instagram cross-post

[andrewducker]

Behold the face of norovirus! (And stop reading now if you're squeamish)

Tuesday night Sophia threw up at 01:30 and 02:30 and Gideon threw up at 03:30 and 05:30. I changed a lot of sheets that night. . Wednesday the nursery told us that norovirus was going around. We spent Wednesday working half days each while looking after sick kids. Sophia's diarrhoea and vomiting stopped almost immediately, but Gideon kept on filling his nappy on a regular basis.

Thursday we started off doing likewise, except that around 3pm Jane had clearly caught it, and spent the rest of the day, until about 8pm, dashing to the toilet. I took care of the two sick kids, who thankfully only wanted to watch Bluey (Sophia) and sleep (Gideon).

After 6 hours of hell Jane was feeling a little better, which was good, because that's when my symptoms kicked in. Feeling hot and cold and clearly in need of the bathroom. We made it work between us and between Sophia watching videos in the bathroom next to me and Gideon lying in bed next to Jane while she threw up in a bucket nobody died.

Today has been two days since Sophia's last symptoms so she's back off to nursery, and the remaining three members of the family are going to have a very gentle day at home. Jane and I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday but she just had some sweet tea and I think I might be able to keep that down. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Original is here on instagram.

Comments

[mountainkiss]

I am so sorry. This sounds utterly vile. I have often wondered how on earth parents cope with ill children when they themselves are also ill.

[andrewducker]

I have *so* much sympathy for single parents.

And I am very grateful that my symptoms kicked in 6 hours later than Jane's.

[andrewducker]

As it was there was a moment where Jane had to open the bathroom door, lift Sophia off the toilet and plonk her onto the potty. If I'd also needed the bathroom urgently things would have gotten messy.

[mountainkiss]

Yes this is exactly the kind of thing I have always dreaded and one of the reasons that we bought our current house is that there are as many loos as there are people.

FWIW I read about this somewhere and the solution when it does go wrong is apparently cat litter, which clumps and enables clearing up.

[andrewducker]

Ooh, thank you, that's a great suggestion!

[mountainkiss]

I live to serve.

[andrewducker]

And yes, we have a plan for more toilets, when the UK's shortage of architects, builders, and building materials eases up!

[mountainkiss]

Is this your forever house?

[mountainkiss]

There's also always the bath as well.

[andrewducker]

We don't have a bath. But the bathroom is a wet room, so if things got too bad...

(Well, we do have a bath, but it's collapsible and Sophia sized.)

[mountainkiss]

Nothing would persuade me to live in a house without a bath. I won't even go away for the weekend unless there's a bath.

[andrewducker]

The plan is to have a bath once we can. I do miss them.

[darkoshi]

A portable "bedside" commode can offer some sense of security, if you have enough storage space somewhere for it. I still have one from when Qiao was in a wheelchair after his car accident. (He never actually used it bedside; it went over the normal toilet to make using the toilet easier for him.)

[cmcmck]

Oh it's horrible! We caught it up at his mum's some years back then had to travel home to Kent still suffering.

Hope you two feel weller-er soon!

[problemsdog]

Norovirus is no fun. No fun at ALL. Hope you all feel better soon!

[rmc28]

For future reference if people are having stomach upsets: lay out multiple layers of towels underneath the sick person. Then you generally only need to take off the top layer or two of towels rather than changing the entire bed (hopefully).

[andrewducker]

Thank you, that's really useful.

We were lucky that we had mattress protector anti bed wetting undersheets on her bed, so at least it didn't go all the way through.

[threemeninaboat]

Additional life hack: When you make the bed layer waterproof sheets, normal sheets, then a second layer of waterproof sheets and normal sheets; so that when issues arise in the middle of the night you can rip off one layer of sheets and there's another layer already there.

[andrewducker]

I'm going to need a load more sheets, aren't I?

[threemeninaboat]

Let me tell you about my secret adult fantasy where I buy a Hotel sized washing machine and only have to do one load a week.

[andrewducker]

That would be awesome. I have the same fantasy about having a dishwasher that's not absolutely tiny.

[snippy]

Once upon a time (it was the 90s like everything else important in my life), my younger son showed up with shigella after a visit to his dad. I sent his older brother to dad's and nursed the younger one through it and, as soon as he was well enough to get back into school, came down with it myself. Missed a lot of work! And nobody to take care of me while I was sick, but at least no kids (I sent them both to their dad's for the duration) to care for in addition.