If you’re a dad like me, then you know what it’s like to be up all night with a sick kid. Well guess what happened to me last night…
Around 11pm last night, my wife Shan discovered that our daughter Olivia had thrown up in her crib. So Shan rushed her downstairs to the bathtub.
Of course I was busy playing Mario Kart Wii at the time, but I noticed Shan carrying Olivia to the bathroom through the corner of my eye.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Olivia threw up.” Shan responded back.
So like any good dad would do, as soon as my race was over, I rushed into the bathroom to find out what I could do to help. Shan gave me two options:
- Finish giving Olivia her bath.
- Go upstairs and clean up Olivia’s room and change the sheets in the crib.
Bath It Is…
I opted to finish giving Olivia her bath, so I did that as quickly as I could. Olivia was shivering pretty bad when the bath was over and I was drying her off, so I tried my best to hurry.
After she was dry and I finished putting some clean pajamas on her, we went to the family room. I helped her sit up on the couch, and tucked her in to a blanket. A couple minutes later, she threw up all over the couch.
Ugh…
At least this time she didn’t get the throw up in her hair, so she didn’t need another bath. (Those nights are really fun, when you end up giving your kid 2 or 3 baths…)
The Rest Of The Night
Fast forward a little bit… she’s wearing her third set of PJ’s and now we’re upstairs. My wife decided to stay up with her, letting me get a little bit of sleep. However every time I heard Olivia throwing up, I couldn’t sleep and went out to help.
She threw up over 10 times, and we didn’t get to sleep until around 6am. Needless to say, we all stayed home from work and daycare today.
Three Things I Learned
Lack of sleep aside, there were a few things I learned from this:
- I’m able to not only finish, but actually win a Mario Kart Wii race, even when there’s a mini-crisis brewing within the family. That’s no small feat!
- There’s no end to the love you feel for your kid… especially when it really counts. I have a weak stomach, and yet there I was, holding a bowl up to my daughter’s mouth while she threw up. Being a dad gives you super powers you never knew you had before!
- Little children really do have things figured out. If I was the one throwing up 10 times, I’d be miserable and make sure everyone around me knew about it, yet Olivia was in great spirits. In-between throw ups, she would smile and laugh. She seemed to enjoy spending the time with mom and dad. She didn’t whine and she never felt sorry for herself. There’s a lesson I can learn from that…
