Family Adventures with a Sick Baby

I have decided that having a child who is sick brings out a mother's stupidity and super-powers. Yesterday, we were at Target and Tink was being very good for us. So after we were done doing our shopping we went to the toy aisle to let Tink play with the toys for awhile. Without any warning she started throwing up right in the middle of the aisle. As a mom who has never dealt with this before my initial reaction was to cup my hands and thrust them under her mouth so she could throw up in my hands. As soon as my hands were covered it hit me how dumb this was of me. Outloud I verbalized this thought to Daddy by asking "Why did I do that?!" His simple, and honest reply: "Because you are a mom." So I dumped the contents of my hands onto the floor and stood there watching Daddy take care of Tink since my hands were disgusting. I am so glad Daddy was there to help since Tink was making such a mess and I had let myself get caught in that mess. Since this was really the first time Tink has gotten sick like this she didn't know what to do. She just stood there throwing up with her mouth open. We had to keep telling her to spit it out and Daddy had to pick her up and hold her 'stomach down' to let it spill out. (sorry for those of you who have queasy stomachs with this type of stuff) After we got cleaned up we bought our stuff and headed home. I will spare you details from now on except that she got sick a number of times and couldn't even keep water down. Finally around 1am she ate some ice chips and was able to drink little drinks of water without getting rid of it right away.

Daddy was terrific helping with Tink all night until he had to go to bed since he had school today. So I was up until after 2 taking care of Tink. Then I had to get up and comfort her for brief time during the 4 o'clock hour. And I was very surprised when Tink woke up for the day around 7 am. Daddy was waking up for school so he went in to take care of Tink and was able to put her back to sleep. Or so he thought. Once he was in the bathroom she started making noises again and I went to check on her. She was wide awake and in a good mood. When Daddy saw I was in there and she was awake he asked Tink if she had tricked him and pretended to be asleep. She smiled and giggling said yes. He asked her again if she had teased Daddy and again he got the same response with a bit more giggle. I was relieved to see her feeling better and thought we were out of the woods. I was soooo wrong. She ended up having diarrhea and after that she was downhill again. Not much energy or anything. I was grateful that I was able to take care of her and still get a couple loads of laundry done. We went to the doctor and then stopped by the store to pick up some Powerade and G2 (thanks to my aunts advice about G2 being easy to get down them and having lots less sugar than the other sprts drinks) to try to keep her hydrated. I was surprised that with as little sleep as I recieved I was as patient with Tink as I was able to be and had the energy to get as much done as I did. I actually really enjoyed how much Tink wanted to cuddle and just be close to me. I felt like a Super-Mom. I just wish our Tink felt super too.

By the way she is still sick. Today she threwup once after the diarrhea. I was very worried about dehydration since she didn't have a wet diaper until after 5pm. But she seems to be on the upswing. She has slept more than usual today and so far she has kept her dinner down. She has also enjoyed playing with Daddy when he came home tonight. She went through a tough ordeal being sick for her first time and Daddy and I think she has been super about it. What a blessing she is to us!