adventures in barfology

[mamajoan]

So Ruthie threw up twice yesterday, totally out of the blue. It was weird.

I picked the kids up as normal, and we went to a playground to kill some time before we had to go pick up our CSA farm share. Ruthie was totally her normal self. We picked up the veggies and went to the home of Grace and Sue, the couple we're sharing the CSA with in addition to my mom. We were sitting on their porch getting ready to divvy up the vegetables, and Ruthie of course was nursing because she can't see me sit down without wanting to nurse; and all of a sudden she stopped nursing and barfed up all the milk plus some unidentifiable bits of food that must have been from her snack at daycare (sorry for the TMI).

Anyway, she was upset, mostly because some of it had gone on her; Grace got a cloth and Sue got some water and I cleaned Ruthie up as best I could, and within about thirty seconds she was fine again (although she kept saying "I throw up?"). We divided up the vegetables and I hauled ass out of there because I wanted to get home and get my barfed-on clothing off.

So we went home and Ruthie seemed totally fine, although she did say repeatedly "I'm sick." But you know, she's 2, so that could mean anything. She was droopy though, and it was almost 8 already, so I set Isaac up watching the game and I lay down with Ruthie on her bed. She nursed for a few minutes, but was wide awake. Then she started whimpering, and threw up again. Fortunately I managed to whisk her teddy bear out of the way in time. ;) And again, she was mostly upset because it had gone on her arm and knee; as soon as I wiped her off she was fine. I stripped down the bed and put on a clean sheet, changed my own clothing (again, sigh), and we lay down again and she nursed some more and then stopped nursing and whimpered a bit and fell asleep.

Well, I felt sure that couldn't be the end of it, so I did a little prep: I put a second sheet on my bed, on top of the one already there, so that if she barfed in my bed I could just whisk the top sheet away. I also put a couple of towels in easy reach as well as another pajama top for myself. Then I got Isaac ready for bed and put him down and took a few minutes for myself, but I was exhausted so I ended up going to bed early for me, around 10:30. I figured it was a good idea anyway, since I fully expected to be up half the night with Ruthie.

But as it turns out, I didn't hear a peep from her until about 3:45am, when she climbed into my bed. She nursed and tossed and turned for QUITE a while, but finally we both fell asleep.

Usually Ruthie is already awake by the time my alarm rings at 7, or else she pops up all bright-eyed when it goes off; but this morning she slept like a log and I hit snooze several times. Suddenly it was 7:30 and she was still out like a light, draped over me. So I tried to disengage and slide out from under her, but no luck: she woke up. But she was totally cheery. I just resigned myself to having a late morning, and let us get ready at a slower than usual pace. I wanted to observe how Ruthie would be, so I could decide whether to take her to daycare. Technically I shouldn't have taken her, since they have a 24-hour rule (not supposed to bring her in for 24 hours after vomiting) but you know, what they don't know won't hurt them, is my philosophy. Anyway, she seemed totally fine so I took her in. I told the daycare teacher that Ruthie was "under the weather" last night but seemed okay this morning. We'll see how that goes...it's 2:00 so far and no call yet, although it could still come at any moment. (Today I feel a bit queasy myself, but I'm telling myself that it's because I ate too much Mexican food at lunch. ugh.)

So, all in all we were about 45 minutes late this morning. Oh well. I still made it to the office in time for my daily 10:00 status meeting, so it's okay.

Cross your fingers for no more barfing!

Comments

[pedrosmom.livejournal.com]

Well, she didn't puke again because you were PREPARED for it! It's murphy's law, don't ya know?!
Hope she's all better! Kids are WEIRD!!!!

[mogwar.livejournal.com]

I am not nearly ambitious enough to put two sets of sheets on a bed. I'm not always ambitious enough to have two clean sets of sheets. Instead I just get the biggest towels I own and layer them all over the bed, and strip those off as they become dirty. (Or, at least that's what I did back when kidlet was young enough that it was an issue. These days he just needs some sort of bucket or other container and he's fine.)

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not like I carefully laid the sheet over the bed and tucked it in securely at all corners, or anything. ;) I just unfolded it until it was half-size, and tossed it on top so that it covered the "top" half of the bed (i.e., the half where our heads and shoulders lie).

I've tried the towel route, but they will bunch up and stuff as you move around in bed, and I hate that. I also sometimes use chux pads, but I only have two and right now I'm using one in each kid's bed.