The calm before the storm

Yesterday was uneventful. A peaceful day spent indoors, playing games, doing puzzles, watching a movie....staying out of the cold. Hence the lack of material for yesterday's post.

I should have known....it was too quiet. Way too peaceful.

The girls went off to bed at the usual time (7.00ish) Tom read them stories while I tidied up and loaded the dishwasher. Then I read a few blogs, played around on the computer a bit and watched a bit of TV (not all at once). After that I went off to bed to read my book. All was quiet.

At 10pm Aislin woke up crying....then screaming....we rushed in and she was curled in a ball saying her tummy hurt. This went on for a while then Tom decided he'd carry her around* a bit to calm her down. I was straightening up her bed when I heard him calling me, I hurried through and she was being sick in a plastic bowl that Tom had grabbed just in time. Violently sick. Then she was in pain again, then she was sick. It was lovely.

I'm not good with people throwing up, I'm sure most people aren't 'good' with it but some people seem to cope....I'm the one sympathetically holding the vomiters hair off their face and gently rubbing their back while quietly retching myself. I have been known to throw up in sympathy. After some time she seemed a bit better, we decided that she would sleep with me because there was a chance this would go on all night. Tom is exhausted at the moment because he's had a couple of big projects that have kept him up working in the wee small hours. He had to go to work today, I didn't. So I sent him off to Aislin's bed to cuddle up with Dorothy the Dinosaur and I took Aislin in with me. She lay groaning and dozing for a while then fell asleep. I read my book and kept an eye on her. Eventually I decided to try and sleep too. I was just dozing beside her when she started again with the throwing up. Not in the bowl we'd provided of course. No. All over the bed. Great.

It was 12.43am. She was washed and generally cleaned up, fresh pyjamas were put on, the bed was stripped and re-made (Tom did that, the commotion woke him up). Fortunately we have a mattress protector that did its job. We got back into bed - this time with layers of towels and cloth nappies** in case she was sick again (why didn't I prepare better the first time, it's not like I've never done this before?). The lights went out, we settled down, she was asleep in seconds.

I wasn't. Every time she moved I grabbed the sick bowl just in case. I was on edge. At one point she was cuddled right up to me and all I could think was 'please no, not ON me'. It was hell. The last time I recall looking at the clock it was 4.30am. I must have gone to sleep sometime after that.

Aislin woke this morning at 7.10am, bright eyed and bushy tailed, fit as a fiddle and raring to go. She opened her eyes and began to chat cheerfully to me about something or other. I groaned and cried a little bit. I tried to entice her back to sleep to no avail. We got up. I'm on my second pot of coffee.

I'm still tired.

The End.

*he's done this since they were babies and is very skilled at it, he has this kind of rocking, swaying action that works wonders with sleepless babies, cranky toddlers and sick children. We call it the 'Daddy Dance'. He still resorts to it in times of trouble even though they are now 5 and 8 years old.

**the greatest invention EVER, I still use them for various things around the house - not as nappies though, thank God.