Sick Kids= Late Nights & Early Mornings

Disclaimer: Unless you REALLY want to read about my kids puking on the floor then read no further.

You've all been there. Kids throwing up all over their beds at 1 a.m., sheets going into the wash, carpet spray out to clean up the mess, up with the chickens the next day to get the other kids off on their way. Honestly, I wonder how anyone does it!


Last night at the end of a fun filled, play outside kind of day, Braden came up to me, crawled into may lap and laid his head on my shoulder. Kind of unusual for Braden. Usually he knows that if he gets anywhere within ten feet of mom after the sun has gone down then she carts him off to bed. Most of the time he does his best to avoid me at this time of day. So to actually put himself within my reach, right in my lap, I knew he must not be well. He felt a little bit warm, but not hot. Larry swore up and down that he was burning up. His temp was only 99 degrees. I gave him Tylenol and figured he had had a full day playing and could use a good nights sleep. After a few more minutes of cuddling I put him to bed, to which he didn't protest. Larry told me Braden would be up in the night throwing up. I hoped not.


About 1 AM I hear coughing in the bathroom next to my room and FLY out of bed. Since the bathroom is right by my door, when someone gets up to use the bathroom at night I hear it. Braden and Ally were both standing in the bathroom. Ally was doing her best to take care of Braden being the fully attentive nurse.

If you're wondering how Ally came to be in the bathroom, well, I'll share. Most nights Ally and Braden are too scared to sleep in their own beds alone. They figure that if they sleep together in either her bed or his then the monsters under the bed don't stand a chance. Strength in numbers? I guess. Ally told me the following story, I'm paraphrasing.

Ally: "Braden woke up and whispered...."Ally, Ally, I sirsty" so I gave him the water on the table by the bed. He finished it and said "more" so I got up and I couldn't see very good cause I was so tired. Then when I was downstairs getting him some water I heard him coughing and I ran up to his room and he was throwing up on the floor and he was trying to walk to the bathroom and he was throwing up while he was walking" (oh joy, now you can kind of envision what I got to clean up).



I thanked Ally for her kindness and sent her to bed. Then I cleaned Braden up, put him in my bed with Larry, threw his sheets in the wash, cleaned up the floor, got some more tylenol, the bucket and headed back to bed. I always freak out a little when the kids are sick and sleeping with me, I know that if they puke on my bed and their bed is already gross then I am out of a bed for the night. So anytime they move, moan or cough, I am sitting straight up in bed with the bucket in my hand. I coaxed Braden into a sitting position with the bucket thrust under his chin a couple of times in the night to which I'm sure he was thinking "mom, just leave me alone and let me sleep". Thankfully he didn't throw up again and hasn't since. He has a fever that comes back just as soon as the Motrin or Tylenol wears off and I'm a little worried about Viral Pneumonia since he's had it before. We are just in wait and watch mode right now thinking he may get better on his own but am not ruling out a trip to the doc tomorrow.



I remember writing in my journal one time, after one of my four had been sick, that I didn't know how women did it before the miracle of modern medicine. They had to sit up many nights nursing and watching their sick children only hoping for the best. How could they not develop a great love for their children in serving them that way? Many of them lost children to illnesses that are preventable now. I am deeply grateful for the time in which we live, for the miracles of science and medicine and once in awhile, I find myself grateful for sick kids. It helps me to remember that in serving them I learn to love them more, and that good health is a blessing not to be taken for granted!

PS: Blogger is really annoying me!