You wouldn’t look any better after your first go-round with a stomach flu.

Last Tuesday night wasn’t unlike any other night of the week. I put Sophia to bed, laid with her for about half an hour, and she fell asleep. Later, Sarah and I went to bed. Around 11 or so, I hear Sophia crying in her room, which ins’t out of the ordinary. So, I go in to check on her. What happened, was not pleasant. AT ALL.As I always do, I put my hand on her belly to try to comfort her, only to be surprised when I feel she is wet and soggy and creamy? She had thrown up. And I don’t mean she just spit up a little bit, I mean she let it all out. All over her, the bed, everywhere. I yell for Sarah, we get her in the tub to get her cleaned off, and I start tearing the sheets off and cleaning up the mess.

In the meantime, Sophia was in tears, screaming, crying, all she wanted was to be held. After we finally calmed her down, she climbed up into our bed and fell asleep. There was no room for me, so I made my way to the couch, only to be awoken a few hours later by screams from Sarah to get upstairs. She had done it again, in our bed, on my pillow, everywhere. So, we did the entire process again.

Needless to say, there wasn’t much sleep in our house that night. Both Sarah and I stayed home Wednesday with a toddler dealing with her first ever bout of the stomach flu. It was brutal. The thing no one tells you is that when a kid first throws up, they don’t understand why they need to do it in the toilet or the trash can. They just do it where they sit, or stand. So, we had battles every time Sophia said her belly hurt and wanted to be held, since we knew what was coming, and didn’t want to be a part of yet another mess. It was hard, we wanted to make her feel better and comfort her, and it was so hard to find the right balance. It was lots of “my belly hurts” cries and drinking pedialyte and eating crackers.

After two-and-a-half days of helping her feel better, including me having both kids home with me all day that Thursday (not fun with a baby and a sick toddler, let me tell you), Sophia was finally well enough to go back to daycare.

You never want to see your kids sick, especially when they have no idea what they’re supposed to do when they have to throw up. We must have changed the sheets on both her bed and our own, at least two or three times each. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, this is the last time this season we have to do the dance, but I’m not counting on it.

Also, I apologize for the grossness of the post. No one wants to talk about it, but it happens.