Day 1132: So That's What That Is

Turns out that Darling A's system was not necessarily overwhelmed by the antibiotic.

HH and I were just a little way into Date Night last night (Batman movie at home), when I heard Darling A awake and crying.  Unwillingly, I headed upstairs to get her.  Then I heard a worse sound--Little M doing this extreme cry that he's been doing a lot lately.  I may sound horribly uncaring, but it really grates on our nerves.  It's hard to describe or imitate.  Just really irritating.  And he does it at the slightest provocation, too.  It's the kind of cry that ought to be reserved for a broken bone, or a severed limb, or something serious like that.

So, I went in to his room in a less than patient manner.  I started to put my hand over his mouth, so he would quiet and not wake up his little brother.  Then he told me that he threw up.  You can guess how quickly I removed my hand.

Poor Little M.  He threw up a few more times.  And in the process, my tummy started to hurt too.  I was hoping it was just sympathy pains, but by the time we all got to bed (don't worry, Darling A was tended to in the process as well) I could tell that it was not just sympathy pains.

And then I started putting all of the pieces together--Baby B had had diarrhea for a few days at the beginning of the week, Darling A threw up Thursday morning and still has diarrhea, now Little M was throwing up, and my tummy was telling me it wanted to follow suit.

We have the flu (stomach flu this time, not the real influenza deal).

Sorry to everyone else we've exposed as I've been so slow to recognize this.

I spent most of the day in bed.  HH was wonderful to take care of the oldest three and Darling A as much as he could, but of course, there were times that I was the only one who could take care of her.  I felt awful pretty much the whole day.  Yesterday's boot camp suddenly seemed like the worse idea ever.  On top of the pain of being sick, every muscle in my body is sore!

Now for the less gross part of this post.  As I've been praying for guidance in how to overcome this latest setback with my mental health, I felt really strongly that we needed to attend the adult session of stake conference going on tonight.  For those of you unfamiliar with these terms--twice a year we have a conference with all of the members in a broad regional area, known as a "stake", to be taught and instructed by the leaders of the stake.  Saturday night is an adult session and Sunday morning is a general session for everyone.

So, I had arranged for a babysitter and HH and I had made some plans to go out for a little date afterwards.  But now this.

I was really disappointed.  And confused.  Why had I felt so strongly that I needed to be there tonight if I wouldn't be able to go after all?  I knew I could drag myself out of bed (I felt lousy, but this was a pretty mild strain of the stomach flu--Little M seemed better by mid-day), but it seemed really irresponsible to have the babysitter in our home and expose her to our germs.

So, I prayed about it.  And I felt very strongly that if I could get up and disinfect pretty much the entire house (mainly bathrooms and kitchen) that everything would be okay and we could still go and the babysitter would be fine.  I prayed again about this a few times, because it still felt really irresponsible.  But, I got the same answer every time, so I trusted in it and dragged myself out of bed to begin cleaning.

Pretty miserable, really.  But, with everyone having been sick all week, it needed doing anyway, and I knew I would be grateful to have it done.

Then I ate a little and we headed out for our evening.

And I knew why I had felt so strongly I needed to be there.  Most of what most of the speakers said felt as though it were directed specifically to me and my current circumstances.  A lot of it even coincided with things my therapist had advised and discussed with me at our last appointment.  I took copious notes and felt so much of the peace that has been absent of late.

The rest of the evening was fun, although, ice cream is not nearly as yummy on the tail end of the stomach flu as it is at other moments. :(