Recovering

Let's just say it has been a weird week. Not particularly rough...just weird.

On Wednesday, Olivia woke up in a bed full of vomit. I don't know exactly when it happened, but by the time she called for us to get her up, she and all of her bedding were covered in it. It appeared that she didn't digest anything she ate on Tuesday. My husband and I are almost sure that it was not an indication of more illness. She had no fever, no irritability...nothing. She just threw up, woke up, had a bath and then proceeded to run around like her energetic little self. We think it was caused by all that mucus drainage that comes with this stage of a cold...she apparently had so much of that in her stomach that her tummy started hurting. Either that, or a mid-night coughing fit made her gag and throw up.

At any rate, a bath and clean bedding seemed to cure whatever was wrong, and we moved on with life. The whole thing brought me to realize two things: First, aside from spit-up related events, this is the first real vomit we've experienced with Olivia. We must be truly lucky. Second, it really sucks that there is NOTHING we can do to keep this yucky mucus stuff from waking her up in fits of coughing. Sure, we have the exact same cold. But we have these things called antihistamines and decongestants that work wonders in helping us sleep and get through the day. She has Vicks and a humidifier...neither of which has been terribly effective in curbing her 2:00 a.m. coughing fits.

Meanwhile, I've been floating through the mornings on a dream cloud all week. I actually fell asleep on Olivia's floor mattress this morning while she was playing. I've been getting up with her the past couple of nights when she starts her coughing fits. I pick her up, give her a drink of water, reposition her so her head is propped up a little and then put her back to bed. I'm only up for about ten minutes, but it is enough of an interruption to really screw with my sleep.

Oh yeah, I'm so ready to enter into the newborn sleep deprivation again. (Apparently not!)

At any rate, it appears that we are all on the mend from this latest cold. Just in time for Olivia's 15-month appointment with the doctor too. Tomorrow morning she gets to weigh in and show off her incredible growing ability by topping off the height charts. Oh, and she gets shots. Yippee. Updated stats will be forthcoming.

Tonight is Daddy's bowling night, so Olivia and I were on our own for bedtime. She had a bath, complete with shampoo and all. This is her second hair-washing in as many days (we usually only wash her hair once a week). It seems that the vomit smell didn't come out the first time around. So I gave her the works...shampoo, conditioning rinse, leave-in conditioning cream...all from the "women of color" line. It is so strange to own a whole array of products for "women of color" and to be using them on a toddler. But they work wonders! And boy do they smell nice!

I was sitting on the floor this evening with Olivia in my lap, laying against my chest while I read her a book. She was absolutely content to lay still and patiently listen to the WHOLE book, waiting until I told her to turn the pages. She was not always this accommodating. As I sat there and read the same book three times, smelling the sweet perfume of her conditioner and feeling the warm softness of her little hand on mine, I thought that there is nothing sweeter in this whole wide world than being Mommy to Olivia...vomit and all.