A Mommy Story

This morning, Cordy’s weird moods continued. After being awake for only an hour, she stood in front of me and said, “Whet’s go baff!”

“You want to take a bath?” I asked.

“O-K! Whet’s go up de staiwers!”

She likes baths. But not enough to request them willingly.

Then Ms. Jekyll turned into Ms. Hyde when we left the house. As I closed the front door, she started to struggle and cry, fighting me and kicking me as I tried to get her strapped into the car. She screamed half of the way, then arrived at the babysitter’s house happy and back to normal. I was still wondering what the hell was going on.

And then tonight, I got my answer.

Aaron called me as I left work, and the first thing I heard was Cordy screaming in the background. On the way home, Cordy had made some sad, whiny noises, pointing to her throat, and Aaron thought that maybe her coat was bothering her.

But then she vomited all over the car.

There was no warning before that. She had not eaten recently, she had not been crying. Aaron pulled over to assess the damage and try to clean her up, but there was too much. I suggested he put her back into the vomit-covered carseat and just get home, since she was going to need a bath anyway. Worst of all, she had thrown up all over her puppy, and wailed when she wasn’t allowed to hold him the rest of the way home.

I had planned to attend a meeting for ICAN tonight, looking for support and resources for trying a VBAC with baby #2. But even though Aaron had it all under control, I couldn’t go. My baby was sick, and I needed to be there. I had already pulled into the parking lot for the meeting, but I couldn’t get out of the car. Going home to cuddle my sick child was the only thing on my mind. The meeting could wait until next month.

I arrived home to find Aaron helping Cordy into PJs after her bath. The poor thing was shivering and, even after a warm bath, had ice cold skin. She quickly climbed into my lap, and I allowed her to watch TV to distract her, holding her close to transfer some of my own warmth to her. Slowly she warmed up, and she tried so hard to act like everything was fine. She climbed off my lap to attempt to dance, but could barely keep her balance on both feet.

She drank a little watered-down juice, and seemed to be feeling better before she went to bed. Bedtime was fairly easy, although she looked troubled as we went upstairs, probably realizing puppy was not with her as he usually is. She went to sleep quickly, and Aaron and I began the task of rinsing the car seat cover, her clothing, puppy, and other vomit-covered items before throwing them into the wash.

So it is possible the moodiness of the past few days has been the result of a virus slowly working itself into her system. It’s the best explanation I have at the moment. It’s likely I will be staying home from work tomorrow to make sure she is getting better, which is fine, considering the massive snow storm moving in tonight.

And while I’m exhausted and would love to go to sleep, I must wait for the laundry to finish drying. Then I can pull puppy out, clean and fresh, sneak into Cordy’s room, and place it in her crib, so that if she wakes in the middle of the night, she will find her dear puppy next to her, ready for a hug.