girls handled it. Phae was a trooper. She took it in stride, aimed for the bowl, and spit into the bowl afterwards. Then, she would make herself comfortable on my lap or Grant’s almost as if it hadn’t happened, pointing to the show and saying things about it. I did hear her crying for me some of the time I was trying to sleep, but she didn’t really cry about throwing up. Eleanor called out from her room that she had thrown up and proceeded to cry while we tried to get things cleaned up. She begged me for some medicine to make her not throw up. She screamed every time she puked, and made sure we knew she really, really didn’t like throwing up. My heart was breaking for both of them.

Phaedra spent much of the night in my bed with me while Eleanor threw up watching shows with Daddy. Saturday was amazingly quiet for our house, as we were all sick and sleepy. (Grant never got the stomach flu, but he has had a pretty bad cold.) This is how things looked at our house at 10:30, Saturday morning.

We’ve been working on recovering. I was no longer sick by Saturday afternoon, but my tummy has still been really sore. Eleanor has eased back into eating things, and has held down food and water since Saturday (although she hardly ate or drank a thing all Saturday). Phaedra has had a harder time, throwing up at least once every day except today (finally!) and begging for food every chance she gets. I’m hoping we’re done with all that. I’m so ready to be done!