The Highs and the Lows

The highs: Last week began with a 5 night stretch of Paddy sleeping through the night. After 13 months of broken sleep, we were beginning to feel fully rested once again! We'd turned a corner! I didn't even tell anyone that this was happening until that fifth night. I remember one time he'd slept through back when he was about 7 or 8 months old, and the night after I told everyone about it he was up 3 times. So, determined not to jinx it this time, I held onto my excitement for a while. But he truly is growing up, and I'll enjoy a good night's sleep because of it!

The lows: It all started with rumors of this vomiting virus going around. It seems that all the babies in my breastfeeding group had gotten it, but we'd been spared. I put this down to my kids' superior immune system, and general well being-I mean, hey, Siofra is 3 years old and has only thrown up once! Obviously I have Superkids. Then I got a lesson in why you shouldn't be smug.

It started early Friday morning when Paddy wouldn't settle back to sleep after waking at 3 am. Daithi took him out to the living room to rock him, and he threw up. He seemed ok in the morning, so we dismissed it. However, he threw up at lunch...and a really bad one that night (that took me 20 minutes to clean up--not fun for a weak stomached person like me).

I was the next victim, being struck down on Saturday evening. However hard it is caring for a child who's sick, it's ten times worse when you're sick yourself. Poor me.

Sunday morning we heard a weird coughing noise from Siofra's room. Sure enough, Daithi was putting her sheets and blanket into the wash ten minutes later. That made 4 loads of laundry that day...

Somehow Daithi has avoided contamination. Probably because of his fanatical handwashing regime this week. But he did a good job of caring for us.

We all seem to be recovered, for the most part. Paddy had it the worst, poor guy. He's still not eating like he usually does. All he wants to do is breastfeed, but at least I know he's getting fluids that way.

And last night, as a gift to us, he slept from 8 pm until 6, uninterrupted. I feel like it's Christmas.