And they shall find joy?

Well what a week we've had at our house! I have been told, "and ye shall find joy" I'm trying to figure out how I can find joy in poop. That's right, we've hit a couple of milestones. Our first visit to the ER, first ear infection, and first bout with diarrhea.
WARNING: This blog contains normal mommy talk of poop and vomit. Sensitive readers should use caution.
Sunday night, I was outside enjoying the nice evening chatting with my friend when I hear a frantic scream "JJJJUULLLIIIEEEE!!!!" I quickly returned to the house to find Ashlyn crying and Cole holding a baby with throw up all over her. Yummy. So we jumped into action. Cole took Ashlyn to the bath tub, I took over the de-throw up duty of her bed. The next morning(Monday), she threw up again all over our bed. Lovely! So off came the goose down comforter and feather bed, sheets, blankets, etc. She had a fever and wouldn't eat or drink anything, so I'll called the Doctor and the doctor said, No more monkeys jumping....oh wrong story. :) Anyway, we went to Dr. Coombs and he said it's an ear infection in her right ear AND the stomach flu. So he put her on antibiotics and off we went. Well Cole was getting her ready for bed and she looked horrible. I took her temperature and it was 103.8. I called Lisa Sharp who is Dr. Coombs nurse and lives in my ward, thank goodness, she is an angel! She told us to take her up to Primary's and have her looked at. Cole gave her a blessing and I gave her tylenol. By the time we got there her fever had gone down to 101.5 and they were busy! So we waited 2 hours and they looked at her said she does have a bad ear infection and they gave her some motrin and we had to wait for that to kick in and see if her fever broke. They also gave her a popsicle but she wanted nothing to do with it, so Cole and I ate it. Her fever broke, they decided not to put her on IV and we paid a pretty price for 1 popsicle, 1 dose of motrin, and 2 parents worries put to ease.

Yesterday she seemed to have returned to her normal playful self as long as we kept up on the Tylenol and Motrin. By the way, for those new parents who don't know. Motrin is better for fevers than Tylenol. HELLO!! WHY WASN'T THAT IN THE HANDBOOK?

Then last night it started again. I returned home from my midnight rendezvous at the local Wal-Mart with my friend Emma, it's sad when the night crew knows you. I like to relate it to Norm and Cheers. I walked into the house and was greeted with a not so friendly smell. I asked Cole, who knew it was stinky but went to bed anyway, (duh Dad) what it was. He said, "I smelled something but couldn't see anything in the dark. You're welcome to turn on the light and look." Ahh thanks. Remind me to pay you back at Christmas. So I turned on the light and sniffed with the Mom Nose and found that we had encountered the horror of all parents....a blow out. So long story short: I made Cole get up and help as I once again dawned the haz mat mom techniques and went to work. Poor baby.

This morning, we are right back at the stomach flu stage. I'm up to my arm pits in bodily fluids. She's having the same issues we've had the past 2 days, but I am concerned that she is going to get dehydrated because she won't drink any Pedialite or Gatorade. And she won't have soup or applesauce...she wants a pop tart. Go figure.

Thankfully I have a husband who works close by so I've sent him on his lunch hour to get plastic diaper covers, motrin, and banana baby food (thanks Emma). If anyone else knows a way to hydrate a kid send suggestions my way. I may have to say to heck with my diet and reward myself with some chocolate. How else will I survive?

So back to my original question...and ye shall find joy in this. I guess the joy I am finding is that she will snuggle with me when she is tired and she doesn't want to play with toys so I won't have that mess to clean up!
Thanks for sharing in my woes. Hopefully Ashlyn will return to her normal self soon and we can get back to the good ole' days!