We have had the weirdest, nasty little bug going through our house for the last 3 weeks. It started innocently enough. Scratchy throats turned into runny noses. Then the coughing started. A deep, croupy-sounding cough made everyone miserable. Then sudden vomiting, followed by fevers and bloodshot eyes. Then some diarrhea for good measure. We wrapped it up with the lingering productive cough.
Again I am reminded of how much fun it is to have young children when they all get sick. There was so much barf and so few buckets. The four youngest ones have not yet mastered the fine art of throwing up in a bucket. There so many times that Jason and I trudged upstairs in the middle of the night as another one was stricken with the virus. Jason finally had to miss 2 days of work to help me take care of everyone. The twins each got sick within hours of each other but the singletons got sick on different days and it was a long illness. It lasted about 2 weeks in each person.
At one point, my bed was full of sick, feverish, weak little people. Poor kids.
We had a few close calls with Violet too. She stopped breathing a few times because she just couldn't clear the mucus from her airway. I don't think I've ever had a baby so young get so sick before. She was drooling, lethargic, and completely out of it. I just kept praying that she'd improve before bedtime because there was no way I would go to sleep with her in that condition. Fortunately, she perked up a bit that evening and began opening her eyes and nursing again. I still didn't sleep for 5 nights.
We're all on the mend now and I think we might finally leave the house for the first time in 3 weeks. I am so grateful that one of Jason's coworkers dropped off dinner for us one night. It had been days since I'd cooked because nobody was eating. It was so nice to have a hot meal.
Hopefully this is our one big illness for the year. Thank goodness for homeschooling because we would have just missed about a month of school. #bigfamilyproblems
