Too Much Chocolate Milk

Last night we were going to bed and everything seemed in order. Kids are all feeling better, I still have a cough that likes to attack me during the wee hours of the night, but other than that all was well and normal. Natalie sleeps in a crib in our room, and after we got in bed we heard her sound like she was gagging on something in the dark. Then she started breathing and then started to cry ~ and as we turned on the light we saw that she had thrown up. Never fun to throw up, and I'm sure it's especially traumatic for babies, who don't know what the symptoms are or how to prepare, and so the poor things just get it all over their hair and face and in their ears... ugh! Throwing up is bad enough when you stay clean and send all the vomit down the toilet. It was pretty gross - lots of chunks of ham and a ton of chocolate milk that she had really really liked at dinner time, so we just let her keep having it. We were laughing at how much she kept wanting it. Silly baby! Ah, now we've learned our lesson and next time we'll be more wise. So she had been asleep and didn't seem to like her dreaming interrupted to take a midnight bath. Luckily, for the bed, she had been sleeping on a blanket that caught most all of it, so we didn't need to change the sheets or bumper pads, just the pillow case, blanket, and her pjs. Corey helped her in the tub while I started a load of laundry.

Time for bed and Natalie didn't give any warning signs of the night ahead

She was all cleaned up, we put a new blanket on her bed, put her in clean pjs, and then I nursed her to sleep, thinking some mother's milk would be good for her tummy. She fell asleep, I transferred her to her crib, phew! Glad that wasn't too painful. 12:45, time for bed. Put her in her bed, and maybe 2 minutes later - she threw up again, sat up, stood up, and then puked again. Got the sheets that time, blanket again, pjs, and it went down the bumper pads and on to the carpet. OK! So, I guess she wasn't done! Looks like it's time for another bath and another load of laundry, yay! And again, Natalie was not happy. We washed her hair out again, she's like having this recurring nightmare, I bathed her while Corey untied the bumper pads, and there are no more pjs for her to wear. I think she's done... if she was't the first time she definitely is now, this has been a lot of throw up. BUT, just in case... I look around for another blanket... She didn't want to go in the crib, I didn't nurse her again, she just wanted to be held. But I wasn't going to bring her in our bed, so down to the couch I go with a baby in a diaper and a big soft blanket in between us. She sprawled out over me and went to sleep. And I don't know what time it was, but it didn't take long until she'd puked the third time. Ham and chocolate milk again. She had a lot of room in that little stomach. Luckily the blanket caught it all with the help of my quick "slumbering to alert in seconds" reflexes that held up the blanket as a wall/shield to protect the floor, couch, and myself. We went up for our third bath of the night. She didn't get too messy this time though, so mostly just a quick wipe off of her face and hands and neck. and I rinsed off the blanket and put it with the sheets and bumper pads from throw up mess #2 that were waiting their turn.

SO! That was my night! Oh, and after all the throwing up I stayed up several hours coughing. Natalie is all fine and dandy this morning, but I need a nap. And thus is life with kids in the cold winter months.