A bad bug

It all started out so well.

The bedtime routine last night went so smoothly. It took only about 30 minutes for Olivia to fall asleep by herself in bed and after only about a half-dozen attempts to get out of bed.

Two hours later, she appeared in our bedroom covered in the former contents of her stomach.

The poor thing. She didn't cry much. She just looked at me with that look of confusion and trust that says, "I don't know why I feel so yucky, but Mommy will make it better." I had to strip her down and put her in the tub, where she shivered through the whole bathing process. She was such a mess. Even more so after we tried to get her shirt up over her head, leaving a lot of the mess behind in her hair. There is nothing more difficult and disgusting than trying to comb bits of partially-digested food out of tight curls.

I spent the rest of the night in Olivia's bed with her. We had to put new sheets on the bed and then (smartly) lined them with bath towels. Olivia was up about once an hour until 4:30, gagging and retching unproductively since there was nothing left in her stomach. She was finally able to keep some Tylenol and water down at that point and slept until 7:15, when she woke up as her bouncy little self.

I was not so bouncy. For every hour she slept, I slept about 20 minutes. Joe was able to take the morning off so I could catch up on a little sleep, but I still feel wiped out.

I think Olivia will recover quickly. It seems to have been a bug that just attacks the digestive system because she never had a fever. It also sounds suspiciously like the bug that kept Addie home on Monday and Jake home a couple of weeks ago. I blame the dang plastic play food that the kids keep putting in their mouths and then passing around. They don't get the concept of "pretend eating".