Blech.

Kathryn woke me at 1 AM saying her stomach hurt. I invited her to lay with us for a bit. I hate tummy aches; there's so little a parent can do to help a child feel better so I figured some good old-fashioned snuggles might at least offer some comfort. A little while later, Nate ushered her back to her room, as neither of us sleep when we have company, and not 30 seconds later, we heard the unmistakable sound that sends parents barreling out of bed. We were too late. There was a path which extended from her pillow to the toilet seat. I tended to Kathryn and managed to clean out her hair without gagging (quite a feat for me) while Nate did the heavy-lifting including changing the bedding (all of it) and cleaning the floor. Once the bulk of it was cleaned up, I tended to the finer details including the cracks between the tiles, the legs of the stool, the baseboards, the door and the wall. Yes, folks, it was a good one. We got her settled back in with a trashcan at her side and went back to bed. I lay awake for a while thinking about how I need to call Technicare to clean the carpet, but should probably wait to see if it was just a disagreeable meal or if it was a full-blown bug that others in the family may get and decided I might as well just hold off lest I need to call them again later this week. At 3 AM, we had our answer and went through the whole thing again. She missed the trashcan this time so off came the second set of bedding. I tried to take care of this one myself, but had to get Nate up when I started dry heaving.

She had another mild episode around 5 AM, that I'm sad to admit we slept through, never hearing her call for us. She said she threw up on the towel a little and just slept on the other side. :( Nate got up with her at 7 AM after she drank some water and couldn't keep it down. She's been eating ice chips sloooowly and seems to have perked up some after a little snooze. She just had a small slice of apple. We'll see how that goes before we attempt anything further.

So far, I've finished laundering three sets of sheets and have 2 blankets, 2 comforters and 2 bath mats to go. I'll give the carpet a go with OxyClean, but I'm not optimistic. (Let's just say tomato sauce was involved and leave it at that, shall we?)

Please keep your fingers crossed that it stops with Kathryn. Otherwise, it's going to be a very looooong week for the Lee family.