Life in the petri dish....

Seriously, I thought that I might also call this post 'the high cost of child care' but realised that no-one would read it since it could be another rant of my against our government!!

Anyhoo - you know that JBB has been in childcare one day a week while I am off to work. Well, we experienced the day-care germs this week. Poor little JBB got a gastro bug at child care and then brought it home for us to enjoy.

He started to get sick on Wednesday when I was home from work (thank goodness I was able to take care of him myself). He was off his food quite a bit but diarrhea struck him bad - my main thought was that it was his teeth because we think he is pretty close to one breaking through. I made sure that he didn't look like he was getting dehydrated (thankfully he wasn't) and soothed him as much as I could. As it happens, my brother an his wife dropped by because we had their trailor and they wanted to pick up a desk for their daughter so I invited them in for a coffee. They couldn't stay long and were off soon after.

Then, later on, my Aunt dropped by as we needed to talk tactics for going to the footy on the weekend and it was great to catch up and she had a lovely time with JBB. She stayed for a couple of hours and then JBB had a nice sleep and then JourneyMan came home and we went through the normal bedtime routine.

Well, the next day when I was back at work, I started to feel pretty rank around lunch time. I didn't really feel like eating anything but soup for lunch (even though we visited one of the best chocolate shops in Melbourne, I couldn't even face getting any - miracle!), so I hunted down so minestrone. Soon after lunch though I started with the diarrhea myself and was really starting to feel awful. I battled through the rest of the day with many trips to the ladies. I knew then that JBB must have had a bug and I had caught it.

Let me interrupt this gross story by telling you that I seriously have iron guts. I have been to Bali at least 6 times, I have been to Thailand 3 times, I have been to Cambodia and Mexico and I have never gotten a bad belly despite the fact that I always love eating the local food.

Now, back to the (hopefully 'not to boring' story). The drive home was a nightmare. Traffic was horrendous and what was normally a 40 minute trip took 70mins - I was howling with rage at anyone who got in my way and unfortunately, the vomiting started on the way home. I was on the freeway at the time and the only thing that I had to contain the horror was a hat that JourneyMan had left in the car (it was unfortunately one that his brother had brought him back from Hawaii - ooops). When I got home, I could barely give JBB and JourneyMan a kiss before staggering off to the toiliet, then to bed, then to the toilet, then to bed, then to the toilet - well you get the ugly picture.

Finally, by about mid-night it had tapered off and I was able to get to sleep. Unfortunately, I was awakened about half an hour later by JourneyMan vomiting in the toilet. So loud was JourneyMan's vomiting that he woke JBB, who I then tried to comfort back to sleep, this took about 2 hours. It was the house of pain for the next 12 hours. There was not much sleep in the house that night and Friday we were all pretty fractious.

I got a call from my Auntie on Friday and she had it too and then I found out that my brother and his wife were both struck down as well. My mum, who baby sat JBB on Tuesday and Thursday was spared (thank goodness!!) but the rest of us were struck down hard!

Honestly, I know that this sounds dramatic but I thought I was dying, I didn't think that so much could come out of one person and still live! Anyway, we have all recovered now and I have spent the day today exchanging war stories with all of my fellow bug eaters.

I have great admiration for little JBB - despite the fact that he was struck down with this crazy bug and that he was also teething, he was amazingly good spirited - I kept on asking him 'how are you still so happy, little man?' - as always, he just gave me a cheeky grin and snuggled in for a kiss. He is one tough little cookie, bless his cotton socks!

I am also thankful for JourneyMan cos after my 'no-sleep' the night before, he let me sleep in this morning and after a good 8 hour sleep, I felt brand spanking new!! I cannot tell you how much I admire single parents, they have one tough, tough job.

I know that it sounds strange and I feel a little strange in writing it, but I feel a bit like I earned my 'mummy' stripes over the past few days. The good days are wonderful and making JBB laugh and smile is certainly one of my daily goals but being able to comfort him when he is hurting or not feeling well, that feels absolutely great. I never, every want him to be hurt or not feel well but I do feel good that I can hopefully provide the comfort he needs when these things happen.