Sick.

My, didn't we have fun last night?

First, Jack woke up 6 times between when I went to bed and when Jim got home, thus ensuring I never actually fell asleep. Second, Lily woke up as soon as Jim got home and asked to come in our bed. Third, Lily tossed and turned in the bed and kept me awake for another 45 minutes as Jim snored blissfully next to me. And then...

Lily said "My stomach doesn't feel good, Mama." That made me sit right up. I asked if she was going to vomit and she said "Yes." That made me jump out of bed and grab her. We started running to the stairs, but poor Lily couldn't make it. She threw up right at the top of the stairs. It was a great shot -- she missed herself and me, but managed to hit every single stair and both walls.

As soon as she was done, she tried to head back to our bed. I told her she had to sleep downstairs with me to be close to the bathroom. "Why?" she said "My stomach is fine now." 4 years of experience has taught me that kids rarely get sick just once. I got her settled in and then spent 40 minutes cleaning up the mess on the stairs. Lily kept up a running commentary from her bed while I worked:

"Why do you keep making that noise, Mama?" (I was gagging repeatedly because while I can clean up almost any kid mess, I am not good with vomit.)
"I'm cold. Can't you hurry up, Mama?"
"I feel fine now, let's go upstairs to your bed!" Yeah, right.

We moved into the guest room bed and I loaded her up with blankets because she was cold. We just lay there staring at each other for a long time. She asked me why I was still awake, and I said "In case you get sick again, I can help you." "Oh, I'm not going to be sick. I'm better now."

That lasted about 10 minutes. Just as I started to doze off, Lily said "Bucket." That made me leap up and grab the plastic bin next to the bed. We waited and nothing happened. "It went away. Sorry. I feel fine now." It became a little routine. Lily would get into the covers and complain of being cold. Then she would kick off the covers because she was too warm. Then she would toss and turn restlessly and I would reach for the bucket, because I knew then she was about to say "Bucket!" again. We played this duet for some time, but Lily could not throw up. When she finally did, I could see how relieved she felt. It truly does feel awful to be nauseated like that all night. She fell right to sleep after she was sick, and I went and cleaned up.

Just as I was crawling into bed next to Lily to go to sleep, I heard Jack wake up. I waited, but it was clear Jim was going to sleep through Jack's cries, so I went upstairs. Jack was crying "Mama! Mama!" I settled him in bed next to Jim, but as soon as I moved away from the bed, Jack started shrieking for me. I decided to take him downstairs with me, too. At first, he wanted to get up, but after I sat up in bed for about an hour holding him, he was finally willing to lie down next to Lily. He was really croupy, so I suspect that's what kept waking him up. After some experimentation, I found that propping him up on a pillow kept him sleeping comfortably. Remarkably, Lily did not wake up once during the entire process.

When I finally had both kids asleep, I inched in next to Jack. The guest room bed is only a full, so I was clinging to the edge to keep from falling out. Just as the sun started to peek through the shades, I fell asleep. Just in time for both kids to wake up and ask me for breakfast.

Both kids seem just fine this morning. Why is it that if a kid gets a stomach virus, it inevitably starts in the middle of the night? There must be some explanation for it.

I'm willing to bet that Jim will remember nothing that went on during the night, even though I woke him up once to warn him that I'd removed some of the treads from the stairs to clean them. Any takers?