Is it safe to come out yet?

What a week!

It all started a week ago Saturday when Sam came to our room just as we were falling asleep to report he had thrown up. We had no idea he was feeling yucky but promptly gave him another bath and stripped his bed (every last piece). He fell back asleep and was fine until morning when the fun began again. Of course, that was a day Mark had to work.

I hate days like that when I feel like I need to protect the baby, comfort the sick kid and oh yeah, make three meals, wash many loads of soiled linens, do homework with the oldest and so on. I survived and Mark paid his dues later in the week.

Sam followed up his pukies with a cold he caught from Catherine which Mark also caught.

Seth was next in line for the crud. On Monday night we got another middle of the night wake up call from a pukey boy. Unfortunately, he continued throwing up the rest of the night and my sweet husband slept in his room and helped out with the sick bucket each time so I could stay near the baby. (See, I told you he paid his dues.) Seth repeated this cycle on Thursday from breakfast until lunch.

Friday was all clear up until bedtime when Madelyn reported her tummy hurt. We sent her to bed with a bucket and yet again found ourselves woken up by a sick kid. Madelyn had a rough night, waking up a dozen times, to be sick. Mark was by her side too. Until he was called away to help me with Catherine who started throwing up at 2 a.m. followed by Chloe at 4 a.m. Good times in our house, let me tell you!

Now we're 48 hours past the last attack and we're just wiping noses and trying to catch up on fluids and sleep. We are thankful for the health we generally have and appreciate the modern convenience of a high efficiency, super capacity washing machine.