One Perfect Moment {In sickness & health} | Life

One Perfect Moment is all about those moments, big or small, that make you wish they'd last forever. Those moments you want to stop in time, when everything feels perfect, even for just a split-second. Snapshots of the mind. Moments to treasure forever.

This weekend just gone was epic. And I don't mean epic the way I used to, when I was young and child-free and would be out all weekend, barely sleeping, having adventures.



It was epic in a way that only those who have endured a full-family gastro bout can appreciate.

The warning signs were there on Thursday. Zee woke up from her nap, crying and covered in vomit. It was everywhere. The kind of episode that only a shower and a good wash can make right. I stripped off the poor girl and jumped in the shower with her while Dave set about cleaning up her bed.

We hoped that it was a one-off. I'd caught Zee drinking the last of the milk from her sippy cup that she had had that morning. How she manages to hide those bottles and then find them hours later when even I can't is beyond me. I was confident that this sour milk must have been the culprit.

By Friday night I knew it was not.

I was sitting at my desk, working on some Tafe stuff when Punky walked over. She put her head on my arm and told me she didn't feel very well. Two seconds later I barely managed to avoid her vomit hitting the computer. I sacrificed myself instead.

Poor Punky then spent the next 6 hours vomiting. It was horrible. The poor thing. She lay on the lounge with us, staring glassy-eyed at the TV. Only moving to reposition herself or reach for the v-bowl.

After a little bit of bed shuffling we got Zee in to our bed and made Punky up a bed on the spare mattress in her room, so that Dave could sleep in Zee's bed beside her, to help her if she needed to be sick again.

By 3am Dave was up and making very frequent trips to the bathroom. At 7am I was feeling those first tell-tale stomach cramps. By 10am it was confirmed. Gastro. And none of us were spared. I went back to bed for an hour while Dave lay on the lounge with the girls. At 11am we switched places.

For the next couple of hours the girls and I lay in the lounge room napping and watching back to back episodes of Doc McStuffins. What I wouldn't have done for a real-life Doc right then.

At 2pm Dave got up and we switched places again. He told me he was going to have a quick shower and could I keep an ear out for the girls if they got up. In my haze of sweating and stomach cramps I heard Zee start to cry, but then I heard Dave's voice talking to her so I knew he had the situation in hand. When I got up myself a couple of hours later it was to discover that poor Zee had succumbed yet again and been vomiting herself.

By 6pm both girls were on the mend, but still not back to their usual, loud, energetic selves. Dave and I were decidedly under the weather. At 7pm we were all on the lounge together, Punky laying between Dave and I, Zee curled up on my lap. We were a family of sickness.

At least in our sickness we were together. It was hard. Trying to look after the girls and make sure they were ok, in between trying to get to the bathroom quick enough ourselves. Making sure we were all hydrated and managing to eat a few mouthfuls of Vegemite on toast.

But as we sat on the lounge together watching the Night Garden, the girls between us, I knew that even in sickness I wouldn't trade what we have together for anything.

I saw how kind Punky was to us all, when she could see that we weren't well. She knew how we were feeling, and was liberal with her hugs and kisses, stroking Zee's head, giving me 'little tickles' on my hand, passing Daddy his glass of water when he needed it.

A full-family bout of gastro is not something I want to experience again, but I'm pretty sure this won't be our last time. At least I know now that we can handle it. And that even in sickness or health, there are still perfect little moments of time to be found. Even if they do include having a head over a bucket!

Have you experienced the full-family gastro bout? How did you get through it?

Linking up with The Multitasking Mummy & One Mother Hen


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Comments

Kaz @ MeltingMoments said…
You poor things. We have experienced it but when we were a family of three... It's hard enough when we all have colds. Get well :)
Nooooo, I'm not saying anything on this for fear of you know what, but we've all had colds, my stuck around the longest! Sucks when there's no one healthy. Get that preventative garlic and Vit C into you girl xx
Mystery Case said…
Oh no you poor thing. Hoping you are well and truly on the mend.
Elisha Ross said…
Oh yucky. Gastro hasn't come by this way since January and I hope its stays that way. We all go down one after the other here, never at the same time. I hate it!!
Denyse Whelan said…
So glad you are all better now...that was my kind of hell reading that, I didn't even have to deal with what you did. When our son was little he had a virus of some kind which co-incided with our daughter's 10th Bday party and we 'didn't want to disappoint' her and the party goers...pity that as by the end of that day and into the next I got sick (almost unheard of) as did my aunty on her way home in the train...oh too horrible to recount.
Vanessa Connor said…
Oh you poor thing. So glad you're all feeling better now. My boys all had this a month or two ago. The eldest one had it the worst. He was SO SICK. I felt sick for a day or two but didn't actually puke. Oh well, at least you can't say your girls don't share! And you can laugh about it now. xo
Tonia Zemek said…
Golly, what a weekend! Good on you for being able to see the upside to the situation. While I have you, are you going to Problogger in August? Would be lovely to meet you there. Hope this week's a brighter one for you and yours.
writeofthemiddle said…
Ohhh noooo! It's so hard when the whole family goes down with gastro or any kind of bug really! Who looks after mum! Hope you're all on the mend now!
Alicia-OneMotherHen said…
Luckily, touch wood, we haven't had a full blown bout of gastro go through the house. Summer has had it pretty bad, but none of us got it. I had it for a day too and no one else got it, thank god. You are so lucky Dave is so hands on. My hubby has a weak stomach and would never clean up spew, or poo for that matter.

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