She Doesn't Cry When She Pukes

When you are grieving over the loss of a loved one and in shock over the pending separation with another there's nothing quite like one of your children getting the puking flu to make you to stop living in your head and get you to deal with what's right in front of you. This morning Zion woke up with the puking flu. Actually I think she puked first in the middle of the night because it was dried in her hair, on her jammies and on her sheets. So she puked in the night and didn't even cry. Weird. She proceeded to puke up everything I gave her orally throughout the day. Water, juice, Pedialyte, crackers, Fruit Loops (which I gave her before I realized that she really was sick). It doesn't seem to phase her at all. She puked in her highchair, in the baby swing (which I was indulgent in letting her sit in this morning), next to the loveseat, on the loveseat, in her crib (twice), and in her chair in the living room. Each time she just got this look on her face like "hm, I really wish I would stop doing that." and stand there and wait for me to clean her up.

Interestingly, her sick personality is so different from her well personality. Well, as you know, she's all over the place, simply on fire with life and exuberance. Sick, she's passive and quiet and quite amiable. Well, she only comes to find me when she has a demand like "cracker!" or "cup!", sick she doesn't like to be more than 5 feet from me, preferable sitting next to me or on my lap. Luckily she didn't care which one it was because Gideon is going through a growth spurt and spent the day either nursing or screaming because he wanted to nurse. Cleaning up puke is bad enough but doing it while your newborn screams himself into hysterics is really, really not fun. So my list of accomplishments for the day was nurse, clean up puke, change Zion's clothes, scrub the carpet, do laundry - wash, rinse, repeat. You get the idea. Poor Gabe got the short end of the stick today. The squeaky wheel gets the grease you know and he simply wasn't squeaky enough to compete (thank God!) with his siblings. I'm hoping and praying that the flu will stick to Zion and not spread to any of the rest of us and that she'll be better tomorrow. Feel free to pray for us, too.

Right now I'm going to sign off and go send an e-mail to the makers of Pedialyte. Why in the world do they put colored dye into a product that parents typically only give their child when they have a stomach bug?!? Stomach bug = puking. Puking = vomit all over your things. Dye in the Pedialyte = dye in the vomit. Vomit all over your things = dye all over your things. Grrrr! Stupid, stupid, stupid!