Mommy Kryptonite

Let me preface this post with a note to those who (like myself) are somewhat squeamish when it comes to anything even remotely related to the stomach flu – you might want to move on to the next blog on your list.  In all honesty, this is the type of post I would very likely skip over should I find it elsewhere…  Yet, I still feel the need to post it.  Maybe I just want sympathy.  Well, okay, since we are being honest here, it is my husband that really deserves your sympathy…  I have bragged about him before, but he really is super-daddy!!  I on the other hand have discovered my kryptonite…

Still here?  Okay, continue at your own risk…

I love being a mom…Really, I do…Most of the time.  Just not today.  I always wanted to be a mom, but, the one part of parenthood that I have always, always dreaded was the stomach flu (and all of the, um…yuckiness that comes with it).  I can handle any other bodily fluid that my child might produce (I know, that’s disgusting, but you were warned!).  Spit-up, I can handle (and before you even bother trying to convince me, it is so not the same thing!), diaper blow-outs, runny noses, and even blood (to a degree) don’t really bother me.  But, the stomach flu…that is my “mommy kryptonite.”  I just can’t deal.  Well, I can, but only if I absolutely have to.  But, thankfully, I have a wonderful, compassionate, and iron-stomached husband who can deal with it, and allows me to run and hide in the corner (or, the laundry room, as was the case today), while he “does the dirty work.”

I really do feel bad for her…It is not that I don’t care.  I do!  I want so badly to comfort her, and I wish I could make it all better with a wave of my magic wand…but, I don’t have a magic wand.   And, I’d really like one!  (I have watched way too much Cinderella III!!)  I’m sorry to say, my motives are not altogether pure on that one…It is just that I find myself completely repulsed, and shaking at the mere thought of all that the stomach flu conjures up.  I am not repulsed by her, just…what is coming out of her.

Yes, my poor little Hannah woke up this morning with a yucky stomach flu bug – uninvited, and quite unwelcome!  Instead of her usual happy, energetic self, she spent the entire day on the living room floor, stripped to her princess undies, using a towel for a blankie, watching every Disney cartoon we own, and looking absolutely pitiful.  Can’t say that I blame her though…

After a few hours of yuckiness and a couple of baths, she was able to keep her sips of water and a few saltines in her tummy.  And, by bedtime, she was definitely starting to look a little better!  She was talking, smiling, and I even got a few little giggles out of her!  Yay!  We are praying that she continues to get better.  I am looking forward to her being back to her healthy, active, cheerful self very soon!