3.07.2008

the "joys" of motherhood

the past two months have been filled with sickness, travelling, and travelling with sickness. after a few weeks of that, nash's sleeping habits were out the window. sleeping through the night was out of the question and sleeping with mommy was his method of choice (not cool). well, last week after all the random bugs and viruses seemed to have cleared his system, we decided we were going to get back to our sleeping ways. it took about two nights of letting nash "cry it out" and then we were in clear. so we thought...

last night (might i mention that last night i had decided to finally go to bed early and get some good sleep) my sister em, called and said she'd been in a car accident. no more sleep. so we waited up for her to return from the excitement. she did, and after sharing her story we all went to bed, em sleeping in nash's room on his extra bed. just as sleep hit me, nash began to cry intermittently. after about an hour of it i flew out of bed to yell at him and when i opened his bedroom door was hit with a cloud of stench. how emilie was sleeping through all of this i'll never know: puke everywhere, diaper filled with poo, nash screaming. i quickly stripped off the bedding and pj's, changed the diaper, rinsed the binki, and sent nash back off to a clean, but mostly vinyl bed (what was the point of putting on clean sheets?).

again, just as i fell asleep i heard a little cough and then the sound of vomitting. back in i went, changed the pj's, checked the diaper, rinsed the binki and got a new blanket. an hour later, it struck again. at this point emilie and i were laughing pretty hard at nash's poor pathetic face as he dry-heaved until he got something out, face bright red. luckily the volume of puke was decreasing with each episode, so i figured it might be safe to hold him. we took our bed together in the recliner and i draped myself in a thick flannel blanket as my shield and armed myself with a roll of paper towels and package of baby wipes. anyway, we managed to get a little sleep between the rest of the apporximately six puking episodes and by morning we were pretty wasted.

and that's when the diarrhea set it. so after a diaper change, more new jammies, and an attempt at breakfast nash managed to lay down for a good nap. so did i. here's where it gets good. nash was screaming when he woke up. no doubt starving and thirsty from the long night of spewing. i threw some easy mac in the microwave and gave him a small bottle of milk. then i heard a loud squirt in his pants. and then another. while i let the easy mac cool, i ran into his room to change his diaper. i laid him down and felt a little wetness on my hand, so leaned him forward to see if it was indead diarrhea on my hand. as i did this, the diarrhea poured (AND I MEAN POURED) out of the top of the back of his diaper. all over the carpet. why i didn't use a changing pad is beyond me; the past few diarrheas had been very small and still a little...thicker. i said a few curses and hauled him to the bathroom trying not to touch him more than necessary. i stripped him down over an old towel and threw him in the tub. as i was doing this, i caught a little wiff and my stomach began to turn. i tried to hold it down, but as i was placing him in the clean, bubbly water i puked. right into the tub beside my poor little boy covered from his neck down in poo. a picture would have been too much, but you can imagine it (we have a pink tub to make it all the more ugly). a poo-covered nash, blistered cheeks from all the puke-wiping, and pickles and peaches floating beside him.

needless to say today will be filled with cleaning and laundry. the whole house smells like poop and puke. i love being a mom.

p.s. i'm adding these details now (as in later) because i've realized that they paint a more complete (and funny) picture for those of you who have tried to imagine my experience: my right boob has already started leaking and so nash's cries triggered a leak the size of a silver dollar through my clothes. imagine that coupled with the sounds of "baby macdonald" and it was pretty much a circus over here this morning. that's not "TMI" is it? i mean, all the dudes have abandoned the blogosphere anyway and the rest of us are all moms or will be soon, right?

13 comments:

Vanessa said...

OH MY!!!!!!!! You poor lady! I don't know what I would have done after ALL OF THAT! You deserve a day at the spa or something! Being a mom can get kinda messy. Yikes!

AlexisTexas said...

that is the best (and by best i mean worst-best) story i have heard in a long time. awesome. good work documenting it so hopefully you can laugh a little harder at it later! can't wait for two sick-os someday right? wow...mommy day indeed! love you...hope this bug doesn't last so long.

Alifinale said...

That makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. Poor Nash, poor you. What curse words was Steve saying all during the night? Oh man...being a mom is so rewarding.

Brian and Elizabeth Shelley said...

oh man liz... thats all I can say is oh man!

Lindsay and Family said...

Yikes, sounds like a horror flick! You should put Nash on the BRAT diet (they recommend this when babies have the flu). B-bananas, R-rice, A-applesauce, T-toast. Probably try to stay away from dairy, I remember when May was throwing up, the hardest thing was not giving her the beloved milk!

gina bina said...

That's a lot of poop and puke in less than 24 hours. I can only imagine the pleasantries spewing from your lips. If you need a little break from Mr. Poopy Pants you know where we'll be tonight!

Amy D. said...

I'm dying...why must they ALWAYS get the pukes in the middle of the night. The 3 times Olivia has had it have all started around midnight. The best was when she came in our room one night covered in puke. So sick...and it only gets worse when you have 2 because you can't take the beloved nap!! Enjoy your final days of 1 child. Miss you guys!

Diane CaƱate said...

um holy crap! sorry, bad choice of words. I have to admit, despite the fact that i don't have kids, I've been here. not good! poor little nashers! and I guess poor little lizzy!

Lacy said...

liz- I am so sorry for you. I wish there was something I coulld do to help. Hope you guys recover from this.

Melanie said...

Wow! That truly is one of the best day in the life of a mom stories I've ever heard. It sounds almost made up, it's so torturous! I'm glad you had your sister there so you could laugh about it together instead of cry ... and btw, I'm glad your sister's accident was (I'm gathering) not too bad. I hope tonight is better for you!

lisset said...

Thank goodness illnesses don't travel via internet because I'd swear it was all Ethan's fault. Glad you had the guts to give us all the gorey details- I was not, but I definitely feel your pain (minus throwing up myself). Hope your days have gotten better!!

bulkleybunch said...

i love you! so sorry! nashy boy be nice to your mommy! i wish you would have attached pics, but you did a pretty good job keeping it real. sorry!

emilie s. d. p. said...

I read this post on Saturday morning and I have repeated it to at least two other people since then, so although I feel sympathy for you, I loved reading this story, it was just so terrible. Poor Nash, Poor you! I hope this is the last sick episode for a while.