Thursday, April 24, 2014

When Toddlers Attack: Preschool Germs Unite

You may have noticed that Little Things Thursday was missing yesterday. I was getting messages about it this morning (thanks, friends!). Our family is SO sick right now. We are dealing with a slew of ailments: bronchitis, asthma, stomach bug, and cold/upper respiratory stuff. Most of us have two or more of those. Sean is the only person in the family who is currently well. Ugh! We've caught everything since our kids started preschool! So yesterday was a prescheduled post (which, if you haven't read it yet, grabbed that deal, or entered the giveaway, you should go do that NOW!)

I'm not up to writing a full post tonight, but thought I'd share the email that I sent to my hubby while he was at work yesterday. As background, Caleb threw up yesterday morning before Sean left for work. I was pretty sure it was coughing/mucus related, but I kept him home from school anyway. Turns out, I made the right decision...



Email: Sean
Subject: Update on the Kids....


...because I know you are dying to find out how it's going over here.

1. Caleb did fine all morning. Played and ran around and acted normal. The he threw up after lunch.

2. Elijah acted fine until I went to change his diaper before nap time. He had a full on diarrhea explosion.

3. Miss Jessica told me that Ellie was complaining of her stomach hurting and she "pooped a lot." She didn't give me a description of the poop. Ellie pooped again this afternoon, but it was solid. Unfortunately, she also told me that her "belly hurts" and her "nose hurts." Other than telling me that, she seems fine.

4. Abby is....just Abby at the moment.


The happy parts:

1. Both boys have been bathed. Just the girls need baths tonight.

2. Elijah won't need stitches if he leaves both of the bandaids on his thumb.


And because a story is always better told in long form, here is what happened when I went to change the kids' diapers for nap time:

Ellie and Abby were both changed first. Everything was going swimmingly; then I went to change Elijah. He had something wet running down the outside of his pant leg. Did he spill his juice? Quite possibly since the kids have chewed off the top of the straws that are supposed to make them spill-proof.

Then I removed his pants.

Oh. My. Word.

Nothing even remotely begins to describe what I found. I didn't even have to open his diaper to figure out that we had a diarrhea issue. I know I used at least 3-4 wipes to try to clean his leg and foot up. Of course, he was running his hand through it the whole time. You know that sheet that has been sitting on the couch for the last week? I've never been so grateful for my hatred of all things laundry. That sheet is now covered in it as well, but at least the couch isn't. I finally realized that no way was this a diaper wipe mess. I needed to pull out the big guns.

"Elijah, you are going into the bathtub."

I stood up to throw away the diapers from the first three kids and remove the sheet from their general vicinity. Elijah was sans clothing from the waist down and running around after me because I "forgot" to put a diaper on him.

As I came back around the corner into the living to grab a diaper and send Elijah upstairs, Caleb gave me a long look and then proceeded to start vomiting his lunch. At this point, the sheet was covered in poop, and we had already used the kitchen towels on his vomit this morning, so I spun back around to grab a roll of paper towels. And Caleb followed me.

Thankfully the kitchen floor caught the majority of his turkey and cheese quesadillas which, given the choice, I much prefer to the rug in the living room.

Meanwhile, Elijah wanted to know what Caleb was doing in the kitchen, so while I'm desperately trying to wipe up a pile of vomit before a kid marches through it, I'm holding him off with one arm. Keep in mind that he still doesn't have a diaper on. "Elijah, do NOT pee anywhere!!" I finally got THAT mess wiped up, and turned around to find that Elijah had commissioned himself to get redressed. Clean shorts on a poopy butt and leg. Yay, me.

So up we went to our bedroom to run a quick bath for the Diarrhea Boy and the Vomit Boy. It was past nap time, but somethings just can't wait. 

Caleb jumped into the bathtub while it was still filling. Thankfully, he wasn't poopy, so I didn't have to pull him back out to take his diaper off. Elijah was too busy dancing around the room to get in the tub right away.

"Elijah! Get in the bathtub!"

So Elijah jumped in as well.

And then guess what I found on our floor? Yeah. I great big puddle of pee.

I may or may not have spoken a few choice words as I asked the boys to please give me a break before I went crazy. It's probably best if I don't type out the exact verbiage that I used. You know, in case I ever want to run for president.

Once I got that mess cleaned up, I went to scrub them down. Elijah had found one of my razors and was very fascinated by it. I caught him with the razor on it's way to his mouth and promptly removed it while also reading him the riot act.

And then I noticed that I was too late because he had sliced his thumb quite well, and it was bleeding everywhere.

Side note: I think our son likes the taste of his own blood.

It was still bleeding well after bath time, and he kept playing with it, so I finally put a bandaid on it. Of course, since he is three, he immediately pulled it off so that he could look at the Disney Cars characters on it a little more closely. I ended up taking two very plain, very boring bandaids and wrapping his thumb tightly. I tucked him into bed with him giving me the equivalent of a thumb's up as he examined his latest accessory.

All of the children are now in bed. I can still hear Abby talking but everyone else is asleep.

All that to say: No school for the Ishum Quads tomorrow.

Love,
Becca

3 comments:

  1. Wow, I thought I had a hard day. Not even close to yours. Good note it's almost midnight and maybe tomorrow will be a much much better day. At least lets hope the Diarrhea and Bleeding is done with. Why is it when one thing goes extremely wrong several more seem to follow all at once. Don't you just hate those kind of days. Hope you all feel better tomorrow~!

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  2. Poo, throw up, pee and blood? And you still have a sense of humor? Girl, you are my new hero.

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  3. Awww...I hope everyone feels better! I absolutely hate when my kids are sick, and when we're all sick, it is so hard to get through the day...I desperately look forward to bedtime. Good luck to you mama...be brave. :)

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