Sick day

I have learned one of the fundamental truths of motherhood: there are no sick days.

By mid-day on Friday, I had a stomachache that just didn’t seem to want to go away. Of course, in my infinite wisdom, I continued to eat junk, so you know that helped. By the time I got home from a quick pediatrician visit (all is well, just a re-check), I started to become convinced that I would throw up soon.

You know that feeling. When your stomach hurts and you’re starting to get dizzy and achy, and all you can think is: “please, just let me throw up so I’ll feel better.” That was me at about 3pm yesterday.

So, there I sat on the floor of our half bathroom, praying that the porcelain god would make it all alright. It got worse and worse, but the relief never came. Finally, 45 minutes later I realized I was starting to doze off. I decided to try to curl up on the couch. Rebecca was already there, sitting in the Boppy, sleepy and crying for a pacifier replacement every few minutes. But once that was taken care of, she settled down. And blessedly, Daniel was still in his carseat, having the best nap he’d had all day. Thank god.

All I could think of was, “please let me feel more human by the time they need to eat again.” At one point, I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to sit up to feed them. Thankfully, by the time they woke up the edge had gone from the worst of it, so I was able to do what I needed.

The other good thing was that this all took place in the late afternoon, so I didn’t have to wait forever for M to come home. I called and asked him to pick up some Pepto on his way home, but stopped short of asking him to leave early. Since he had left early last Friday when my back went out, it seemed a little suspect for him to tell his boss that I needed him to come home early on Friday again.

When he did get home, I went straight to bed at about 7:30pm. And, such a kind person is he, I was able to sleep all the way until about 4:30am. He took the babies all night long, and now I feel about 80% better. Hooray for beloved husbands!

I can only imagine how bad this will be when I get really sick, and he can’t come home at all. Twinfants are so much work, it’s close enough to impossible sometimes when you’re 100% well. These are the times I wish we had family around. My mom seemed to think the same thing when I talked to her on the phone in the midst of my nausea. She felt terrible that she couldn’t just come right over and help me out. Alas.

Now, let’s just cross our fingers that what happened to me was food poisoning and not a stomach bug. I really don’t want to have two sick babies on my hands.