I come to you at the turning of the tide...

Well yesterday/last night was pretty terrible for our whole family. I came home a little early with a fever and strong stomach cramps occurring. I entered a house full of puking females, with one also (over)filling a diaper with liquid hourly. Poor Brianna puked every half-hour all day, but she was so mature about it and always grabbed a bowl. I have no idea how many times Victoria tossed, but she was none too happy yesterday or when I left today. It was a strange night of listless people trying to sleep while moving from room to room, looking for a place with less noise, and one or the other children would stir and want story-reading or other attention every few hours. As I was the least of the sickies, Victoria tagged me to take full care/entertainment for Maya, the second least of the sickies. She would need nebulizer treatments every four hours, a diaper change every two and Pedialyte every hour and a half or so. I dearly wanted good sleep, but my stomach cramping wouldn't allow for it, so I made the best of bonding with Maya as we read books, watched TV (including Homeword Bound, one of my mushy tearjerker favorites that reminds me of my childhood companion, Chuggy), changed her clothes and diapers several times and tried sleeping in the same room. That worked except her binky would pop out every half-hour and she'd cry until I got up and popped it back in. I finally took her into the uncomfortable guest bed with me and she sweat quite a bit but did not wake up much. This allowed me a good 3-4 hours of straight sleep and I awoke this AM feeling very good. I bathed Maya and myself and went into work after dropping Maya off at school. Brianna was still a bit listless and her and the still sick Victoria stayed home together. I was going to take pictures of the girls laying there looking like a grisly scene of death from the Steven King book/movie "The Stand," but when you're sick, the idea of looking for the camera and then uploading the pictures is just too much of an effort.