A Long Night…
So last night was our usual family festivities at my grandma and grandpa’s house. It was a lot of fun and the company is always good. Despite starting at six and my indicating that I was ready to leave about 8:45, we didn’t end up getting home until about 10:00. This is an hour past Aiden’s bedtime. We quickly did all of the bedtime routine (brushing teeth, using the potty, praying, and I rocked him and sang to him) then I laid him down thinking that he would fall right to sleep. WRONG. He jabbered in there to himself (no doubt about all of the intense excitement that he had just been a part of) until 10:30 or 10:45. I laid down to go to sleep shortly after that but was having trouble falling asleep. At 11:20ish as I was still tossing and turning I heard Aiden start to cry and then I got up to listen if he would fall back to sleep. When he called out for Brandon and then me I decided to forgo our usual treatment of such situations (which is to let him fall back to sleep without interference) and went in there to find he had tossed his cookies. I picked him up to find that it was down both sides of his face and all over the back of his head. Once I got into the bathroom with him I noticed that he was wiping his eyes and that he couldn’t see because it was there too. Not really sure where to start in the cleaning process I called to Brandon to please change the sheets on the bed and plopped Aiden into a shallow bath to clean him up. I could tell that Aiden was shaken up and had no idea what was going on or why this was happening to him (incidentally this is the first time he has been sick like this, he spit up a lot as a baby but this it completely different). Unfortunately he proceeded to toss his cookies 4 more times. The last finally being mostly clear. During this whole process Aiden would start to get upset when he could tell that he was going to toss his cookies again and he kept telling me, “Put in the bed. Tired. Sleepy.” He was very cuddly too and I could tell he was having a difficult time getting comfortable in my lap. We decided to try having me sleep in my dad’s overstuffed chair with Brandon on the futon but even still Aiden was having a hard time getting comfy and by that time had tossed his cookies for times and could hardly keep his eyes open. When he finally tossed his cookies the 5th time and I saw that it was mostly clear I knew that he had completely emptied his stomach contents and both Brandon and I felt certain he was done with the process so we put him into bed and he slept the rest of the night. Of course by then it was nearly 1:00 in the morning. I had high hopes that Aiden would sleep until 10:00 to make up for getting to bed so late and then being up for an hour and a half of sickness but he was up at 8:45. That is still sleeping in though so that was good. Today he seemed to be back to normal except that he drank extra fluids and ate only a fraction of his normal food intake. We don’t know what caused the cookie tossing we have a few theories from him eating WAY TOO MUCH (highly likely), to there being too much gelatin in our raspberry ice cream pie and perhaps upsetting his stomach, to the possibility that because the apple I gave him was with nuts (even though they are shelled) that it may have cause an allergic reaction. My mom said that it was good for him to eat less today simply because his tummy was probably still a bit sensitive from last night. I must say that this being my first experience of this kind of illness in my son that I didn’t know that I had taken care of things in the 100% best way possible but that I did take things one step at a time, did things the best that I knew how and Aiden ended up getting through it unscathed. You certainly learn the true meaning of love when caring for a sick child in the middle of the night when you are exhausted. 🙂 Despite the long night though, Aiden had a good Christmas today and really enjoys all of his new toys. He took turns playing with each one today from a set of Disney Cars, to musical instruments, to a set of tools, to a new bike! (Plus more small items that he enjoyed equally as well.) It was nice to just take it easy today and we were grateful that my mom could come and visit. I hope that everyone else had as wonderful of a day as we did. Merry Christmas!