Sick and Sicker

Wow. It's been a crazy week at the Molloy's house - and by crazy I mean downright disastrous. Last Monday evening, Ellie seemed to be coming down with something. Out of no where she became completely congested, started coughing and acting a little crazy. We put her to bed early, hoping that she'd sleep it off, but she woke up on Tuesday a complete sick mess with a fever. She couldn't breath at all, and our normally "energetic and spirited" child just sat there, veggin' out like a zombie, whining softly. Poor baby! She gets colds rather frequently, but she has had very few major illnesses that slow her down and require her to stay home sick. And I think that she's only once or twice before had a fever. Usually, she comes down with a cold or allergy related congestion and sounds sick, but keeps continues life like everything is fine. Not the case with this one.


Ellie and Riley watch Backyardigans (not Elmo!)

She battled for several days, eating only tiny amounts of food, sleeping a lot and cuddling with her Mommy and Daddy, who took turns staying home from work. By Thursday evening, she seemed to be in better spirits. While she was still congested, her fever had been gone for 24 hours and she was back to playing and dancing as she normally would. So, we decided to go ahead and send her back to daycare on Friday. Wouldn't you know it - that happened to be the very day that there was a stomach bug outbreak at daycare. They sent a warning email home about this issue, but Elise came home on Friday seeming completely fine, so figured we were in the clear.



Ellie gives hugs to pal Riley

On Saturday night, we were heading home from Marty's mom's birthday dinner when we stopped to get some gas. I turned around to check on Ellie, who had been soundly asleep. She raised her head up a little, looked around, opened her mouth and randomly began spewing vomit all over the place. I was paralyzed for a few seconds watching this happen (she has only ever thrown up once and that was nearly a year ago), then sprung into action, pulling clothes out of her diaper bag to clean up the mess. Of course I have always had a weak stomach, and the close-quarters of the car combined with meatball-and-peaches vomit was enough to put me over the edge. I opened the car door and start dry heaving, leaving poor Marty to multi-task the gas pumping and puke clean up duty. It was a complete disaster.




Once I regained my composure, I changed Ellie out of the nasty clothes - though the only thing we had was a onsie - threw a coat on her and strapped her back into her carseat. Luckily through all of this, Ellie is not crying or upset, she is just sitting there quietly looking very confused. We get back on the road and within two minutes, she starts throwing up again all over her fresh onsie and coat. We are barreling down I-95 at 65 miles per hour, and I am leaning back into the back seat scrounging around for something to catch puke in. This went on for nearly the entire 30 minute car ride. Then continued into the night. She just kept vomiting - even when it seemed impossible that her little belly held anything else.



When she got up the next morning, she was exhausted and still couldn't keep a thing down. So, she completely gave up trying to eat, and only drank when we practically forced the sippy cup down her throat. Worried about dehydration, I talked to the pediatrician who said that as long as she was getting a wet diaper at least every 8 hours, she was ok. (Seriously? Does that seem normal?) And it turns out this wasn't just a 24 hour bug. On Thursday, she was still vomiting, albeit much less frequently, lethargic (she hasn't had any food! she has no energy!) and very sleepy. Oh yeah, and the congestion is still there.



Elise cuddling with her Opa (Meredith's dad)

Inevitably, Elise could not keep all this stomach bug fun to herself. On Monday night, Marty had the pleasure of joining his daughter in feeling completely miserable and becoming a vomiting wreck. I joined in the party briefly, but fortunately rebounded after one evening of illness. Marty was completely bedridden and miserable for three days. Today (Friday) Elise is FINALLY showing signs of feeling a little better. She has a little more energy, has played a little and is actually slightly interested in eating something. Thank goodness! We were just finally getting some meat onto those bones, and in the last week I wouldn't be surprised if Ellie lost 4-5 pounds. Her Buddha-belly is no more! (though I won't be giving her meatballs or peaches anytime soon to get it back)



It has been an exhausting and fairly disgusting week, but after back-to-back illnesses that spread through the family, I'd say we've experienced more than our share of sick. We're ready to enjoy our healthy and illness-free spring.