Monday, March 26, 2012

Single Parenting Sucks...

Lewis went to Chicago for work this past week.  The boys and I had plans to spend a couple of days here at home, and then go to San Antonio to visit my sister and some friends of mine.

However, things did no go as planned.

Lewis left early Sunday morning.  I made it to class and church with the boys, but I had to leave about 15 minutes into the service because Bishop was not cooperating.  This should have been a sign of things to come.

The rest of the day was LONG, but it wasn't until Bishop's bedtime that all hell broke loose.

He cried like a banshee when I put him in the crib.  This was completely out of norm for him.  I learned my lesson about putting a sound asleep kid in the crib with Britton.  Doing that came back to bite me in the butt whenever he'd wake up in the middle of the night and want to be held to sleep.  Only to wake up once again when I tried to put him in the crib.  When Britton was 13 mo, we had to employ the Ferber method.  It was brutal, but it worked, and Britton has been a champion sleeper from that point on.  So with Bishop, he was taught at a young (but not TOO young!) age to learn to fall asleep on his own.  So this crying in the crib was a shock to me.

I let him cry for a bit, but then went to check on him.  I entered his room, laid him back down, and noticed a small spot on the sheet that was wet.  I figured he spit up a little bit, but not enough to turn on the light and get him all riled up.  He cried for about 2 hours, on and off, with me checking on him, but not picking him up.  He finally went to sleep.

The next day, all was normal.  Until the evening.

Again, he cried and cried.  I checked on him like the previous night, and he finally went to bed after about 30 minutes.  I thought maybe since he had been at my parents house, he needed a little training on how to go to sleep on his own again.

However, the next morning, I knew something was definitely wrong.  Britton got to Bishop's room first, and let me know about the "hotdogs".  But I could smell it as soon as I walked in.

Vomit.  Everywhere.  I felt horrible for not smelling it/knowing it when I checked on him before I went to bed the previous night.  He was covered from head to toe.  I stripped the crib and got him in the tub.  Britton never puked from crying, but he would poop his diaper.  I figured Bishop cried so hard, he made himself throw up.  He wasn't running a fever, either.

The rest of the day was uneventful.

I did notice he had the top 4 teeth coming in, so I attributed it to teething or the crying.  He also had one kind of diarrhea diaper, but only in the morning.

This was Tuesday.  We had plans to leave for San Antonio on Wednesday morning.

But I wasn't sure we should go considering the circumstances.  And remember, I was alone. Lewis was still in Chicago.

That night, he puked again, this time while I was feeding him, no crying involved.  So now I was worried it was a bug and I did not want to deal with a stomach bug away from home.  I should also mention that somehow, some of his vomit made his way into my mouth as I was holding him.  So picture a puking child being held by a dry heaving mother, trying not to drop her child.  Yeah, it was awful.  I definitely earned a motherhood badge for that one!

I decided to not leave for San Antonio on Wednesday morning.  Instead, we went to the pediatrician and thought maybe we could leave for San Antonio on Thursday morning, depending on how the visit went.

The pediatrician said that from what I described it sounded like Bishop had a mild stomach bug.  But that we should be fine for San Antonio.

But no.

When Bishop had his "lunch" bottle, he puked it up as well.

That pretty much put a kibosh on any hope I had of going to San Antonio.  At this point, I'd done what seemed like dozens of loads of laundry.  His clothes, his pajamas, his sleepsack, his sheets, my clothes, and anything else that may have been vomited on.  All I wanted was for my baby to get better and Lewis to come home!  Thankfully, Britton had avoided catching whatever it was that Bishop had.

There was more puke Wednesday night, and of course, more crying.  By this point, I was holding my poor baby so he could get some sleep.  Thursday evening could not come soon enough as that was when Lewis would be home.  

Thursday was another puke fest, but I was literally counting down the hours until Lewis came home.

And then, there was a delay.

Lewis finally did make it home, but not without some gnashing of teeth and lots of (my)crying.  Long story short, he missed his connection in Denver to Amarillo, (I was soooooo disappointed in SWA!) but United (of all companies!) got him home only 5 hours later than he originally was supposed to be.

There was one more night of puking on Friday, and then Bishop decided to trade that in for diarrhea.

Poor kid.  He had it bad.  It seemed like I was constantly holding him because he was so pitiful looking and I'm sure he felt just as bad as he looked.  But at least Lewis was home and could help.

Overall, the whole ordeal lasted about 8 days.  He is fine now.

I caught a bit of it and so did Britton, but ours only lasted one day.

This was new territory for me.  Britton has only puked once in his life and only had diarrhea one other time.  Bishop totally made me a pro at cleaning vomit and containing diarrhea.  Our water bill should be high next month from all the extra baths and laundry that had to take place!

I hope we don't relive this past week anytime soon!  Or ever!

2 comments:

mindibz said...

I'm so sorry, Elisa!

april said...

bummer!