We've Been Initiated (Nighttime Puking)

E woke up at midnight last night throwing up. TJ had just come to bed and I was half awake when I heard sounds over the monitor that sounded worrisome. I sat up suddenly. "Is he choking?" I asked. TJ said, "No, he's fine." As I ran out of our room, I called back to him, "I think he's puking." Sure enough, the poor baby's crib was covered with orange puke and he was sitting up with puke all over himself, crying and heaving, half asleep, eyes watering, nose running. I said, "Honey, did you get sick?" TJ must've heard me because he came in a second later. We stood there for a few seconds, not knowing what to do or how to start the clean up. We finally got some towels out. TJ started changing the bedding. I was standing and holding E, trying to comfort him, when he threw up again, all over his chest, down my shirt and arms, and splattering the carpet. In our sleepy state, we were stunned again, slow to react. TJ doggedly continued trying to put a new sheet on the bed (he was having trouble) despite the more pressing crisis unfolding. (This cracks me up now; we were just doing the best we could.) Meanwhile, E and I were now sitting on a towel on the ground. He was miserable and crying and I was covered in vomit. Eventually we got it all sorted out, and I rocked the babe for a long time. I put him down and he slept, but I could not. I was waiting for him to get sick again.

I was reading about the John Edwards sex scandal online when, at 2:00, I heard him start to throw up. I got in there so fast, he didn't get any on himself, just his bed. The rest was caught by the towel. The second clean up and sheet changing ensued. E clearly felt much better this time and even started to try to crawl around. He was so sweet. After all this, TJ went back to bed and I held E in the glider and he put his head down and closed his eyes. He threw up again around 2:45, but I had a towel over my shoulder and was prepared. I turned him around and he continued to throw up, although there wasn't much left in him. The poor, poor little guy. After this, he put his head back down and went to sleep, and I put him back in his bed a little after 3:00.

He slept until six, and I went ahead and nursed him at 7:30. I'd read that it was safe to try this if it had been four hours since he last got sick. Unfortunately, I was engorged from not nursing since 7:00 the night before, so there was a lot of milk to be had, and he desperately wanted to nurse. He ate from one side almost completely and then just a little from the second side when I stopped him. Not a minute later, it all came back up. Seemingly gallons. After that, TJ went to the store and a little while later we tried one sip of Pedialyte and it stayed down, then two sips, etc. I nursed him again at 11:45 a.m. and this time it took.

Aside from being exhausted, he's done really well today, and isn't running a fever or anything. Actually, he's asleep right now, and I should really be trying to nap too.

Too many details in this post, but it was our first experience with what I know will be many a pukey night in the years to come.