Anna was running a fever when I picked her up from daycare on Monday, and then started throwing up on the way home. Fun. I got her fever down via Motrin and cool washcloths, and then stuck her in bed between me and Jack for the night. Yes, I knew that there was a risk that our bed would get vomitified, but there’ve been several baby deaths in the parish recently, and a common link between them all has been some sort of flu-like symptoms and/or dehydration (which can then lead to a fatal arrythmia.) Therefore, I’d rather be insanely overcautious when it comes to fever/dehydration.

So, at about 1am Tuesday morning I woke up to Anna whimpering. She felt really hot, so I tried to give her some Tylenol, which she wasn’t too keen on. Jack was awake by this point and pulled Anna close to hug her, which is when I heard her make an odd-but-familiar coughing sound.

“Jack, she’s about to throw up,” I said as I scrambled to turn on the light, jump out of bed and race to the bathroom for a towel, foolishly assuming that since he was holding her he would perform some manner of self-and-bed-preserving action as well.

He did not. When I returned mere seconds later with the towel, Anna was deep in the throes of throwing up and Jack had his eyes squeezed shut. And had vomit all over his face.

Okay, I might have laughed a bit. A little bit. He really should listen to me.

Thus the next hour or so was spent cleaning my darlings up and stripping the bed–since she’d managed to hose the bed down pretty well too–and then getting her calmed down and medicated and somewhat gatoraded. We ended up relocating to the living room and slept* on the couch and recliner, taking turns with Anna-cuddling. So, even though we did end up with a vomitified bed, I’m glad I had her there with me. (Fortunately I was able to get the bed stripped in about six seconds flat so nothing soaked through to the mattress.)

* “Slept” is a pretty strong word for what we managed. “Fitfully dozed” is probably a closer fit.

Anyway, this meant that she stayed home yesterday, and I with her. Fortunately there was no more vomiting, and even more fortunately, she was not running a fever this morning, which meant that I packed her little butt off to daycare (after giving her Motrin, just to be on the safe side!) I didn’t get a lick of writing done yesterday (I have NO idea how anyone could possibly write with a kid in the house,) however I was able to spend laundering the vomit-soaked bedding, which really is a whole new level of fun.