Parenting 201 - The Rotavirus

Our lovely little man has had a really rough few days, and unfortunately its not over yet. It all started Friday night when he was walking around the furniture (as he does) and he went to sit down and hit the chair on the way. We honestly thought he had bitten through his lip - there was that much blood - but after we squirted some water in his mouth he started laughing so we figured it wasn't that bad. So that left him with a nice big fat lip...

Then he woke up 4am the next morning vomiting. And that continued on for the next couple of days - and seeing as he has had a wee bout of that before we figured we had it in hand. But then the runs started - and four days have passed now since he's had anything proper to eat. So Saady took him to the doctor (again) today and she recommended that we take him over to Starship Childrens Hospital for a check up which she promptly did - and they (un)promptly checked him out. About this time I showed up. After this he filled a couple of nappies - and we discovered that amongst it all Saads had run out of spare nappies and wipes. Theres a pharmacy in the building that you can buy disposables at the staff told her - so off she went in search...

Warning - lunch spoiler follows...

And then he began to fill his nappy with hubbly-bubbly again. He filled it once. He filled it twice. He even filled it thrice. Now I'm thinking - whats his output and whats the capacity of this last nappy? A quick calculation in my head says - hes near the brim, he might run over - keep him still!. Then he began to fill again - and I notice that there are some nasty looking wet patches appearing on his pants, and they're growing rapidly. Then its running down his poor little legs - its running down my trouser legs - and neither of us have a change of clothes! People walk past us - I don't know what to say - how you ask for help in a case like this? So I push the button for the nurse - I push the emergency one - one comes running in and tells me to push the other button next time! Sheezus - what a show! A wide eyed Saady returns and the clean up begins...

After all this our dear little boy is pretty dehydrated but is taking in some fluids. Apparently rotavirus can hang around in their system for ten days so its likely he will have a few days more of this. Most importantly though he is such a little trooper - he doesn't really get upset and just wants lots of love and cuddles - and we're an endless supply of both of these. Needless to say we're so proud of our little Liam when the chips are down - I took the photo just before we left the hospital today - he's looking pretty washed out but also brave and beautiful.

Love you my son - get well soon xxx.