being sick sucks

ohhhhhhhhhh myyyyy goodness you guys.  just the other day i was thinking "wow, i am pleasantly surprised at how our family hasn't had a cold yet this fall".  and then---BAM---a few days later the kids and i are dripping snot out of our noses, completely congested and achy and just generally not feeling great.  i'm trying to get the kids to rest, but they just don't.  i let Z watch a little more shows than usual just so that i can get him to sit down and stop moving so his body can rest.  unfortunately there's just not a lot to do for a little one with a cold besides liquids, rest, humidifier, steamy baths and vitamin D!  i have been giving the baby girl some motrin at bedtime but it doesn't seem to be making that much of a difference in her sleep.  she wakes up constantly during the night because she is so congested and uncomfortable.  which means, she is in the bed next to me and thusly nurses about 27 times per night.  and then whines, cries and thrashes around the rest of the time.  poor baby.  so this mama is so tired.  it sucks to be sick when you have kids, because they don't give a hell.  you can't really take care of yourself like you should.  they still want to run around and play.  they still need to eat.  ugh, whatever!  haha.  and it's worse when they are sick.  cause then they are whiny and then i'm whiny and it's just a house full of sick, whiny humans.  i was starting to feel better and then today, about 4 days in i feel worse.  i think this is typically how it works, and then in a day or two i will start to feel better.  i'm about a day behind Z, so i keep watching his progress.  and ava is a day behind me. but, it's just a cold.  after our norovirus outbreak a month ago, i can deal with colds!  last month, right after ava's first birthday party at our house, we all got sooooooo sick!  first little miss A threw up on a Monday in the morning.  i didn't think that she had a stomach virus, just that maybe all the different food and the extra sugar from the day before was hard on her belly.  i cleaned her up and she seemed fine.  but she barfed on the side of my bed so i cleaned that up, too.  and Z was right next to her when she got sick.  so we went about our day, it was pretty uneventful except for the diarrhea diaper from ava.  the next day was fine, we all were great.  then hubs came home from work feeling absolutely miserable, ate a few bites of dinner and lay down on the floor.  i knew he must have been sick because he never ever does that, even if he is not feeling that great.  i got the kids ready for bed and then got them to sleep.  i was still feeling fine.  hubby went to bed early.  around 10:30, i had a graham cracker because my stomach felt a little funny.  then ava started crying so i went in to nurse her back down.  in the middle of nursing, it hit me like a truck, i started feeling so nauseated, my body felt like it was on fire, i imagine from all the adrenaline pumping through it, i started sweating.  i thought "oh sh$% i am going to puke".  so i pulled ava off, plopped her down in her crib and ran down the hall while she screamed and cried, woke hubs up and said he had to deal with ava cause i was going to be sick, and made it to the bathroom in time.  hubs was able to calm ava down and get her back to sleep, and then checked on me.  i told him i was sick and then proceeded to hurl again into the toilet.  and there i stayed until morning.  except that's not all the fun we had.  about an hour after that first event, i hear hubby running down the hall swearing.  then i hear zabih screaming and crying and throwing up.  apparently he got sick in his bed and all down the hallway.  and hubby was there helping him in the bathroom.  he undressed z and sent him into my bathroom with me.  i wrapped him in a towel, poor baby was shivering and so scared.  he has never really thrown up before.  i held him, praying that i could be done being sick so i could take care of my kids.  long story short, i got sick a couple more times, z got sick a couple more times, ava woke up screaming a couple more times and hubby had to try to calm her down and get her back to sleep all the while he was still not feeling well.  he basically had all the same symptoms except his iron stomach didn't hurl out its contents.  WORST NIGHT EVER!  uuugggghhhhh!  poor zabih was freaking out.  him and i were sleeping on the floor of the bathroom, he was leaning on me, my bones were jamming into the floor.  in between being sick i had to nurse ava.  i couldn't lay down or else i would feel extremely nauseous.  finally, we woke up early in the morning, dehydrated and miserable.  hubby took the kids downstairs to feed them breakfast while i slept a little longer.  God bless him.  all of us basically spent the next day laying around in our pajamas, watching tv, sipping water and tea, nibbling on crackers and trying to rest.  we ate plain white rice for dinner.  it was awful.  my body was so sore from throwing up and sleeping not the hard floor.  hubby had the awful job of cleaning everything and disinfecting everything with bleach.  none of us had energy.  IT SUCKED!  my stomach was not right for weeks.  and i didn't gain energy back for at least a week afterwards.  oh my lord.  and i am kind of a vomit-phobe.  i really hate it so much and try to do anything to not vomit.  so i have been so stressed out and anxious about us all getting another stomach virus.  i know logically that it will happen again at some point.  and in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal.  hubby was trying to get me to calm down about it and said logical things like, "if we get sick and throw up, then we get sick and throw up, you can't really do anything about it"  and "let's be thankful that this is the worst we have had to deal with and they aren't sick with something horrible"  and then we started talking about Aleppo and i calmed down a little.  but, i sure as hell am going to stock up on clorox non-bleach hand sanitizer and 3% hydrogen peroxide and bleach (these are the best things to kill norovirus) in order to avoid another stomach virus as best i can.  and hands will be washed!  alllll the time!  to try to find some comfort in that awful night, i read about norovirus and found the following:

this article

this awesome blog that i am now obsessed with

and these hilarious memes:

i don't know what's wrong with me but any time now that my stomach feels a little off i start to panic that i have norovirus!  it's kind of funny and kind of ridiculous at the same time.  oh man!  so, stay healthy people!  you do not want it!