oh, yuck!

[jayhawkdropout]

official entry on my list of things that are absolutely no fun: cleaning up puke at 1:30 in the morning. it had been previously hypothesized that this really sucked, but until i actually had to clean up puke at 1:30 a.m. i couldn't rule definitively. however, after Ainsley evacuated the contents of her stomach onto her mother at 1:30 this "

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[hi_may76]

Yeah, this is the part that scares me the most about becoming a parent someday.

Because I've got it coming to me. Big time.

The stomach flu always hit some horrible time in January or February in the middle of the night. Always the middle of the night. I'd get tucked in around 9 or so, feeling fine. Then at 1 or 2 in the morning, I'd wake up with it. Literally. Couldn't make it to the bathroom. One minute, out cold- the next... it was wretched.

My dear, sweet Mother would hear me, race down the hall and take care of me. Strip the bed, put the comforter, blankets, sheets, and mattress cover (luckily there was plastic over the mattress- she was smart about it) in the wash. Put little girl, possible still retching, in the shower. Put her on the couch downstairs. A trashcan is placed next to where little girl's head is. Towels are placed over sofa where girl is sleeping. Get daughter situated and possibly medicated to a point where she can go back to sleep.

I'd smell coffee brewing. It was comforting, in a nauseating (at the time)sort of way.

The best (?!?) part was... I'd be all feverish and horrid and sometime around 4 am, I'd slightly emerge from unconsciousness to feel this heavenly, cool, wet washcloth glide over my forehead and cheeks and I'd smell my mother's lotion. A kiss on the forehead. It happened again around 7:30 or so, after Mom kissed my Dad off to work. She'd stay home with us when we were sick- not like today when a lot of people send their wretchedly sick children to school because they don't want to deal with them.

That's the mom I want to be. If my Mom felt gaggy when clean me and everything else up, she never ever showed it. That's strength, I tell you. She'd stay up until I was asleep, out of dehydration danger. She'd stay home, make Jello around 5 pm. Maybe some broth around 7.

But the washcloth was the best part.