Bah Humbug!

In case you haven't been keeping up, here's a rundown of our week before Christmas:

Wednesday (12/19): Shaelyn threw up 4 times; once in the car on the way to storytime, once on the way back, once when we got home, and once after lunch. Gross, gross, gross! I had to pull the car over both times because I thought she was going to choke on it. About gave me a heart attack!

Thursday (12/20): Shaelyn is done throwing up, now everything is coming out the other end. Of course gets a diaper rash as a result, but never runs a fever.

Friday (12/21): Michael must have caught Shaelyn's stomach virus. Michael is sick, sick, sick, starting that afternoon. I encourage him to keep taking Pepto Bismal, but it doesn't seem to be helping. In our 8 1/2 years together, I had never seen Michael throw up. Good thing. It was BAD! I thought his toes were going to come out his mouth!

Saturday (12/22): Michael wakes up feeling much better and the whole family attends a baptism that morning. By 2:30, I'm running a fever of 101. I feel awful, like I have the flu. I'm suspecting that it's mastitis (since I've had it now 6 times) and start pumping to get the infection out. Now I'm not sure what it was because by 6:00 that evening, I'm convinced that I myself am going to throw up. It took every ounce of energy in my body not to, but I had to run to the toilet at least 10 times that night for the fear that I would. Shaelyn does throw up right before bed, but acts totally fine afterward, and again, no fever. Michael's stomach starts going crazy again, even worse than the night before. It's one of our nightmares come true - both parents sick when the baby is sick. We really wished we had had family who lived close by so we could have had some help! Michael just couldn't stay off the toilet, so at 3:00 AM, I run out to Harris Teeter to get some Imodium AD. (Note that I still have a fever over 100.)

Sunday (12/23): Miraculously, we all wake up feeling better again. My fever is broken, and Shaelyn seems totally happy. Michael's stomach was still gurgling, but the Imodium seemed to have done it's job. We pack up the family and head to church. Shaelyn and I stay well all day, but Michael's stomach is back to acting up and I'm getting VERY worried. I could foresee Christmas in the hospital because he was dehydrated or something.

Monday (12/24): I cancel a lunch date with some girlfriends so that Michael can go to Urgent Care. They are only open on Christmas Eve until noon and then closed Thursday after Christmas. I told Michael that if this was something serious, we couldn't wait until Thursday. The last thing I want is to go to the emergency room Christmas Day because it gets worse. They run some blood tests and conclude he has a virus, not a bacteria or a parasite or something like I had feared. It costs $140! Michael was very frustrated that he spent so much money to be told he has a virus, but they did write him two separate prescriptions, one for nausea and one for the other problem. The doctor told him that he would be feeling better by the next morning. He didn't however, say how he would continue to feel that day. Both medicines warned that they could cause drowsiness. Well, he stayed in bed for almost 6 hours. I would go up to check on him periodically, and he was always in the same position. He was also running a slight fever for the first time, and both medicines said to contact your doctor immediately if you had a fever after taking the medicine. The fever never reached over 100, but I had decided that if it didn't break by that evening, we were going to go to the ER. I told him he was freaking me out! Later that evening, Shaelyn also started running a slight fever, but never threw up.

Tuesday (12/25): We all wake up feeling good. We had a good Christmas morning opening presents, and no one had a fever or had to run to the toilet. Michael said those drugs made him feel like a new man. We went to a brunch over at a friends' house, and their baby was sick! What a Christmas! Michael took it easy on the brunch food, since it was his first day since Friday to really eat food. He had a slight relapse when we came home, but seems to be doing much better.

I threw myself a little pity party Christmas morning and told Michael it didn't really feel like Christmas to me. Here are some of my reasons for being such a Scrooge:

*With playing nurse and taking care of everyone, I didn't get to cook any of my usual holiday fare. I don't usually enjoy cooking, but I do like making goodies around the holidays. I didn't make a single one this year.

*Since Michael was so sick, we didn't do anything that I would deem "traditional": drive around and look at Christmas lights, wrap presents with Christmas music playing, act out the nativity, eat the goodies that I'd made... Michael did drag himself out of bed long enough to read Luke 2 to Shaelyn and me by the Christmas tree.

*The fact that we didn't have a real tree and that the tree we did have was in the dining room. There is something about the smell of a real tree that just puts me in the Christmas mood. And usually our tree is in our family room where we spend most of our time, so I can always see it. We will turn off all the lights and just sit by the light of our tree while we read, play, or watch t.v. Having the tree in the dining room really ruined that for me. We put it there so it would be less accessible to Shaelyn. That part did work, but ultimately made me sad.

*We didn't travel or see any family this year. Last year was the first year of my life that I didn't spend Christmas at my parents' house. But we had just had a baby and so family was coming to us. This year it was just the three of us - no one coming to see us and we stayed put. I didn't think that would have as much of an impact on me, but it did. I'm used to Christmas being a noisy, chaotic affair. The only chaos in our house this year was all the sickness.

*Michael had to go back to work today. Even though he had the entire week off before Christmas, it just doesn't feel like Christmas when you have to go to bed at a reasonable time Christmas night because your spouse has to go to work the next day.

*I think the biggest reason it just didn't feel like Christmas to me was that there was no change in my routine this year. My whole life, Christmas-time has also indicated a break of some sort: a break from school or work, a chance to go home for the holidays, something. This year Christmas (and all the days leading up to it) were the same. There was no excitement that I got to be off work for a week or two - my new job is a 24/7 job. And since Shaelyn is still so little, I didn't get to feel the anticipation of the holiday through her excitement. It was just a Tuesday, just like any other Tuesday. I know this will change as my kids get older, but this year was a real let down.

So that's my bah humbug post. Although I will say, I'm grateful to have my immediate family that I was able to spend Christmas with, friends that invited us over for a very sophisticated brunch, and the fact that there were presents under our tree. I know our woes pale in comparison to the real suffering and tragedy that goes on around the world. Kinda puts my little pity party into perspective.