If you’ve been following me on Instagram over the past week, you know that my poor baby took a trip to the ER last Wednesday. He threw up 17 times in about an hour and a half, which scared the you-know-what out of us, so we took him in. After some tests, x-rays, a little hydration, and some anti-nausea medication (and 3 hours in the ER), the doc determined that Mason either ate something bad or caught a stomach bug from day care.
Well, once we got home, we gave Mason a bath, put him to bed, and got to cleaning. And the next day…more cleaning. And then the next day, explosive diarrhea began...AND my husband got sick. Confirmation that it was, indeed, a stomach bug.
SO. MUCH. FUN.
Stomach bugs can be pretty common and easily spread amongst kids, so, if your kiddo goes to daycare like Mason does, this unfortunate predicament could happen to you (or maybe it already has!). Somehow I have survived the plague that rampaged through my household, so I thought I’d share the 3 things I learned this past week on how to survive some of the grossest things you will ever do as a mom.
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A car seat that fully disassembles for laundering is CLUTCH.Mason actually got car sick on our way up to Big Bear last year, so we discovered how easily cleanable his car seat in my husband’s car is. And it came in handy once again this past week. If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing the scent of leftover puke, let me just describe it as a scent that will make YOU want to puke. That isn’t a smell that you want lingering in your car for all of time. I didn’t specifically look for this feature when I was shopping for car seats, but, let me tell you, it is NECESSARY. Mason had a few bouts of uncontrollable vomiting the day we took him to the ER, including while driving in his car seat. Having a car seat that could be easily cleaned and disinfected. Stomach bugs are usually spread through contaminated droplets containing infectious organisms…like puke particles. Being able to really disinfect is super important. My husband has the Diono Radian 3RXT.
- If you have a choice, make sure you have easy-to-clean flooring.Luckily, our house is 100% tile and laminate, which makes clean up with kids (and pets) a breeze. And, with THESE kind of sickly messes, I thanked my lucky stars that we have easy-to-clean flooring. Thankfully, when we bought our house, easy-to-clean flooring was a priority for us because we have a big dog. But, now that I experienced this stomach situation with Mason, it will continue to be a priority for any future home decisions. I could NOT imagine having to scrub vomit and diarrhea out of carpet for days on end. Plus, I loved knowing that I was REALLY getting the soiled area cleaned and disinfected. So, if you have the ability to choose the flooring in your home, I highly recommend hard surface flooring, such as tile, laminate, vinyl, hardwood, etc.
- You might have to get creative to survive.You might have to throw away one of your kiddo’s favorite jammies because there is just no salvaging it. One of Mason’s really unfortunate incidents involved a blow-out going all the way down to the enclosed footies of his jammies. There was just no way. You might repurpose your doggie bags to pick up soiled objects…you may or may not have to clean your child outside in the backyard because there is too much to wipe off with baby wipes and too much to put down the drain in the tub. Good thing it was in the 70’s all weekend in San Diego.
I was really fortunate that I didn’t catch this nasty bug (thank you Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer everywhere!). But, if you find yourself getting directly puked on by your child like my husband did and you catch the bug, taking care of baby while feeling like your insides are furious at you is INCREDIBLY challenging. No one is judging if you have Cocomelon or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on 24/7. You gotta do whatever you gotta do, mama!
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