The clothing changes around here would make you think we are high fashion models

You may insert platitudes here about how pride goeth before a smackdown. I didn't hit publish on my last post because I wanted to put in some updates about Claire's general sassiness and Hannah's well being. Harumph!

I have now had been puked on, shat on, and had snot smeared on multiple body parts, and made one middle of the night trip to the pediatric ER. Good times!

Hannah wouldn't eat when we did our stealth milk maneuver on Saturday night, wherein we sneak up on the sleeping baby, poke a bottle of milk in her mouth to tide her over for the night, and slip away. Instead she coughed, then hurled, then wailed. We changed everyone's clothing and tried to settle in, got more barf, changed again, then again, then I headed to the hospital when it appeared she could keep nothing down. After a few hours and some time on the glucose IV, her labs looked good so we were allowed to leave, and I got the two of us in bed at 7:00 a.m. to rest a few hours. The discharge nurse told me not to feed her for 36 hours and to stick to apple juice for better digestibility. Hannah also had an "angry" ear infection in both ears so she went on antibiotics, and between the stomach virus, the juice, and the bug killing in her gut, she developed some super powerful pooping skills, and managed to go through three pairs of pants and the walker seat in the first half of the day alone. We kept the washer running just about full time. I talked to the metabolics doc on call who agreed with me, that Hannah should be given food if she wanted it, and certainly breast milk, and he spouted some common sense: no human condition is improved by starvation. Aha! Once the virus caught up with me last night, it was finally clear to me just why Hannah didn't want to eat or drink much of anything. Puking sucks! But, we muddled through and gave Hannah small amounts of whatever she would take, only some of which came back up, so we avoided going back to the ER. She seemed to sleep better on me, so I slept in the rocking chair in her room so I could 1) give her comfort 2) keep her more upright (bonus: easier to roll her over when she puked if she was right on me, and then the puke could flow in an orderly fashion downward) and 3) I would be more likely to know if her condition suddenly worsened to the signs of metabolic crisis that would leave me scrambling. And, she didn't want me to put her down. I actually used the toilet holding her, because she and Lord Honey were both sleeping and strangely, it was easier to pee without getting her off me. Perhaps the powers that be have made Hannah smaller so she is easier to carry until she is up on her own. Claire didn't get the bug until yesterday, when she "throwed up on her pretty purple dress" and got sent home. We had to put up with some extra redheaded grouchiness until the ibuprofen kicked in, and Lord Honey and I spent some time wondering just what we had done to deserve all the extra body fluids. Claire, bless her wee heart, can hurl in a bucket! The last stomach bug she had found her without any control or powers of prediction, but she is now advanced enough to have never once fouled a parent or piece of furniture. Say it loud, I'm proud! No one has actually hurled today, although we still have some chills and queasiness here and there. We learned some MCADD lessons. Learned that even at 18 months of age, spilled breast milk still doesn't stain a shirt but breast milk that has been forcibly ejected does stain, even a new Gymboree shirt. We learned that Hannah's regular and specialty docs are very invested in her care and always take my calls. We learned Oxi-clean really can remove green poopiness. We learned Pedialyte tastes like ass. We learned that if the binky is missing, we should check my bra. We learned the prescription ear drops may be worthwhile. We learned much, and we are tired.