What a week!
So, the plan for this week was to go to visit our friends in New York (state not city), leaving Tuesday night and arriving Wednesday evening. It's nine - ten hours of driving, so I figured spreading it out with a motel en route would be the easiest thing.
In the early hours of Monday morning, Sprog started throwing up. Sproglet had a repeat of the stomach bug on Thursday last week, so it wasn't totally unexpected, but I had planned to spend two days getting everything clean and ready for the trip, and suddenly I had several extra loads of laundry and a miserable child home from school and the concern that perhaps leaving on Tuesday night wasn't such a good idea.
So instead, I spent two days in a state of stress... trying to wear clothes that I didn't want to take to New York, trying to keep everything ready for an unspecified departure date, trying to use up the food in the fridge--and then trying to make meals despite our dwindling food supplies.... And trying to keep Sprog happy and eating without being sick. Monday's low point was when he threw up on our bed while I was having lunch with Sproglet, but at least once I'd got everything cleaned up, comforted both children (Sproglet was not pleased at being abandoned at the dinner table) and eaten my lunch, we all had a nap: Sproglet in her bed; Sprog in our bed, me on the sofa. Tuesday was just miserable, since I needed to get in our bed with a writhing Sprog to keep him quiet while Sproglet napped, only for him to throw up again, and then feeling much better, have a moment of exuberance and wake Sproglet up right before he crashed back down to invalidism again.
We did not go Tuesday night. We didn't even leave on Wednesday, since Sprog threw up again and was visibly miserable, so we got him a doctor's appointment first thing. Sproglet hadn't thrown up for more than a day, so I was not happy with Sprog throwing up for three days and being groggy with it. He was diagnosed with Norovirus and checked over, but they said that as long as he was drinking and peeing, we needn't worry. They did prescribe anti-nausea medication and recommend Gatorade and Ibuprofen.
Wednesday ended up being easier, partly because I'd accepted that our holiday was not going to happen as planned (maybe not at all). The other big help was that my husband was home, since he'd taken the leave. He'd had two very long days at work, fixing some things up before he left--in fact, on Tuesday evening he'd given me the option of him coming home late or going in the following morning. I told him he was not coming home until he was done, because I'd rather have him around in the morning than the evening. Having an extra person around meant we could run all the errands I'd not been able to do--and we didn't have to drag Sprog out to the car to pick Sproglet up from school.
We actually flooded Wednesday, so it was just as well we were home. We hadn't paid too much heed to the warnings, since the water wasn't that high at high tide. I had taken Sproglet out to the library and came home to find that I couldn't reach the house. I parked halfway up the road, hitched up my skirt and carried Sproglet to the house. She thought it was great and kept cooing: "Puddle!" I had cold feet, and my fleece lined boots are still not dry. When I got home, I had to don my rubber boots and help fix up the garage (fortunately, my husband had already lifted most things up just because we were going away). My husband was stressed out, because he'd had to leave Sprog alone in the house while moving the car which had to go up the drive to the neighbour's inches higher plot of land, because the bottom of the drive was already too deep.
Anyway, we talked about leaving Thursday morning, but we made no preparations, because we didn't want to commit (and we had to leave the cars on high ground for fear of the overnight high tide). However, the medication gave Sprog a better night and by Thursday morning, he had lost his grogginess that had so concerned me. He hadn't thrown up in over 24 hours, and although he still had diarrhoea and pain and discomfort, he was a lot happier and said he wanted to go on our trip. So we threw everything together, alerted the petsitter and off we went!
I have to say both children were absolutely fantastic. Owing to our late start, we were planning to stop as little as possible. We had to make a couple of unscheduled stops because Sprog was crying and needing to go potty (thankfully, he remained continent!), but otherwise we only stopped for lunch, petrol and dinner. Sproglet (who was probably bored stiff after several days at home) was disproportionately happy... she napped in the morning, oddly enough, but then stayed awake and amused herself with toys, iPad or looking out of the window. Since Sprog was on a diet of bread and peanut butter, I'd brought those supplies with me, and I was able to make sandwiches on demand which she took full advantage of!
Sprog had more difficulty, but for the most part bore up very well. He only broke down at the end, when the children were trying to sleep. The discomfort and exhaustion got the better of him, and he started crying that he wanted to get out of the car. We left our house at 10am, reached our friends at 9:30pm and for the last hour or so, I had to hold Sprog's hand to keep him comforted enough to sleep (and occasionally, Sproglet's hand as well, if he groaned loudly enough to wake her).
