Birthdays and everything after.

Let me just start this post by saying that I’m now convinced that my Birthday is just a cursed holiday. This will be the third year in a row that I’ve taken care of someone who’s sick, either child or otherwise.

R and I went to my office Christmas party on Friday night. Because the Nanny’s husband’s party was the same night, we decided to share a sitter with our friends J&C. Their son, C, is 15 months and E just loves playing with him. We drop E off at their house and he puts up a huge fuss about me leaving the house. That should have been my first tip-off, but I figured he was just putting on a show. Normally he’s pretty excited about meeting someone new. We left for the party and about an hour after we were there, R calls in to check on the kids. The sitter says that everyone is doing great: E just put his PJ’s on and she’s getting C ready for bed. We all figure that everything is great so we go ahead and party the night away. R has to leave around 8:30pm to go to work, so I stay with J&C and we stick around until about 10:00pm or so. All three of us had our cell phones and since we hadn’t heard from the sitter, we figure everything is fine. Wrong, wrong, wrong. As soon as we walk into the house, I see E standing in the bathroom wearing nothing but a blanket and a diaper. The sitter explained that she’s been trying to get in touch with us since 8:00pm but couldn’t get through to any of our cell phones. Apparently, E started throwing up about 15 minutes after R checked in. He had thrown up on four sets of clothing and had even thrown up in his sleep, all over the floor, the couch, everything. I felt like the world’s worst mother. I managed to clean him up as much as possible and pack up our stuff to get him home. He got sick again in the driveway but we were able to drive the 30 minutes home without an incident. He was sick a few more times at home, but finally passed out around 1:00am or so. I cleaned up his clothes, did a load of laundry to clean up the bed linens and I laid down on his floor with a sleeping bag until I was sure he was sleeping soundly. I crawled into bed around 3:00am when R got home from work. E woke up at 7:00am on Saturday, throwing up again but by 7:30am was asking me for a bowl of cereal.

By Saturday afternoon, E is pretty much alright. He was able to keep all of his breakfast down and other than a slight fever, he’s acting normal for the most part. Against my better judgment, R and I go out to dinner and leave E with my Dad. Just like the night before, E starts howling as soon as he realizes that I’m leaving the house so I start to panic, thinking he’s going to get sick again. I ask him if he wants me to put him to sleep and he says yes, so I read him his book and tuck him in. R and I leave for dinner and when we get home, Dad says that he’s been sleeping peacefully all night.

On Sunday the weather is just plain nasty and cold outside so we stay in all day, hanging out at home, catching up on laundry and watching the Patriots game. The three of us have a nice little pancake dinner and E even helps me mix the batter and cook the bacon. I put E to bed and then work on sending out our Christmas cards. When I finally get to bed, I can’t sleep and I keep tossing and turning until I hear E crying at midnight. When I go into his room he says his ears are popping. I try to explain that it happens sometimes when you have a stuffy nose and he needs to get some sleep. He asks for a drink of water and guzzles the whole cupful. I get back to bed and finally fall asleep. At 2:00am, he wakes up crying again and this time R gets up with him. As soon as R opens E’s door, E is walking toward him saying “I’m throwing up again, Daddy!” The two of them run to the bathroom and I jump out of bed. Poor kid had started vomiting in his sleep again. I clean everything up while R takes care of E in the bathroom and by 3:00pm, we’re all cleaned and back in bed. The rest of the night passes uneventfully and in the morning E is perfectly fine. I ended up keeping him home from school, just in case, but I have no idea what the heck is going on with my boy. No one that he’s come in contact with has been sick, he went 48 hours without being sick and then gets sick again. I’m hoping the worst has passed, but I just don’t know.

So that was my Birthday weekend. Just another Mom adventure, right?