Playing the waiting game

Now if there is one thing I hate about being a parent it is the dreaded tummy bug, I know none of us like their children to be ill, at all, ever, but this one illness is the one I dread the most. It is the ferocity at which it strikes and the unpredictability of it too, add into the mix a small child who can't tell you what they are about to do and it is the pits of parenthood.

This week Little 3 was hit by a tummy bug, he was fine when he went to bed Sunday and I had no reason to suspect what was coming. He woke a couple of hours early Monday morning and an unusual cry over the monitor called me into his room bleary eyed and half asleep myself, yuck is all I have to say.

Poorly and sleepy

Why does it (almost all of the time for us) strike in the middle of the night when you are not at all awake enough to be dealing with what lies in front of you (literally!). I can't think of anything worse to do at 4am than cleaning a child and a bed whilst trying not to wake the other little ones, thankfully Little 3 was ever so good, bless him.

Then comes the waiting game, is anyone else going to get ill, who will it be and when is it going to strike... oh how I hate this period of time.

I used to begin to feel at ease after the end of the third and into the fourth day after the last person got ill, surely having been living in the same house and breathing the same air (despite washing everything, changing towels and spraying everything with disinfectant regularly) if they were going to get it they would have succumbed by now. But no, the last tummy bug we had in our house took us all at 5 day intervals and involved 3 weeks of washing, cleaning, sanitising and unpredictable horror.

 

As I write this we are 4 days in, Little 3 had a day of sick, a day of sleep and then he was back to his normal self albeit not eating much and some icky nappies. I have felt a bit naff for a couple of days with a hideous headache and am surviving on occasional slices of toast as my appetite has disappeared and the grumbling from my stomach is putting me off eating but if this is as bad as it is going to get them I'll happily take that.

Feeling better and eating again

I don't like not being able to be in control, perhaps that is why I feel this way. Daddy is much more of a 'I will deal with it if and when it happens kind of person as he devours seconds of dinner and pudding while I think I will have a little just in case!

So just in case I removed all but the essential cuddly toys from the girls beds and had a bowl on the landing for a few days too. Little 2 hates her bed getting messed up and slept with a large towel over her teddy and top bit of her bed for several days as well, 'just in case Mummy, I don't want teddy getting dirty'.

And so the wait goes on..... are we in the clear?

UPDATE: No we were not in the clear!!