Tuesday, August 09, 2005

The Saga Continues...

Well, in my eagerness to drive my point home last night, I failed to consider what I'd be dealing with today! Something I didn't mention in last night's posting was that poor Alex gets very sick when he doesn't get enough to eat. He has blood sugar issues, so you can imagine my lack of surprise when I woke to the sound of his gagging as he entered my room at 6:30AM. Thankfully, we made it to the bathroom - the first time. After we cleaned him up a bit, I put him on the couch with his sister that had already been awake for more than an hour (she was up at 5AM and I'll tell you why in a second) with his usual gatorade & toast - this is what he usually eats after getting sick like this. He asked me to give him some grapes & apples too, which I did, but I gave him instructions to first eat the toast. Did he do what I told him to do? No! He ate only the fruit, which didn't sit well on his stomach. This time, he missed the bathroom all together and threw up the fruit & red gatorade all over our living room carpet. Anyone have any idea how to get rid of red gatorade stains? My OxyClean isn't working!!!

I'll just cut to the end and tell you that he continued to throw up for the next 2 hours - a total of 5 times! Our usual bout with his blood sugar sickness is only 1 time, so I was starting to wonder if maybe, however coincidentally it might be, he had a stomach virus. Thankfully, I can so no he doesn't. But because of the numerous missed trips to the bathroom, I was forced to sweep & mop the floor, do a load of laundry and I've been scrubbing the carpet ever since! I think I'm being punished more than him!

Backing up a bit now, the reason his sister Morgann has been up so long is similar in that she woke us up by throwing up in her bed. We still have a nursery monitor in her room, so you can imagine how shocked I was to hear her yelling for me, coughing, then choking. I think I took the stairs 3 at a time to get to her room! I think that with all of the chaos that ensued last night, I didn't stop to realize that even though Morgann had eaten a few bites of her dinner, she didn't eat very much. So, since she didn't get enough to eat (or so I'm guessing at this point), she too woke up sick. She just beat Alex to it! The difference though is that she ate a piece of toast, watched Dora the Explorer, and drank her gatorade; she's been fine ever since!

So, even more than ever, I'm totally doubting my ability to deal with my children appropriately! Michael & I have decided that the next time this occurs, we'll be sure to administer a consequence appropriate to the disobedience, but we'll give him something else to eat, rather than to send him to bed hungry. Like I said, our being punished like this wasn't part of the plan!

3 comments:

cori said...

how much worse can it get? have they pooped in your tub yet? :)

Rabbity-Sniff said...

You know, I've heard about how awful poop in the tub can be but it hasn't happened to me yet and my oldest daughter is 2. She hasn't thrown up yet either. THAT will really FREAK ME OUT! I've spit up so very few times in my life myself and each time I either thought I was going to die or I wanted to die (five times). I'm scared to death of the day my kids puke. I'll go crazy trying to figure out what's the matter. Well, it was just one of those mornings you'd never expect for you, wasn't it? It sounds like you took it very well. But the eating issue, I wonder about that too. When I give her something she doesn't like, she decides that she's "All Done!" and won't eat anymore but I know she has to be hungry cuz she only took 2 bites. What's a mom to do?

Harleys said...

Pooping in the tub is easy. Pull the kid out, drain the tub, turn the shower on for a few minutes, then sanitize as usual. Refill the tub and finish the bath. It's the other places they go that are gaggy.
As for the eating, I'll butt in. I rarely set ultimatums (sp?) with my kids when they were really little. I'd give them a little of everything, and they ate til they were full. If they didn't like something, as long as they ate something else healthy, it was okay. Now that they are older (5, 6, and 9) I make them try at least a bite of stuff they might not like. And if they put it on their own plate, they eat it all. Dinner is one of the places my husband and I chose not to allow to become a battleground.