Doodlebug, Flu Bug

I hadn't had a workday in a while, because last Monday we were coming back from New Hampshire and the Friday before that I was preparing for the trip. In years past, preparing for a trip meant spending five minutes tossing clothes into a duffel bag. Now it's an hours long process involving sorting out which toys will keep Doodles occupied the longest, guessing how many outfits he'll poop on, and trips to the grocery store to make sure we have adequate amounts of organic baby food. We seem to have had a lot of visitors lately, which is great, but it means that my days for work tend to get shuttled into getting-things-done-around-the-house days.

So I was psyched for last Friday because I have a number of projects I'm working on and I had a deadline this week. Besides, my e-mail backlog was getting out of hand. So I spent the morning attempting to take care of the most pressing e-mails, starting my challah (which I bake every Friday we're home--nothing makes the house smell as good as fresh baked bread), and figuring out what needed to be done first. I just had everything organized and I started to get into the business of writing, when my cell phone rang. It was the day care. Doodles was being recalled. Apparently the flu bug hit again. He had diarrhea (and now that I have a baby, I guess I need to learn how to finally spell "diarrhea") twice and I had to come pick him up. I think that child is conspiring with the fates to keep me from getting any writing done. Funny thing is, I took him home, and he was in high spirits. I didn't see any diarrhea and he was in a bouncy, happy mood. Made me suspicious of the day care. My child was doing wonderfully.

On Saturday morning, Adam, Doodles, and I got in the car for the hour drive up to my in-law's house. We were going to hang for the morning and Adam was going to help his dad install some software on his computer. We made it just over halfway there--just outside Newburyport--when Adam looked in the backseat just in time to see copious amounts of vomit erupt from our child. I pulled off and got into the backseat, and Doodles kept coming up with more and more vomit. I couldn't believe he had that much in him. We debated whether or not to keep going, but ultimately decided to turnaround because I knew I'd have to feed him again and that I'd have to do it in small amounts (which meant I'd have to pump and feed him, and I didn't have my pump with us). A quick call to the doctor confirmed this. She said we need to get some Pedialyte into him and monitor him carefully to make sure he had three wet diapers. I was to feed him a teaspoon of liquid (Pedialyte, breastmilk) every five or ten minutes. Yeah, like Doodles was going to like that. At first, he'd bat away any bottle with Pedialyte in it. We bought numerous flavors and kept trying them. After a bit, we tried the first one again (Gerber's version), and he finally took it. We have three nearly full bottles of Pedialyte in our fridge if anyone needs some (and it kills me that they say you should throw them out after three days).

We got home and we maniacally checked his diaper. I'd grill Adam: "Was it wet? How wet?" He did fine the rest of the day, but then it was bedtime, which sent me into a minor tizzy. Doodles sleeps on his stomach now. Exclusively. If we roll him over, he rolls right back. He might spend a minute on his side, but his position of choice is facedown, on his tummy, with his face in the mattress. It's a little freaky. I had visions of him puking in the night and then sleeping facedown in it. Yuck! And, to my mind, dangerous. So every time he made a peep, I ran in there (or sent Adam in) to check on him. He made it through the night with no puking, and I'm happy to report that it was not only the end of the stomach flu, but it ended in time to have the 24-hour symptom freeness that the daycare required for him to return. He's back to his old self, with a huge appetite and plenty of giggles.