The Daily Hailey

Parts of this story won’t be for the faint of heart. You’ve been warned. 

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This weekend was such a fun time, and Laela had perked right up and was good to go! She could eat anything, run around, and be totally herself. I was SO relieved she was in the clear. WAS. 

Last night, Brady and I were particularly exhausted and needed sleep badly. We had been sleeping for a few hours when I woke up to Rowan beside my bed. His more common midnight wake-up consists of him standing in the doorway super nonchalantly, playing with his underwear, looking around the room, muttering something about needing to pee. Pretty annoying, as he’s more than capable of doing that on his own every moment of the daytime. But last night was different. He was right beside me, saying “Mommy” over and over, shrucking in between. I figured out immediately that he was dry heaving. I grabbed for my garbage can, but it was a bit over from where it usually was. “Garbage! Garbage!” I said over and over, in hopes that either he or I would find it in time. 

Buuuuut we didn’t. Do you remember that delicious description from the other day, where Laela covered her mouth and barfed anyway, spraying it everywhere? Yup. Rowan did exactly that, and I had the pleasure of being in the immediate splash zone. My face, specifically. In that second, Brady clicked the lamp on and I grabbed the garbage. The bulk of the next batch made it in there, and Brady had officially sprung into action. He was over by my bed, on the floor with Rowan, holding a real bucket up to him and reassuring him. 

Once the immediate situation was calmed, we took stock. There were little shreds of vomit evvvvverywhere. Our blanket, my pillows, and our sheets. The floor. My heating pad next to the bed. And, poor Rowan, his face. We grabbed wipes and wiped him off. In that moment, I remembered my own face. (Yes, parenting sometimes means you actually forget that someone barfed on your face.) I just touched it. Just for a second. And I took a chunk of vomit off of my eyebrow. Nope nope nope. Give me ALL the wipes! NOW! 

Eventually, Rowan stopped heaving. I got down on the floor with him and braided his hair back for the night. I’ve been having a problem with my hands recently, so it was actually pretty hard to get it braided, but it worked partially at least. 

And thank goodness for that braid, because that kid got up three more times through the night to gag and heave and barf into his bucket. This poor kid and his unproductive barfs. This morning again, I sit and watch him hover over his bucket and choke and heave with no result. Between his gags, he sputters “No! NO!!!” Or he’ll cry that his throat hurts, which of course it does. 

Poor poor Rowan ❤️ Please say a prayer, if you’re the praying type, that he recovers and that no one else picks it up. Without sounding super selfish, Brady and I cannot be sick right now. We have our Christmas coffeehouse gig this week, and it’s the ONLY time we can get there this month! We cannot reschedule! So please pray for health and wellness over our family this week!!!