Misery

No, not the Stephen King classic, but true misery.

I posted a couple days ago about how baby girl emptied the contents of her stomach all over me in the middle of the night. I wish that were the end of the story. As it turns out, it was just the beginning.

I intended to go back into work in the afternoon, but when Scott came home around 2pm, I didn't feel well. I thought I just needed a quick nap, since we had been up most of the night with a sick little girl.  Scott wanted to go do the laundry (covered in baby throw-up) and as much as I wanted to go with him, I couldn't muster the energy to do it, but I didn't want to be home alone either. I think he was probably getting a little frustrated with my procrastinating until about 4:30, when the floodgates opened. I spent the next three hours in and out of the restroom every 10-15 minutes. I could hardly respond when Scott loaded baby girl and me up in the car and headed to the ER. It took three miserable hours of waiting (no water allowed) before we were seen by the doctor, who immediately put me on iv fluids and told me to drink some water. Five hours and 5L of fluid later my blood pressure finally came up and they gave us the choice of another liter of fluid or going home. Since Scott was starting to feel bad, and needed some sleep, we opted to head home.

Baby girl only slept a few hours the whole time we were at the hospital, but hasn't shown any other symptoms since early Monday morning.

Scott seems to have kept it mostly at bay by sleeping most of yesterday and staying hydrated.

I am just about ready to start introducing solid foods again. I tried some chicken noodle soup last night that nearly set me back, but feel pretty good this morning.

Today we've done a lot of cleaning around the house. We also went to the laundry mat to wash everything that came in contact with all of us the past three days. We choose perfect timing though, because it was nearly empty when we arrived, so we finished all eight, yes, eight, loads of laundry in less than 90 minutes.

We're going to do a little more cleaning/disinfecting this afternoon, and take the rest of today easy.

The doctor said to wait 24-48hrs after the last symptoms subsided before going back to work. Since I have one pregnant labmate, and one labmate whose wife is pregnant, I'll definitely err on the side of caution. I can't imagine being pregnant and being this sick, which makes me feel really bad about our dinner guests on Sunday.

We had no idea this was coming, and Sunday night had spent a really great evening with friends, who are expecting a baby boy in four months. I wish we had some kind of warning to tell them to stay away, and very much hope they don't come down with it. So far they seem to have avoided it, and, given how fast it seems to have travelled, I think they may be in the clear.

I've hardly ever had to use sick days, but, given our experience the past three days, I'm very glad we have them. Now, I think I'll go be a good patient and rest - as much as is possible with a very mobile 8 month old baby.