So today, I am proud to say, I took a shower and shaved my armpits. It is actually scary to admit that I had a beastly bush growing under my arms, and it is equally scary to admit that I can grow a beastlier bush than Mark, but that is another post altogether! Regardless, there is a good reason for the beastly bushy state of affairs.
For the past month I have had one child after another sick with the stomach flu. It isn't just any flu though, but one that causes severe stomach cramping after the throwing up. First was Clairissa last month. Unfortunately I didn't know the stomach flu was going on.
The first day she was sick was the typical throwing up bit which Clairissa unfortunately struggles with. After the first couple of days of throw up then the intermittent cramping started and I was sure after day 3 that it wasn't really the flu but rather constipation. So, being the ever so astute and medically knowledgeable mom that I am I started giving Clairissa Miralax to fix the constipation issue. Days later the cramps were still persisting with intermitent bouts of throwing up and I (once again in all my wisdom) decided that maybe Clairissa was crying out for attention. About a week after symptoms started they finally faded away, nobody else had gotten sick,and I was fairly confident about my latter diagnosis.
Then about a week later AA got sick. Now AA is almost 16 and it is a lot easier to understand symptoms when they are described by an older teenager. AA of course started just like Clairissa with throwing up and then continued to miss days of school while he writhed in pain on the couch with stomach pains that would come and go. At this point guilt started to set in. What kind of horrible monster mother am I to think that my poor little girl was just trying to get attention from me. Where was the heart felt sympathy that she so desperately needed and deserved? Yeah, uh right, I was of course missing the compassion on that one.
Next came Abby of course throwing up followed by stomach cramps. She spent a week on the couch, then Zach next spent a week on the couch and now today as I sit here typing Mark is officially sick.
With the illness we have had has come a second interesting and oh so fun tradition in our house of sleeping on the couch.
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It used to be that when the kids were sick I would make a little makeshift bed for them on the floor next to my bed. I have come to learn though that I sleep way to comfortably and soundly in my own bed and don't hear things (like retching in the bowl) as well as I should or could, so instead whoever is sick and I sleep on the couches downstairs where I can be here for them throughout the night. Why does it always happen that the worst pains and symptoms of the illness happen at night instead of during the day? I am still trying to figure that anomaly out.
Now that we are more than month into this process I have spent a total of maybe 3-4 nights actually sleeping in my own bed. My back and neck are entangled in a mass of knots, I am completely sleep deprived, and I have been praying that I don't get sick. While everybody else has been waited on hand and foot, I would be guaranteed day after day of the same routine I already have day after day.
What is it about mom's never getting a sick day? Maybe mom's need an official government holiday called sick mom day. Not that one day makes up for the months that we spend nursing our family back to health but it would at least be a nice gesture. No, Mother's day does not count, I want a full on party where every mother gets a day to blow however she wants and it can't be on the sabbath when we need to be attending to the Lord's work. Anyone want to sign a petition?
For the past month I have had one child after another sick with the stomach flu. It isn't just any flu though, but one that causes severe stomach cramping after the throwing up. First was Clairissa last month. Unfortunately I didn't know the stomach flu was going on.
The first day she was sick was the typical throwing up bit which Clairissa unfortunately struggles with. After the first couple of days of throw up then the intermittent cramping started and I was sure after day 3 that it wasn't really the flu but rather constipation. So, being the ever so astute and medically knowledgeable mom that I am I started giving Clairissa Miralax to fix the constipation issue. Days later the cramps were still persisting with intermitent bouts of throwing up and I (once again in all my wisdom) decided that maybe Clairissa was crying out for attention. About a week after symptoms started they finally faded away, nobody else had gotten sick,and I was fairly confident about my latter diagnosis.
Then about a week later AA got sick. Now AA is almost 16 and it is a lot easier to understand symptoms when they are described by an older teenager. AA of course started just like Clairissa with throwing up and then continued to miss days of school while he writhed in pain on the couch with stomach pains that would come and go. At this point guilt started to set in. What kind of horrible monster mother am I to think that my poor little girl was just trying to get attention from me. Where was the heart felt sympathy that she so desperately needed and deserved? Yeah, uh right, I was of course missing the compassion on that one.
Next came Abby of course throwing up followed by stomach cramps. She spent a week on the couch, then Zach next spent a week on the couch and now today as I sit here typing Mark is officially sick.
With the illness we have had has come a second interesting and oh so fun tradition in our house of sleeping on the couch.
.JPG)
It used to be that when the kids were sick I would make a little makeshift bed for them on the floor next to my bed. I have come to learn though that I sleep way to comfortably and soundly in my own bed and don't hear things (like retching in the bowl) as well as I should or could, so instead whoever is sick and I sleep on the couches downstairs where I can be here for them throughout the night. Why does it always happen that the worst pains and symptoms of the illness happen at night instead of during the day? I am still trying to figure that anomaly out.
Now that we are more than month into this process I have spent a total of maybe 3-4 nights actually sleeping in my own bed. My back and neck are entangled in a mass of knots, I am completely sleep deprived, and I have been praying that I don't get sick. While everybody else has been waited on hand and foot, I would be guaranteed day after day of the same routine I already have day after day.
What is it about mom's never getting a sick day? Maybe mom's need an official government holiday called sick mom day. Not that one day makes up for the months that we spend nursing our family back to health but it would at least be a nice gesture. No, Mother's day does not count, I want a full on party where every mother gets a day to blow however she wants and it can't be on the sabbath when we need to be attending to the Lord's work. Anyone want to sign a petition?
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