House of ill

I was up working last night around 11:00 when I heard a lot of coughing from our room. I guess this brings up the fact that I haven't mentioned what we have been doing sleep-wise with Emmett these days. We had been having trouble with Emmett waking up at 5 every morning, so our defense had been for Andrea to go to bed early and get up with him giving me the chance to stay up late and get work done. This was working pretty well, although a little rough on Andrea, until this last week. Andrea decided to embrace getting up in the morning somewhat by planning to go running with Emmett in the jogging stroller, and actually succeeded in doing so a few days. Well, I am not sure if the turn in weather toward the bottom of the thermometer was the reason, but suddenly Emmett decided to start sleeping in until after 6 every day. Big success.

Anyway, last night I heard coughing from our room---toddler coughing. Emmett has been sleeping in the portable crib in our room as during the last couple of weeks he has woken during the night and when he is in his room we can easily soothe him (if he needs it) back to sleep with words. We tried to transition him back to his own room a few nights back, but he woke screaming and wouldn't stop. The week after we return from holiday travel the downstairs neighbor will be gone, so the transition back can complete without fear of bothering neighbors all night long.

So, as I was saying, last night I heard Emmett coughing in our room. It ends up that Emmett had thrown up all over the place (vegetarian pot pie---a new recipe from which I had made a huge casserole dish...and which no longer has the same appeal). We get him all cleaned up, change sheets, etc., and he throws up again all over the place. The clean up repeats and I decide that I will sleep with him on the couch until he stops throwing up. I set up tupperware and rags all around to aid the clean-up with each bout, but some invariably gets on me so throughout the night I continue to lose layers and get colder through the night. At some point in the night, Emmett's vomiting switches to dry heaves and we are able to get some rest together on the couch as the recovery from dry heaves is much simpler for me and I can easily settle him again. I remember, some time late in the night, hearing Malcolm regurgitate and also Andrea shuffling around the house. When Emmett and I get up from the couch around six, we find that not only had Malcolm been throwing up, so had Andrea, and therefore I am the only one that was able to keep the pot pie (or cat food, as the case may be) down.

The day was rough with Andrea truly feeling horrible and Emmett feeling pretty bad as well. The hardest part about Emmett was that he was begging and crying for water and didn't understand why we wouldn't give him the one thing he wanted when most of the time we are begging him to drink more. We worked up to sips through the morning, but at some point gave him too much, he threw it all up and we had to start again. At some point we made headway with Emmett and he was keeping water down and saltine crackers, however Andrea has not been as lucky. She too was eating crackers and drinking water, but regurgitated her water late in the afternoon. Now Andrea gets to spend another day at home (which makes Emmett happy---unfortunately she might not be her normal sunny self). It was cute this evening, though, that Andrea was really feeling poor and lying in bed when Emmett went to her and kept laying his head on her chest. I have never seen him be so loving or concerned. Perhaps the fact that Emmett even knew to respond this way gives clues as to how poor Andrea is feeling.

So, it appears that Emmett must have gotten this from his visit to a place in the city called Recess, which is some entertainment building for kids. Emmett, Augie, and Ethan went with the moms and one dad, and all three were vomiting today. Fun times for the 21 month-olds.

This is the third vomiting episode that Emmett has had since birth. The first was my re-giving him breast milk that had been thawed and he turned down. The second was when he was sick later in the day that he fell from the play structure (Andrea was convinced it was concussion, me overeating). Just as with the first, I am now at a loss as to when I should go back to feeding him a normal diet. He has kept down about 10 crackers today but didn't ask for more food. I am always so fearful, even with myself, that food will be eaten too soon in the recovery process and vomiting will begin again. It is the guessing game part of this that makes parenting no fun. Oh, that and the sleepless nights.