Crap-tacular Holidays

And I mean crap-tacular literally. Seth has had a gastrointestinal virus since Friday night and has had diahrrea since Sunday. Almost every poop he has made has gone up his pants or down his legs. I have rinsed poop off of so many clothing items that it no longer grosses me out. I have been completely desensitized to poop. It all started Friday night when Seth threw up in his crib at 2:00 a.m. He continued to throw up (more like dry heave since there wasn't anything in his stomach) until about 5 a.m., but then when he woke up Saturday morning, he seemed fine. Ed's parents came over and entertained the kids so we could clean the house and decorate for Christmas. We went out early and got the tree. Things were fine. We decorated the tree, William was great, Seth napped as usual, we got the house clean. Ed had two gigs Saturday evening, so I took the boys to Ed's parents that evening and we spent the night. No more throwing up for Seth, but that's when the blow-out poops started. Every diaper was a poop, and by that evening, it was clearly diahrrea.

So Sunday night around midnight, I woke up feeling very nauseous. I lay awake for about 2 hours, and at 2 a.m., I started throwing up and kept throwing up until about 5 a.m. I felt like death all day Monday, so Ed took William to daycare and came back to take care of Seth so I could lay in bed. I finally started feeling better Monday night, but Seth still had major diahrrea. Luckily, he was eating and drinking like normal, so I wasn't worried about dehydration. He also hadn't had a fever, so that was a good sign. Ed took him to the doctor on Monday because he was pulling on his ears a lot, but his ears were clear. He also has a bad cough, but his lungs sounded fine. Just a stomach bug.

Anyway, I stayed home with Seth and William on Tuesday (William was still fine and showing no signs of illness), and Seth had a low fever all day and was clearly not feeling well. Ed got home from work Tuesday evening feeling nauseous and went straight to bed. He had the headache and achy/chills that I had on Monday. Great. I had missed work Friday because I thought I was coming down with something (sore throat, headache, stuffy nose--thought I was getting a cold, but those symptoms, other than the headache, disappeared). So by then I'd missed three days of work in a row and it looked like I'd be staying home Wednesday, too. We asked Ed's parents and sister if they could babysit (all of them would have to miss work), but his parents both have the flu and his sister had a deadline for work. So back to sqaure one. I stayed home this morning (Wednesday), and around 11:00 a.m., Ed got up and said he's feeling better and could take care of Seth. I took William (who miraculously has not gotten sick) to daycare and got to work for a half day.

Seth had a good day today. No fever. He had several poops, and I asked Ed to describe them. He couldn't so I had to do some investigating in the diaper pail. (I know that's totally gross but this is what you have to do when you're a mom.) One of the poops was explosive, but it wasn't the volume, so much as the way the diaper had been put on (or so it appeared). Both poops had good consistency, so if tonight goes well, tomorrow might be a normal day. Have I mentioned how stressed out I am at work and how this is not a great time to be missing several days in a row? I don't think I'm on the stellar employee list right about now.

Did I also mention how I'm helping to plan the daycare holiday party which is, um, tomorrow night? Yeah. Did I mention that it's December 10 and I haven't gotten a picture for our holiday cards, yet alone started working on them? Not to mention the photo books and calendar I'm trying to put together for holiday gifts. And oh yeah--there's that whole shopping-for-gifts thing. Every year I prove that I just can't get my shit together and this year is definitely living up to expectations. Oh well. There's always next year.

Despite all of the sickenss, I've gotten lots of quality time with the boys, which is a great thing. William is talking up a storm and is anticipating Christmas as much as a 2-year-old can. We're going to see Santa on Saturday, but I have a feeling William will not want to sit with him. He may surprise me, though. William is not down with costumes or masks, but the Santa we go to see is "real." He's the one from his '07 and '06 pictures. So maybe William will enjoy it. I never know with him. I need to do a better job of capturing our conversations with him because he is so adorable. He remembers everything and you can just see him processing information and putting two and two together.

Seth is growing by leaps and bounds. He is so close to crawling and he wants to practice all the time, although it frustrates the heck out of him. Tonight he managed to launch himself forward several times, which was very exciting. Two days ago, he pulled himself to standing in his crib and was so dang proud of himself. I'm really not ready for him to be mobile, but ready or not, here he comes.

So that's my life. It's not pretty, but this too shall pass. Despite the craziness, I'm trying to step back and remember that family is most important--enjoying the time spent together and not sweating the small stuff (or the big stuff). We missed some neat holiday events, like the Santa Train and the local firefighters who bring the fire engine around the neighborhood with Santa and Mrs. Clause riding on top. We're not likely to make cookies, or ornaments for the tree this year. But who knows--there's still time. William's only 2 and 1/2. We'll continue "traditions" next year and he'll never know we missed them when he was 2! (Unless he reads my blog. Maybe I'll edit this post!)

Off to bed. A good night's sleep always makes things better, right? Actually, I wouldn't know. Haven't had one of those in almost 3 years!