Last night we were out late (for us) with friends, after which I drove our babysitter home. I rolled into bed just before 1:00, ready for a good night’s sleep. At about 2:30 am, I awoke with a start as Elliot pushed open our door and let out a cry. I don’t know if this is typical, but when I get woken up in middle of the night by my kids, my heart rate goes from 60 to 180, and it’s a very jarring wake up. This happens to me even when Amy calls out that she needs to pee, so when the wake up comes with a cry, it makes it worse.
I assumed he’d had a bad dream, and I immediately told him we were right there, and it was okay. I couldn’t see him, though, and as I was saying this, Greg got out of bed quite quickly and guided Elliot to the bathroom. I was a bit confused, as Elliot is very good about peeing on his own in the middle of the night, and then it dawned on me that he was sick. I pulled myself out of bed and joined the boys in the bathroom. Sure enough, there was puke all over the floor, about as close to the toilet as you could get without getting any of it in the toilet. Greg got Elliot cleaned up while I got on my hands and knees and started cleaning up. It was everywhere — in two dimensions, thanks to the surrounded walls, toilet and cupboards.
After I finished, Greg started guiding Elliot back into bed, but I vetoed that idea. Elliot sleeps in a loft bed and the thought of cleaning him and the bed up in the middle of the night was not appealing. So Elliot climbed into bed with me (with a bowl and a towel), and Greg went downstairs. This all took about 15 minutes, and I was wide awake by then. Elliot feel asleep fairly quickly, but it was a very fitful sleep, which is very unlike him. And every time he moved I thought he was going to puke. And every time he moved he got closer and closer to me, and I was sure I was going to be his next target. So…not exactly a relaxing sleep.
Then, about an hour later, just as I was finally nodding off, I heard Greg bolt out of the basement bedroom. My first thought was that he was puking, but then I heard him go get the dog cookie jar. Which, at 3:30 in the morning, only means one thing. The dog was outside and was not coming when called. So I got up to investigate. Greg informed me that Heart had puked, he’d managed to get her out the basement door in time, but then she refused to come when Greg called her. Greg sent me back to bed, but he was up for a while longer as Heart tried to rid herself of evil from the opposite end. FUN STUFF.
Thankfully there was no more puking after that, human or canine, and the silver lining was that both kids had a huge sleep-in. I don’t think I got out of bed until 8:30, new time. So my sleep was sub par, but at least it was long.
Ahhh, the joy of dependants.