Sprog continues to improve (and my husband and I have shown no signs of going down with it again, which was a big fear of mine), and we are all thoroughly enjoying our much-needed break. Holiday post to come when we return home.
In the early hours of Monday morning, Sprog started throwing up. Sproglet had a repeat of the stomach bug on Thursday last week, so it wasn't totally unexpected, but I had planned to spend two days getting everything clean and ready for the trip, and suddenly I had several extra loads of laundry and a miserable child home from school and the concern that perhaps leaving on Tuesday night wasn't such a good idea.
So instead, I spent two days in a state of stress... trying to wear clothes that I didn't want to take to New York, trying to keep everything ready for an unspecified departure date, trying to use up the food in the fridge--and then trying to make meals despite our dwindling food supplies.... And trying to keep Sprog happy and eating without being sick. Monday's low point was when he threw up on our bed while I was having lunch with Sproglet, but at least once I'd got everything cleaned up, comforted both children (Sproglet was not pleased at being abandoned at the dinner table) and eaten my lunch, we all had a nap: Sproglet in her bed; Sprog in our bed, me on the sofa. Tuesday was just miserable, since I needed to get in our bed with a writhing Sprog to keep him quiet while Sproglet napped, only for him to throw up again, and then feeling much better, have a moment of exuberance and wake Sproglet up right before he crashed back down to invalidism again.
We did not go Tuesday night. We didn't even leave on Wednesday, since Sprog threw up again and was visibly miserable, so we got him a doctor's appointment first thing. Sproglet hadn't thrown up for more than a day, so I was not happy with Sprog throwing up for three days and being groggy with it. He was diagnosed with Norovirus and checked over, but they said that as long as he was drinking and peeing, we needn't worry. They did prescribe anti-nausea medication and recommend Gatorade and Ibuprofen.
Wednesday ended up being easier, partly because I'd accepted that our holiday was not going to happen as planned (maybe not at all). The other big help was that my husband was home, since he'd taken the leave. He'd had two very long days at work, fixing some things up before he left--in fact, on Tuesday evening he'd given me the option of him coming home late or going in the following morning. I told him he was not coming home until he was done, because I'd rather have him around in the morning than the evening. Having an extra person around meant we could run all the errands I'd not been able to do--and we didn't have to drag Sprog out to the car to pick Sproglet up from school.
We actually flooded Wednesday, so it was just as well we were home. We hadn't paid too much heed to the warnings, since the water wasn't that high at high tide. I had taken Sproglet out to the library and came home to find that I couldn't reach the house. I parked halfway up the road, hitched up my skirt and carried Sproglet to the house. She thought it was great and kept cooing: "Puddle!" I had cold feet, and my fleece lined boots are still not dry. When I got home, I had to don my rubber boots and help fix up the garage (fortunately, my husband had already lifted most things up just because we were going away). My husband was stressed out, because he'd had to leave Sprog alone in the house while moving the car which had to go up the drive to the neighbour's inches higher plot of land, because the bottom of the drive was already too deep.
Anyway, we talked about leaving Thursday morning, but we made no preparations, because we didn't want to commit (and we had to leave the cars on high ground for fear of the overnight high tide). However, the medication gave Sprog a better night and by Thursday morning, he had lost his grogginess that had so concerned me. He hadn't thrown up in over 24 hours, and although he still had diarrhoea and pain and discomfort, he was a lot happier and said he wanted to go on our trip. So we threw everything together, alerted the petsitter and off we went!
I have to say both children were absolutely fantastic. Owing to our late start, we were planning to stop as little as possible. We had to make a couple of unscheduled stops because Sprog was crying and needing to go potty (thankfully, he remained continent!), but otherwise we only stopped for lunch, petrol and dinner. Sproglet (who was probably bored stiff after several days at home) was disproportionately happy... she napped in the morning, oddly enough, but then stayed awake and amused herself with toys, iPad or looking out of the window. Since Sprog was on a diet of bread and peanut butter, I'd brought those supplies with me, and I was able to make sandwiches on demand which she took full advantage of!
Sprog had more difficulty, but for the most part bore up very well. He only broke down at the end, when the children were trying to sleep. The discomfort and exhaustion got the better of him, and he started crying that he wanted to get out of the car. We left our house at 10am, reached our friends at 9:30pm and for the last hour or so, I had to hold Sprog's hand to keep him comforted enough to sleep (and occasionally, Sproglet's hand as well, if he groaned loudly enough to wake her).
Sprog continues to improve (and my husband and I have shown no signs of going down with it again, which was a big fear of mine), and we are all thoroughly enjoying our much-needed break. Holiday post to come when we return home.