Even though he looks pretty cheerful in the pic, Sebastian has his first illness. :( I know we've been SO lucky that he hasn't been sick up until now. I mean there have been a few times when he had terrible reflux issues or whatever, but he hasn't gotten a "bug" from what we could tell. No colds, no flu. Nothing. Well, first time for everything, I guess. But could our kid start with a simple cold or sniffles? Naaaah! He had to go and get the throw-up/diarrhea kind of sick.
He's been more clingy and irritable the past few days, but I figured it was teeth or the moon or something. Then yesterday he started vomiting. He threw up a LOT at my parents' house twice on Monday, and felt feverish and just not himself.
Then this morning all hell broke loose. He woke up at 5am to eat, and Ken brought him to bed with us so I could feed him. Ken laid him down next to me, but the minute he saw the boob he started SCREAMING. This is majorly odd because he's usually opening his mouth like a little baby bird on the way down! Ken walked him around to calm him down, tried again, screaming again. More walking. Third time's the charm, I guess...he finally ate, but only from one side (he usually does both), and then fell asleep. I figured maybe he was still a little under the weather and figured he could eat more if he woke up in a bit. Then, around 5:30, he proceeds to throw up ALL over our bed. And himself. And both of us. EWW!
Oh, did I mention he'd had blueberries for dinner so it was REALLY nasty? So there we are, with blueberry baby vomit all over us, our sheets, the baby, his clothes, etc. Fun. Ken went and changed the baby while I changed myself and started getting the sheets off the bed. Luckily by the time the bed was made again, Sebastian seemed to feel better so all three of us went to sleep again, on and off, until about 8.
Then the poo-splosions started. Got up and went about our business, and Sebastian proceeded to have perhaps his most massive poo ever.
(Beware: the following description is not for the faint of heart. If you are squeamish, skip to the next paragraph!) Not only did poo shoot out the back of his diaper and almost up to his neck, but it also shot up his front, out his diaper, and over his belly button. YUCK! Ken was the lucky one to clean THAT puppy up. Of course by the time you clean that much crap off a flailing, squirmy baby, it is everywhere. Sebastian loves to grab his junk while being changed, so of course he did that, and then proceeded to wipe poo everywhere...his arms, his armpit, his chest, I think even his HAIR got some. EWW! Oh, and remember the blueberries-for-dinner-last-night? Yeah, they make for beautifully-colored poo, too. I think he peed on the changing table during the epic change, too. Way to go, kid.
(It is now safe to continue, oh-squeamish reader.) Anyway, so after that was cleaned up, we figure he'd HAVE to be feeling better. I mean I don't even know how that much crap FIT in such a little boy! But he's still listless and clingy, and feels warm. We figure he has to actually be sick. Poor guy! We gave him some tylenol to help with the fever, and tried to feed him some solids (oatmeal with melon...he usually LOVES it). He wouldn't touch it. Like kept his mouth totally shut. The only thing he'd even go near was Cheerios. So we let him eat as many as he wanted...he seems to be nursing fine, still, so I'm not worried about him getting dehydrated, at least.
Anyway, so Ken left for work and I gave the kiddo a sorely-needed bath. Throughout the day he proceeded to throw up twice more (but nothing as spectacular as the first one), have two more CRAZY poops, and generally was miserable. Poor kiddo. He even went to sleep early...fell asleep while getting his last feeding in, and we didn't even get to read a story or do anything else we usually do. Sad little guy.
Hopefully he'll sleep well tonight (so far so good), and feel better tomorrow. I'm at work ALL day (have a late meeting, even), so my parents have him. I hope he is over this soon...it's so hard to see your kid unwell. He's a trooper, though...even though he was feeling awful, he still managed to smile whenever he could, talk up a storm while eating his cheerios, and even laugh at himself as he tried to stand up by himself and kept falling down (this is, apparently, a new fun game).
What a sweet kid we have.
Maybe it was a bit soon after we were all sick last week, but we decided to take advantage of the nice weather on Sunday and explore the area around our neighborhood a bit. So we got Sebastian hooked up into his chariot, which we lovingly call "The Beast." It's huge, but absolutely fantastic for rougher trails and off-roading. He loves sitting up and holding on to the bar in front. Here's him in front of the forsythia by our local pool. Not sure what that face is all about.
The dogs came too, and were SO excited. Sebastian wondered what all the fuss was about. We were just going to take an easy walk with Mummo and Pappa, check out the paths around (there are tons). But then we saw the Buttermilk Creek Nature Trail. And, of course, we had to check it out. It started out pretty tame, if wet. It had been raining for a few days, on and off, but the day turned out to be gorgeous and sunny (hot, even!). But it got steeper, rockier, and the path got progressively narrower! There were puddles to skirt, rocks to avoid, roots to traverse, and even a few small streams to ford! What an adventure!
The Beast stepped up to the challenge, though, and between Aiti, Pappa, and Daddy, we managed the stroller just fine. The path wound round and round in these beautiful woods (who knew there was all this wilderness right in the middle of Reston?), along a really cool creek. Sebastian is going to have SO much fun there when he's older collecting rocks, sticks, frogs, and generally just getting filthy, as little boys do. For now, though, he was content to sit in his stroller, enjoy the ride, and take in all the new sights, sounds, and smells around him. We even passed some horse manure on the path! Mmm!
Then we ended up at Lake Fairfax! It's amazing how close we were! They do fireworks there on the fourth of July, and all sorts of other festivals besides. There's a water park there, too, that I'm SURE we'll be frequenting as the boy gets older. Going around the lake, we saw several enormous herons, a family of turtles sitting on a rock, and all sorts of other wildlife. The highlight of the day, though, was seeing an entire herd of deer! There were at least eight of them, including several babies! They were in the woods not 10 yards from us...brave things, with two big dogs so nearby! We all sort of stopped and stared at each other, until they all decided to head off and ran and leaped away. It was cool to see!
We were all pretty worn out by the time we made our way back to the paved path. We'd worked up quite a sweat tromping around! In the end, though, everyone had a good time, and Sebastian seems eager to go again soon!
