The knock on effect

Disclaimer:  This post will mention vomiting and a case of the runs, you have been warned.

Its been a rough couple of days in our house.  Most of it has to do with us (yep all of us) being poorly (I like that word, poorly, it says, sick but not long term) and how we've coped with this.  I have to admit, at times I've not done that well.  Let me explain.

On Thursday Chicken caught a gastroenteritis bug from some one, it was inevitable, its going around town at the moment.  We were about to head out to go to a party and I'd dressed Chicken up in a pretty party frock.  I was upstairs straightening my hair and she was downstairs playing in her activity centre when I heard this unusual gurgling noise.  I came down intending to put her dummy back in and head back to put on my mascara when I noticed that she was covered in vomit.  And then I looked a little closer and saw the toy was also all covered in vomit.  My poor Chicken had chucked every where, while I was upstairs getting pretty, good mum moment huh?

I changed her out of the frock and we headed out to see our friends.  Five minutes in to the party, and I had to feed Chicken, and yep you guessed it, she puked again.  This time all over me, specifically my crotch.  Needless to say we left, and luckily the pushchair was able to hide my puke stains as we scurried home.  

Throughout the rest of the afternoon Chicken vomited again a few more times, the most memorable/gross was  the bright yellow spew all over me.  And that was when we called the doctor, and took her to see someone at an after hours clinic.  He said to feed her slowly and wait it out, which meant that there was nothing seriously wrong (whew) which we did.  She threw up once more the next day and that was the end of that, or so we thought.

Friday was a very quiet day for us, we stayed at home and Chicken slept for most of the time, which for her is quite unusual.  That evening I started to feel a bit queasy and by ten pm I was hugging the toilet for dear life.  No fun, no fun at all.  I spent the rest of the night too-ing and fro-ing from the bathroom, and by the morning I was exhausted.  

I was confined to the couch on Saturday while Andrew looked after Chicken, and changed about 10 nappies since she had moved on the the second phase of her virus, the runs.  A very quiet day all in all.  By Sunday we all felt much much better and things got back to normal.  Well, as normal as you can be when you are recovering, this bug has really taken it out of us.  

I'm tired, Chicken is tired, and now on Monday Andrew also succumbed.  This has meant that for the last two evenings I've been on solo parent duty, and I have to say its been hard.  I have even more respect for single parents, being 'on' all the time is sooo hard.  Basically she has been super tired but fighting sleep even more than usual, and from around 4pm she has made this eeeeeeeee moaning noise.  It. Is. Very. Irritating.  And I have been getting very frustrated.  Which led to me feeling guilty, surely a nearly six month old baby shouldn't be getting the better of me?

Which is where I am now, Chicken went to bed an hour earlier tonight and so far, fingers crossed she is sound asleep and should stay that way.  I've been sitting here typing this and I've realised that while the both of us are better, we're not one hundred percent right.  And when you're not fighting fit, who actually is completely happy?  Not me that's for sure.  I think I need to cut her some slack, and remember that we are doing the best we can, its not as if we got sick in purpose is it?  I also need to cut myself some slack, go to bed early and repeat my new mantra, this is a phase, it too will pass.