Baby and the Flu

What a crazy couple of days it has been! Sunday morning, at 5:45, I got the call we had been waiting for. My sister was in labour and headed to the hospital. They dropped my niece off on their way an hour later. Dida wasn't interested in going to bed, so she and I were up for the day. (Which wouldn't have been so bad, except that I had only slept 4-5 hours due to a migraine!) 7 hours later, we were at the hospital, meeting my new niece, "Vifen" (Odd names, I know...blame the kids...Josh gave Dida her nickname (it's really Lydia) and Dida gave Vifen hers (it's Vivian)). She is absolutely adorable and I can't wait to visit her again soon. She was born the day before my dad's 50th birthday; he's hoping her arrival will take the attention off him. So far, it has. We were supposed to celebrate on Sunday afternoon, then rescheduled for Monday night, then canceled due to weather and a pukey Josh!

We took Dida home with us for the night. She was excited about coming to our house and went down for the night quickly. A couple of hours later, she was up screaming for her mom, dad, sister. After many attempts to calm her and getting puked on because she was so worked up, I finally gave in and called in the troops. My brother-in-law drove over from the hospital (only a few miles, luckily) and sat with her for an hour until she calmed down and fell asleep again. Relieved, Chris and I went to bed, praying that she would sleep through the night! I guess we were praying for the wrong kid!

Josh woke up at 11:30, throwing up. I should have known something was up, since he slept through all the screaming on Dida's part. He proceeded to throw up at least once every 45 minutes, although most of the night, it was every 20 minutes. That meant no sleep for Chris and I, since 10-15 of those 20 minutes involved getting him and bedding cleaned up and calming him down. We went through 2 mattress covers, 7 sheets, 1 pillow and case, 5 blankets, 1 monkey, 1 bulldog, 10 towels, and too many socks and PJs. By the end of the night, he had a routine down. He would sit up, push the blanket and stuffed animal away, and throw up on the towel. By 6:00 a.m., I was ready to scream. But Dida beat me to it instead. She was up at 6 and 6:30, crying for her parents. This time I was able to calm her down. I explained that Josh was sick and that I couldn't sleep by her, so she needed to be a big girl and lay down. At 6:45, I stumbled back to bed. Chris had taken over with Josh, and ended up getting him up for the day, so the room was finally quiet. I was able to sleep 2 whole hours uninterrupted (and I'm not the one with a newborn!) until Dida woke up. At that point, we called my parents to pick up Dida. My wonderful husband, Chris, what would I have done without him???? ((I shudder to even think it)) He did all the laundry and sent Josh and I back to bed for the whole afternoon.

So that is my long weekend. Amazing how much you can really squeeze in when you try hard enough...Oh, and Josh just woke up and puked again. Pray for him. He's had a couple bites of food in 36 hours and was only able to keep liquids down a couple hours this morning and tonight. He's pretty miserable, but still cheerful, not too whiny. I hope we sleep tonight!