Sick Day

[Warning: If you have a sensitive stomach and don't like hearing details of child expectoration/regurgitation, read no further.]

At four o'clock this morning, Penny woke up. She's an excellent sleeper, in general, and only rarely wakes up before morning (although morning has sometimes been 5:30 a.m.). So when she does wake up, I figure there's something wrong. And, like everyone at 4 a.m., I was tired, so I just scooped her up and lay her down next to me, hoping she would go back to sleep for a couple of hours.

Instead, after about 20 minutes of quiet tossing and turning, she threw up. I let out the requisite "Aaack!" at having vomit (even clear toddler vomit) within inches of my face. I carried her into the bathroom and she hacked more into the toilet bowl. It didn't seem to smell (and I have a sensitive nose) and was clear, so I thought, hopefully, Maybe she's just clearing out mucous? I had her blow her nose, washed her hands, wiped off the small spot on the sheets and lay back down.

She felt slightly hot, huddled up next to me as she was. I thought, I am going to blog about this later and say: Yes, I lay down next to my toddler who had just thrown up, without changing the sheets, and it's surprisingly comfortable, thank you very much.

She proceeded to throw up again, three more times, before I finally gave up and got up for good, sometime around 6:15. One of those times, she wanted her shirt off, then she wanted to go pee pee, so the shorts and diaper came off. At one point, oh, around 6, she was completely naked lying on a towel (I put a towel down after the second time).

I had to call my mom to pick up Emily and drive her to school (she's the first grade teacher at Emily's school). Before Emily left, Penny ate a few bites of plum, which she asked for when she saw Emily eating one. Ten minutes later, right when I decided to use the bathroom, she threw up the plum. There's probably some little-seen portrait of motherhood somewhere in the scenario of being on the toilet when your five-year-old yells from the other room, "Penny just threw up!" and you say, "I can't do anything about it right now!" Both of them were actually attempting to clean it up, with napkins (on the carpet), when I came out of the bathroom, which was sweet, if ineffective.

She's been fine since, doesn't have a temperature, has eaten a few pretzels and a popsicle. I'm not certain she's done throwing up for the day. She seems to have a sensitive stomach. For a few months she threw up every time she went in the car after we switched her carseat to forward-facing (at, like, 16 months--she was small!). We finally figured out drinking milk before getting in the car was not a good idea. She seems to throw up whenever her tummy is a little uncomfortable, so I'm not panicking and calling the doctor unless something changes (or this continues until tomorrow).

It's funny that Emily was the spit-up queen as a baby, never swallowing a liquid meal she didn't bring back up, up to nine months or so, with occasional episodes up to a year. Yet, Emily has only had two brief incidents of vomiting since turning one. Penny didn't spit up much at all after two or three months of age. I thought, Woo-hoo, I lucked out this time! Until the whole car thing. Maybe these two propensities are just unrelated.

In not-so-exciting-to-anyone-but-me home improvement news, I am going to try to paint the doors today.