House of Pain

Uh oh. Our family visit has turned into an infirmary.

Yesterday before church, Peyton started puking. Wally stayed home with her while the rest of us went to church. She continued puking all day, and then Hannah started around 5pm. And, of course, Katie joined in at 1:30 this morning.

Luckily, we have one adult for every child in the house, so we played man-to-man defense overnight. Dan was up with Katie first, then I took over and slept in her room on the trundle bed - in between the sprints to the bathroom. Hannah slept in the guest room (close to the bathroom) with a baby monitor on while Mary listened to her from the living room couch. Wally and Peyton slept in the basement. Dan was on duty for Jackson's four wakings last night.

Jackson seems to have avoided all of the illness - or else maybe he started it with his own little puking fit last Wednesday? Anyway, he didn't have any today. I called Grandma and sent an S.O.S. signal, and she came to pick him up this morning after his first nap. I feel bad sending him away while our family is visiting, but I know it's for his own good.

Today was filled with lots of TV (plus two movies), small sips of clear liquids graduating up to bananas and rice, sanitizing every floor and toilet and doorknob, and about 20 loads of laundry (thanks, Mary). I think we've contained the breakout, and Katie and Peyton are recovering - FINALLY. But poor Hannah is still racked out on the couch and is now hitting hour 24 of puking, which has turned into dry heaves. Poor girl. It seems she got the worst case of it.

I mentioned in my last post that when Mary visits, she brings all kinds of trashy magazines with her. It's a throwback to the waiting rooms when Mom was sick. So what happened today? Mary had to make a run to the store for ginger ale and white bread. In true Steele Sister fashion, she looked for more trashy magazines for us to read while we played nurse to the kids. Guess what? It turned out she couldn't find any magazines that we didn't already have. But she DID bring back candy bars. Right on!