Motherhood

At about 11:00 last night, Jeff and I heard some little feet up and walking upstairs. Being a very rare occurrence, I sent Jeff up to investigate. Down he came with Addison, who had a very "hurt tummy". With his lactose intolerance, I didn't know what was wrong. Was it from dairy? Was he nauseous? Cramping? Trying to get a five year old boy to verbally explain his symptoms while writhing around in pain is just about impossible. We laid him down on the couch and eventually took him up to sleep in our bed. Within an hour, he was throwing up. Jeff and I helped him to the bathroom, cleaned him up, and stripped the sheets. He said he felt much better. And, the precious little kid apologized for throwing up on my sheets. Poor kid.

We put new sheets on and climbed back into bed. At about this time, Asa woke up with tummy pains of his own. I left Jeff in bed with Addison and a bucket, and Asa and I hit the bathroom floor with some pillows and blankets to await the vomiting. Although he was hurting pretty bad, he didn't throw up. So, after about an hour, I took him to his bed. I tried to sleep on a pallet of the few clean blankets we had left on the floor outside of Asa's door. Comfortable, let me tell you. But, I wasn't down there for long. Addison threw up two more times, so I was up dealing with him and the growing mountain of laundry.

Finally, Addison seemed to feel much better and crashed again with Jeff. This time, no sheets. I just put him down on a crib mattress pad and proceeded to climb into the bottom bunk with Asa. Not so easy with a 9 month pregnant belly. By the time 4:00 rolled around, I woke up with a back spasm and moved to the couch. I hadn't even hit the couch when I heard Asa crying. He had thrown up in his bed. Although he was beyond pitiful at the time, as soon as he lost his lunch he emphatically declared that he was "All Better!!" and bounced back to bed. More sheets piled up in the floor, my back was absolutely killing me, and I was too tired for words. Again, I attempted to hit the couch. Through the back pain, I was able to get some sleep until Addison sprung out of bed at 7:20, ready for breakfast and whatever the day had in store. My answer... toast and t.v..

The day before, we had gone to a restaurant in Monroe and had a late lunch. We ate at about 2:00, 10 hours before all hell broke loose. The boys had hot dogs, which looking back, didn't look very good. While we were there eating, the server commented about how slammed they were the day before because of the Georgia game. Now that I put two and two together, those hot dogs had the wrinkly look of being cooked the day before. Luckily, the boys didn't eat the whole thing. Addison ate a little over half of his, but Asa only took a couple bites. With them coming down with symptoms within 30 minutes of each other, Asa having a less severe case, the fact that they are now completely fine, and that it all went down 10 hours after they ate... it was food poisoning. I called their doctor to run it by her and she agreed. The restaurant will be hearing from me today.

I did tell Jeff at some point during the chaos that he should take a picture of me and make a poster for motherhood. There I was, with a sick kid asleep on my lap, propped up on a pillow in the tiniest half-bath known to man, 9 months pregnant and having back spasms and periodic (painful) contractions, a mountain of vomit covered laundry outside the door. Motherhood is wonderful and beautiful and amazing... and sometimes it is downright hell. But, when your kids are scared, miserable, and sick... it is a blazing reminder of just how important you are to those little guys. You'll never feel more needed.

Now, I just need take some Tylenol and try to figure out how to get a nap!