Pukefest 2007

Yesterday started out as a very normal day.  Zach had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon so I picked him up early from day care and took him.  It was just a normal check up and everything was fine (35 inches tall, 27 pounds) except that his cold apparently gave him a double ear infection.

The doctor’s visit was quick so afterwards I took him with me back to the office for a little bit.  Normally he’ll settle down and watch videos on the extra computer in my office but he wasn’t having any of that.  He was abnormally fussy, which I attributed to the fact that his nap got interrupted early, so I decided to just pack it in and go home.

On the way home we stopped at Wal-mart to get his medicine for his ear infection.  While we were waiting for it to get filled at the pharmacy we wandered around the store.  I stopped in the craft section to get a couple of things and while I was perusing the selection of knitting needles Zach decided to puke all over the floor.  Welcome to motherhood! 

I’m not sure how I managed to get through his entire 18 months with only one other puking experience, but I did.  So this was kind of a new experience for me.  The one other time in his life that he has thrown up it was just as I was laying him down in his bed and it was fairly easy to clean up with a change of pj’s, new sheets, and a quick bath.

I informed the lady working in the craft department what had happened and she quickly informed me that she couldn’t clean it up but that she would call someone.  While I stood there contemplating what to do with my child who had puke dripping down the front of his clothes she called for maintenance.  Other customers needed to go down that aisle and were getting pretty grossed out and no one was showing up to clean up the mess.  Finally I said that I would clean it up if someone could just get me something to clean it with.  She handed me a roll of paper towels and I cleaned it up the best I could.

We finally got out of there and I pretty much sprinted to the pharmacy to see if his medicine was ready yet.  It wasn’t, even though I had waited 5 minutes past the time they told me it would be ready.  While we waited another 15-20 minutes for his prescription, Zach fell asleep in my arms, puke and all.  I laid him down in the shopping cart, finally got his medicine and checked out.

When we got home, I stripped him down and was just about to put him in the bathtub when I saw the look on his face and knew that it was going to happen again.  I snapped into action and his new Elmo potty was officially initiated.  I suppose that wasn’t the intended purpose of the potty, but it was the fastest thing I could grab and it kept the puke from landing on me.

We made it through the next couple of hours without any incidents.  He refused to eat which was actually a relief because I was afraid anything that went down was sure to come back up.  Against my better judgment, I decided to go ahead and give him his medicine before he went to bed.  Not such a good idea.  He went to bed and I never heard a peep from him so I decided I better check on him before I turned in for the night.  When I opened his door the smell hit me.  He had indeed thrown up again and it was everywhere.

He got his second bath of the night and then laid down with Daddy for a few minutes while I cleaned up his bed and got it ready for him again.  I finally got him back to bed and he slept through the rest of the night okay.

Needless to say, I’m home with him today.  So far, there has been no puke today which is a blessing.  He’s certainly not feeling up to par, but I’m guessing it is at least better than he was feeling lastnight.  He fell asleep around 10:30 and I haven’t heard a peep from him since.  Now I’m just praying that he doesn’t pass this nice little bug on to me or Hubby.