Being Sick Stinks!

Being sick really stinks. And I mean that quite literally. It does not smell good. The stench of sickness has laid itself over my house like an wet, grimy blanket. After almost a week of stomach bug infestation, I have thrown open the windows in attempt to rid our place of the offending odors. This round of ailment saw just about every part of the house get christened with one form of refund or another. From the couch to the car seat, it seems that no place was safe.

And despite my constant fumigation attempts via Febreze, Lysol and cornstarch powder, the lingering smell just won't go away. I can smell sickness in my cloths, my hair, and on my hands - no matter how many time I wash, no matter how hard I scrub.

Yesterday was a warm and beautiful day, and I tried to keep the windows open to clear the air, but I, myself, was suffering a mild case of the hurl and runs, so I had to close the windows when I wanted to rest. Apparently, my neighbors think that nice weather means you should stand on your deck and smoke, or ride your Harley around the block twenty times. Neither scenario blends well with nausea and fatigue. 

Even though the temperature dropped by about 20 degrees today, those darn windows are open and the cool, fresh air is coming in!

But ever the eternal optimist, I figured that I could wrangle a little good out of a nasty situation, by sharing what I have learned over the past week.

1) As soon as anyone in the house gets sick, put a large mattress cover and sheet over the couch. It took me more than one round of trying to scrub and Febreze the hell out of my couch before I wised up and did this. Next time, it will be like second nature.

2) Don't put a sick kid in the car. Even if you have to run out of the house for twenty minutes. Car seats are a mother to clean. And if you happen to be in the market for a new car seat, do yourself a favor and buy one that has an easily removable, launder-able cover. Just in case you ignore the first part of this advice absolutely must leave the house with sick baby in tow.

3) Have an extra set of crib sheets and mattress covers at the ready for those middle of the night bed changes. Have a little bucket and washcloth ready too, for the midnight sponge bath. If you open the door, and smell a tell tale smell, grab what you need before you pick up the baby so you can complete the operation without missing a beat.

The likelihood of your child ever
actually throwing up in the toilet
is very small.

4) If you are by yourself, and have a smaller baby or toddler that you need to corral while you change the bed, consider setting up the pack and play in the child's room in advance. You will thank me for this if your child is suffering from cluster barf. There is nothing quite as defeating as getting your child cleaned and dressed, getting her bed changed, then turning to find she has thrown up again all over the wall-to-wall carpeting in her room.

5) Check your children's fever reliever for its expiration date prior to the time that you actually need it. Because if you don't, it will certainly be expired at 1:00 a.m. when you really need it.

6) Don't feel guilty about a little extra TV time for your sick child. If they are lethargic and just want to lay around, let them. I realized after coming down with the same bug as The Baby, that all I wanted to do was lay around, because it was a strength-sapping kind of illness, and I did not even feel like sitting up. I most definitely did not want to play with blocks or do Itsy Bitsy Spider either.

7) In addition to having the time honored sickness staples like Saltines and ginger ale, make sure you have some easy foods on hand like peanut butter, bread, frozen waffles and bananas. These are easy things that you can slap together for a make-shift meal, should you find yourself with at least one child at any given time who can actually keep food down.

8) Do. Not. Get. Low. On. Toilet. Paper.  EVER! Enough said.

So with all that, I am happy to report that we are seemingly on the road to better health, and fresher air.

I hope that you all avoid as much sickness as possible, but if you happen to get afflicted, perhaps these tidbits of nonsense wisdom will help!

Does any one else have any sick time strategies that make things a little easier?