Sick post. Once again.

A small, slim girl is crouched, waiting, tense. I can feel her light bones, still so tiny, she is six. I can feel all of her muscles coiled cruelly, her angry insides throwing out everything that isn't nailed down. This small person, I am in charge of. I can get her to settle down, to sleep. It's amazing to me that I could be utter comfort to another human. And yet, I can't fix this, I can't make the liquid that she swallows stay down where it belongs, where its needed. And I know that if this continues into tomorrow, I'm going to have to go back to the doctor, yet again, because if she can't get hydrated, then she could really be in trouble.

Normally, I'm not terribly phased by a stomach virus. Genevieve has it, but more mildly, and not the throwing up. I think I had it last night, but it was very annoying nausea only, that I was able to sleep away. Jude and Dan seem good so far. My kids usually pass it around to one another; annoyingly, it seems to skip a day or two, and then show up in the next kid, just when we thought the coast was clear. But it usually doesn't last in one child for more than 12 hrs. So this is new. This is a mean bug. I am getting angry. It's a familiar feeling. I used to get so mad when I threw up as a pregnant mom, so frustrated that my babes weren't getting the stuff I ate, just for their especial benefit. But this is different. I want to take this pain and gladly do all the throwing up and dry heaving. I just want it to leave my baby alone!

I was so excited when she drank down the blue Gatorade that I got her. She smiled and declared her 'belly was laughing', because it tasted so good. She is a self proclaimed bottomless pit, and was so irritated that she didn't get to eat anything today. She wanted to dig her teeth into some real food. We tried broth, it came back up, water, no go, Gatorade, nope. The pedialyte I had high hopes for, maybe it would be more gentle on her belly. But that didn't work either. Maybe she was too greedy, and guzzled too fast. Like I said, she really wants to eat. So now she's in bed, with one sip of water and one of pedialyte in her stomach. Two precious sips. Stay down! Hurry and be absorbed before the evil bouncer germ sends you packing! Please, oh please.