Sick Baby

A really nasty stomach virus is going around Los Angeles, and a few weeks ago Baby M caught it. Friday night he threw up and then he threw up again Saturday morning. Unwisely, my husband and I decided to head to The Wood, a new neighborhood cafe, for Saturday brunch. Baby M threw up all over me shortly after placing our order. More vomit came out of him than seemed possible given what he had eaten that day and all I could do was hold him and grimace until it subsided. A very nice employee saw me with handfulls of soiled napkins and offered to take them off my hands. "No, no," I replied, "it's digusting." He persisted. "It's barf." That stopped him in his tracks and he brought over a garbage pail for me. After cleaning up a bit we actually stayed and ate our breakfast which was quite tasty.

We had plans to see Q-tip perform on Saturday night and ever hopeful for a night out alone we packed up Baby M and headed over to the in-laws house. We planned to eat dinner with my husbands parents and then go to the show while they watched Baby M. Baby M seemed fine, he even ate some spaghetti and peas for dinner. As we were finishing up dessert Baby M started fussing and then-- blamo! Torrents of vomit spewed out of him. This wasn't normal puking, this was the infamous projectile vomiting that you hear so much about. It was as if my son was auditioning for the remake of The Exorcist. Needless to say, we ended up skipping the concert.

The next day I came down with the bug and spent most of the day shuffling back and forth between my bed and the toilet. Thank goodness for my husband-- I can't imagine being that sick and having to care for a baby. Baby M still couldn't keep anything down and more distressing he was refusing to drink anything-- no water, no juice, no Pedialyte, not even more than a few sips breast milk. He hadn't urinated for over 12 hours. I called our pediatrician who suggested trying popsicles and said we'd need to go to the ER if he didn't start taking in liquids soon. Baby M, stubborn boy that he is, refused the popsicles too (although he was still pointing eagerly at the box of Cheerios) and so we headed off to St. John's in Santa Monica later that evening.

The St. John's staff was great, they even apologized for the 20 minutes we spent in the ER waiting room. Baby M needed IV fluids which was traumatic for everyone involved. It took my husband, myself and 2 nurses to hold Baby M down while the IV was inserted. After the IV was in he screamed at the top of his lungs for 30 minutes straight until he finally fell asleep. Even so every time he woke up he would resume screaming. We kept checking his diaper for urine and he just wasn't peeing. After 3 bags of fluids and several hours the staff sent us home telling us to come back if he hadn't peed by 6AM. Thankfully, by the time we got home his diaper was wet. He stopped vomiting and finally started taking in fluids again. A few days later he was all better. It was a rough week. A friend told me that true love is holding someone while they barf all over you without flinching. I repeatedly held Baby M while he barfed all over me, but I think I might have flinched a little. I don't think he noticed.