The dreaded...(warning: this is gross stuff)

So, ever since June 2, 2009 when I brought home a tiny baby boy with short bowel syndrome, we've been taking precautions to keep him healthy--lots of hand sanitizer for everyone, no daycare, limited outings during cold and flu season, no sick contacts, blah, blah, blah. We made it through all of the winter of 2009-2010 without much more than a common cold or two (which are more serious to Ryan since he gags and pukes from a runny nose and loses weight with every cold, but anyway). I thought we were doing well this year--then Nora woke up with a weird diaper on Saturday, and I had a feeling this was it. She got sicker over the weekend--a fever up to 103, one episode of vomiting, little to eat, tired, tired, tired. We did extra hand sanitizer, gave Ryan yogurt whenever he would let us, made sure they weren't sharing cups (I'm usually pretty relaxed about this since it's a battle I couldn't win anyway, since I can't keep track of whose cup is whose and since they can reach the table and the counter now anyway). Saturday and Sunday Ryan was fine...then this morning he ralphed all over the family room. repeatedly. and then some more. and then again.

Poor Ryan. I couldn't get him to eat a thing after his morning formula (which he promptly puked after drinking a nice, solid 8 ounces). He begged for a nap but wouldn't let me leave him alone. I am MAJOR softy for a sick child. I set Nora in her room for a nap, and then snuggled in with Ryan in bed and took a little nap with him for a while before transferring him to his crib.

During naptime, John came home early from work. Not feeling well--ugh. But he rallied and helped me steam clean the family room carpet (in reality he took over and excused me from the job altogether because I almost broke it twice) and get a few things in order while the sickies slept. Then he went to take a nap.

Nora woke up strangely cheerful--then proceeded to have about 5 diapers in the next 3 hours. She did eat and drink some, so that's an improvement.

Ryan woke up ravenous. He gulped down a whole sippy cup of water--YAY! fluid! Then he coughed a little, burped a little, looked at me concerned and said "mouf" and pointed in his mouth and proceeded to puke up every ounce of water he drank--and then some. But that did not deter him. He wanted crackers, crackers and more crackers--and then: barf. More water: barf. Poor Ryan ate and puked in a nasty GI-bug cycle from naptime to bedtime. I do think he may have held on to the last couple of sips he took. He got 3 baths today (should've had 4 but once I sniffed him after he threw up on himself and decided it wasn't that bad, I wiped him down, changed his clothes and declared him good as new--I was kind of exhausted, ok?) and had 5 clothing changes.

On the plus side, as a typical male, Ryan allowed me to pamper him more than usual while he was not feeling well. I got in more cuddles with him today than I do in a typical week. He fell asleep on me three times. I totally let him. I prayed for him more today than I have in a long time. And also, the best part: he knew to eat and drink--he was hungry and thirsty! this is a big deal! in the past he's struggled with an oral aversion and been in therapy to help him eat, etc and when he's gotten sick, he's stopped eating altogether even when it was just a common cold. This time, despite all the puking, he still wanted to eat. I'm taking that as a good sign that his body is telling him when he's hungry, when he's in need of water, etc.

On the minus side, he may have kept down 1-2 ounces of fluids today. max. If he pukes tomorrow, I will put a call in to his pediatric gastroenterologist and see what she thinks. We had a plan in place for when this would happen. 45 ml of fluid per hour via his G-tube. That would replace fluids lost through diarrhea. Problem. No real fluid loss through the diarrhea at this point. He cannot keep anything in his belly, his problem is vomiting---I'm not sure the gtube will save this. I'm going to try though tonight--way less than she said, maybe just 15ccs at a time, and see if he can make it through the night without barfing some more and take it from there.

He's still perky and happy. After I laid him in bed tonight he woke up when I brought Nora in to bed and he was jumping up and down in his crib as usual. He still has big tears, so he's still hydrated as far as I know. Tomorrow will tell.

If you made it this far, would you please pray with us that the vomiting would subside. Thanks! Hopefully my next post will be an update sharing how quickly he recovered from his first GI bug :)