Stomach Flu and Potty Training

On the night of March 5^th the stomach flu invaded our house.  Vincent went to bed saying he didn’t feel good and his stomach hurt.  I asked if he ate too much at dinner and he said yes, so I didn’t think much of it.  Until I went to check on the kids before bed and found him sound asleep in his own vomit and diarrhea.  As I am trying to clean up his bed, etc I stuck him in the shower and made Brad come help me.  We were laughing because Brad’s sweatshirt hood was pulled up around his head and all you could see was his eyes, apparently that was going to save him from the flu.  I didn’t want any mess on the carpet so we made Vincent sleep on an inflatable mattress in the bathroom.

The next day Vincent stayed home from school, but was acting fine.  Against my wishes he got out the potty training kits I had bought for Cecilia and Joel.  The kids were called Potty Tots and came with a book, DVD, a “how to” poster, and chart.  My plan was to start the process in a couple weeks when Joel had spring break.  Vincent ignored me as he opened the kits for the little kids.  They were so excited when they saw them that I couldn’t really stop them.  So I spent the rest of the day worrying about and cleaning up bodily fluids from all 3 kids.  Amazingly no one got the carpet dirty!  Cecilia made it in the potty half the time, I cannot believe how much urine can come out of one kid during the day.  Joel only had 1 accident all afternoon/evening.  Unfortunately Cecilia was running through the kitchen and slipped in his urine as I was going to clean it up.  Nothing like being practically naked and getting covered in your brother’s urine!

It was an exhausting day and I am really not looking forward to potty training!  I am encouraged to learn that Joel is interested in it and will work for cookies.  Cecilia is very excited about it but is also very happy to wear underwear over her diaper.  I will be very excited once Joel and Cecilia are potty trained, but until then it is going to be miserable.

After a long day of cleaning up after the kids bodily fluids I was so happy to go to bed.  5 minutes after getting in bed I heard Cecilia crying.  I told Brad that if he carried her up to our room I would take care of her.  He went down and got her and suddenly the crying stopped and then I heard Brad quietly and desperately say “Kelllli!”  I knew it wasn’t good.  His back was covered in vomit.  At least she had the sense to wake up and not just vomit in her bed.  Brad and I were laughing because at that point what are you going to do!  Since the air mattress was still being used by Vincent Cecilia slept on a crib mattress on our bathroom floor all night.  I stayed on the floor next to her and spent my night cleaning her up.  The poor kid!  It is not fun to have sick kids and not be able to fix them.

Friday afternoon Joel succumbed to the flu.  He didn’t get it as bad as the other two.  But Cecilia was pretty worried about him!  By later in the evening he was doing well, but he had slept all afternoon so he didn’t really want to go to bed.  He insisted he needed to play, but he eventually fell asleep on the couch.  I think the worst thing about the flu is the fact that once it gets one of the kids you know it is just a matter of time before it spreads.  You just don’t know who the next victim will be and when the symptoms will start.