Allergic to England or Just a Bug?

The Sad Eyes of The Boy Who Just Keeps Throwing Up

Either we're all allergic to England, or the schools need to buff up their 'sick' policies. They still tell kids to cough in their hands, children may return to school as long as their fever is gone (no time frame) and it's 24 to 48-hours (instead of a solid, no-longer-contagious-48) after vomiting or diarrhea.

Last Monday Sweet Rose was down with a fever and a cough. Her fever lasted around 30 hours, so I kept her home Tuesday as well, when big sis was also hit with a fever. I kept all 3 of the kids home that day, as I saw no point in dragging them all for a 20-minute return trip just so The Boy could attend playschool.

Saturday, around 1:30 in the morning, The Boy awoke with his first of many, many, many episodes of vomiting. It began hitting his other end by Saturday afternoon. I ended up putting a Pull-Up on him for the first time in months because we ran out of underwear!

I thought he'd be better today. He last threw up yesterday morning, but no, just a few minutes after waking up and having a drink of water, he threw up all over me! Thank goodness it was clear and minimal.

Nature Girl complained that her tummy hurt, but as Sweet Rose was feeling fine and needed to get to school (her attendance is lower than standard for the first time ever in our school experience), I told her to get ready for school anyway and we'd take it moment to moment.

I brought along 2 containers, just to be safe. What do you know? Minutes away from school I had two kids throwing up at the same time. I pulled over, did minor clean-up, dumped The Boy's watery bucket and put the lid on the other, as it would have been rude to dump it where we were. I considered just turning around and taking all 3 of them home, with perhaps school is the best place to keep Sweet Rose for the day!

Back at home, I dumped two kids on the couch, cleaned buckets and gave them back. Nature Girl had her second episode in the middle of me writing this post and The Boy has managed a few sips of water. Thank goodness he managed some yogurt and a banana yesterday.

I'm exhausted. Did I mention my husband has been gone since last Tuesday? At least I've been going to bed earlier without him, but man alive. What does a working mom do? Thank goodness I'm not employed. There is no way I could keep a job with the frequency of my kids' illnesses.

That's it. Thanks for reading. It's times like these, when I'm completely wasted from caring for my own kids, that I desperately wish my own mom was here to take care of me! Through all of it, I just keep asking what purpose this is serving. There is always a purpose, a meaning or a learning to be had. I'll tell you more about what I think this experience is serving later this week.

Send me hugs. I need them. Then give yourself one for me just for caring enough to read this lengthy vent. :)