Up All Night…

Posted on 01.15.07 in Family and there are 6 comments.

The Smaller Person has a stomach bug. I awoke at 12:30am to the sound of her crying, only to find her standing in her doorway...messy. After giving her a bath which she bravely suffered through, we made a pallet for her in our room and she woke up almost every hour...sick to her stomach.

She was SUCH a trooper, though. She barely cried and would lay right back down to go to sleep after we cleaned her up. She even cracked a couple jokes...well, two-year-old-I’ve-been-up-all-night-sick jokes.

Have I ever mentioned that I am used to be absolutely paranoid of throwing up? Yeah, it’s usually a great conversation starter. I toss that tidbit in right between “Where are you from?” and “What do you do for a living?”

I used to be so paranoid that I decided that I definitely did not want to be a missionary because they get sick a lot. I also couldn’t be in a rock band because what if I got sick while traveling on a tour bus? Sick, in a moving vehicle with no privacy? There could be no greater torture for me.

If I came into contact with someone who was sick, I’d stay awake at night evaluating each movement of my stomach in an attempt to determine if I was feeling the impending onslaught of nausea.

There’s nothing quite like facing your fears head on. I’ve been around more sick people since I’ve had kids than in my previous 26 years of existence. Throw in a good 9 months of constant nausea from my three pregnancies and I think I’ve just about gotten over my issues.

Our family was supposed to go to Houston today because my husband had a business meeting and the girls and I were going to tag along and have some fun eating out, shopping and doing fun “big city” stuff. Well, last night we realized that wasn’t going to happen.

I confess, I was really nervous about staying at home by myself. What if I got sick? Could I be sick all by myself and not freak out? How would I take care of the girls? What if we were all sick at the same time?

I was nervous, but I didn’t want to make it harder on my husband so I just decided I would be able to handle whatever came my way.

To add to the situation, a winter storm rolled through here last night and the roads are quite icy this morning. I was not happy about my husband driving for three and a half hours in the worst weather of the year. And he didn’t want to leave his pregnant wife at home alone with sick kids and a heater that’s not exactly equipped for this sort of weather.

Well, in case we’d forgotten, God is good. We just learned that the bad weather prompted the cancellation of my husband’s meeting so he gets to stay here at home with us.

A simple reminder of how bad things can be is the surest way to enjoy and savor the mundane. I might have been in a bad mood today because it’s too cold to play outside, but instead I’m just glad that my family is all together, warm and on the road to be being healthy.

So, for those of you who waded through this very long, gross and random post.....do you have (have you had) any paranoias? (This is also a great icebreaker question. I usually throw this one out just after “Hi! What’s your name?")

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Sounds like the same bug our whole family had over Christmas.  WARNING: HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS!  When I got back from Norway, Lil’E had it.  I then got it, along with Mrs. E and the mother-in-law - everyone whole was in contact with here while sick.

Do computer viruses give you the same panic?

lol - I uh...used to be paranoid about over sleeping.

I’m petrified of spiders and no other bugs.  Some people have a fear of bees, wasps, etc.  Not me, but I can’t be in the same room with a spider.  My husband gets mad when I kill them because he says they’re good, they get rid of harmful bugs like mosquitoes, but I can’t wrap my brain around the phrase, “Spiders are good.”

Hope the smaller person is feeling better soon and that the rest of you stay healthy.  Get out the Lysol!

Euphrony,
Prior to my liberation from my phobia, your comment would have sent me to the looney bin...but now I’m not so paranoid if this is super contagious. Of course I don’t want it, but I ain’t scared…

Cach,
Yes. That’s why I have a Mac.

Ryan,
Very interesting. I’ve not heard that one before. What prompted that fear? Did you wake up late for something once? I have woken up late for a college final exam and also I woke up late once when I was a Master Control Operator at the local pbs station when I was in school. There were probably many angry parents because Sesame Street was on about 30minutes late that day…

Cristy,
I don’t have a spider phobia, but I don’t understand the whole “spiders are good” argument either. They may be good, but anything with more than 4 legs in my house is going to get smashed.

Kat, you were a Master Control Operator?  So was I, for two years.  I worked a lot of midnight shifts during that time and was always worried that I would fall asleep and sleep through the whole shift.

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