Boot Camp

This has been one of the toughest weeks physically and emotionally than I have ever had. It is a close second to the week that my colleague and I covered our midwife practice for 7 days (when I was 30 weeks pregnant with Ben). We delivered 19 babies between the two of us, covered the office, and barely slept. It was insane.

This week began with Ben getting the stomach flu. We all felt fine and thought he was the only one touched....then Abigail began with vomiting and diarrhea 3 days later. By this point, I knew to expect symptoms in Steven and I three days after Abigail. Last night (3 days later), I began vomiting, and Steven is feeling the same tonight. I knew it would be a miracle to escape unscathed as I was practically slathered in the "infectious material" all week. Ugh. The hardest part was not just cleaning up and caring for my children, but when I got sick last night. When I'm sick, all I want and need to do is sleep. Our kids have been waking up frequently for the past week and didn't change their habits last night just because I was sick. How insensitive :) So, after barely sleeping myself due to my own illness, I had to nurse Abigail (in the bathroom just in case) and help take care of the kids today. Steven is very strong despite not feeling well and really took over with Benjamin, allowing me to nap when Abigail was napping. Incidentally, Benjamin also has a different illness with fever, cough, and fussiness. I kept praying in the middle of the night for God to be with us....I felt almost like it was more than we could handle. I know God is/was caring for us in the midst of it all. We also had some wonderful friends drop by a care package of Gatorade, a note, and chocolate chip cookies for when we feel better. My brother also graciously brought us some soup and Tylenol.

I'm hoping by tomorrow that we can at least leave the house, although we will probably avoid seeing anyone else to avoid exposing people with this NASTY virus. Apparently it has been going around, another friend told me that it is called Norovirus. To read more about it, click on this link to be redirected to the CDC website.

I guess if we survive this week's Boot Camp, we'll really have earned the title of parents.