a rough night

A little after midnight I woke up to my crying girl yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" I thought she was having one of her night terrors, which don't happen very often anymore, but that's kind of what they sound like. I ran in, turned the light on, and picked her up. I went to wipe her nose/mouth, which looked very snotty, and realized it wasn't snot, but she had gotten sick all over herself (and therefore it was all over me, since I was holding her....and all over her bed, too). She was burning up and wouldn't stop crying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," over and over. We gave her a lukewarm bath to get her clean and try and bring the fever down and gave her tylenol. She screamed "Mommy" the whole time. It was heartbreaking.

Eventually we got her dressed and everything cleaned up, but she wouldn't calm down. I tried to get her to drink some water, but she wouldn't. I read her some books, which got her to stop crying, and she started falling asleep in my arms. I turned off the light and got ready to put her in bed and as I stood up with her, she got sick again, all over herself and me. The crying and "Mommy, Mommy," started all over again. Thankfully it hadn't gotten in the bed that time. We got the pack and play set up in our room, cleaned her up, and finally put her to bed in there next to us, so I'd be able to jump up and get her right away if she got sick again. Which she did....about an hour and a half later.

It was a LONG night with lots of tears, lots of clothes changes, lots of trying to get her to drink (which she wouldn't), lots of trying to calm her down, lots of scrubbing really nasty laundry at 3 AM and lots of worrying. I hardly slept all night.

She's better today, but still not really herself. She alternates between being her happy, normal self, and being fussy and irritable. She still has a bit of a fever and is sleeping more than normal (who blames her--she was up a long time last night!) and won't really eat or drink much--a couple of saltines and a little bit of water and milk. I'm concerned about the drinking part. She only wants her "wilk," which I knew wouldn't be good for her stomach. I talked to the nurse at the peditrician's office and she said if she'll only drink milk then to water it down (yuck!). I also just went and got some pedialyte--we'll see if she drinks it. She's not big on juice, so who knows. I'll try it when she wakes up.

One of the many times I came back to bed exhausted last night my husband said, "You're doing a good job and being a good mom." I started crying and said, "But I can't help her!" It's so hard to see your little one hurting and not be able to fix it. Then I told him thank you for all of his help cleaning up. He said, "Yeah, I'm just here..... Here to clean up the puke!" What a guy!

Let's hope tonight is better.....for all of us!