A Weekend in Sickbay

That was a helluva thing.

Kirk continued waking up to puke/dry heave at least once an hour Thursday night. Occasionally the poor little buddy would hurl the minute quantities of stomach juices that had managed to replenish since the last time. He would cry, confused at why such a terrible thing was happening, and then settle back into an uneasy sleep in my arms. I dozed a bit while holding him on the couch, but mostly I just watched over him. Mr. b got home about 3:15am and went to buy some Pedialyte. At that point I had given Kirk a few ounces of water over an hour or two and he had managed to keep it down. So I went to bed at 4 and then got up with him at 6. Short night.

Friday afternoon I started giving Kirk half-strength formula. He was hungry and thirsty and the Pedialyte just wasn’t good enough anymore. He was wanting something every couple of hours because nothing was sticking with him long enough. But I wasn’t willing to push it and give him full-strength until it had been a full 24 hours vom-free.

And then Mr. b got sick.

I just don’t know how we managed to get through those first few weeks of Kirk’s life when we were up all the time. But at least we were able to trade off so that we could each get more than 3 hours in a row of sleep. I didn’t have that luxury this weekend. I was the sole care-giver for Kirk and I was also trying to nurse my poor sick husband through the pukingshits. Kirk and I went to the grocery store early on Saturday morning to get various beverages for him once Mr. b was able to keep water down. That was my first time out of the house.

I was still keeping it together on Saturday. I fed Kirk some applesauce for breakfast and some oatmeal for lunch and kept Mr. b supplied with Gatorade and juice and chicken soup. I was weary and exhausted, but I was just glad that it looked like I was going to escape getting diseased, too. But I was more run down that I realized. Late on Saturday night, when Mr. b was finally starting to be on the mend, Kirk woke up for another bottle yet again. And I lost it. I couldn’t handle having my sleep interrupted after a mere 2 hours yet again. Mr. b fed Kirk his bottle and I tried to go back to sleep. But something had snapped. I got back up again and was trying to clean and straighten up the kitchen table. In the dark. Mr. b says I kept mumbling about how I couldn’t sleep because I had to do stuff. I remember doing this but I don’t know why it seemed so important at the time. I was totally in a fugue state. Mr. b got up with Kirk in the morning and I was finally able to sleep. I could have slept for days.