Our First Puke
Last Friday morning, at about 2:30AM, I heard Noah cough over the baby monitor. 99.9% of the time, I do not go and check on him, because he has always randomly coughed in his sleep and it is no big deal. For some reason, that I still do not understand, I went in to check on him, and he was on all fours, about to stand up in his crib. A mother’s intuition is really a fascinating thing.
When I reached in the crib, Noah was standing up saying “cough, bed, yucky.” I immediately put my hand down in his crib and touched throw up on his bedsheet.
I calmly picked him up, told him it was OK, and called to my husband to come and help.
Tim and I both remained calm, and I changed Noah’s pajamas and diaper, while Tim swapped out the mattress pad, sheet, blanket and lovey. Noah remained calm too, but was probably still half asleep.
I cuddled with Noah on the rocking chair in his room for a couple of minutes then put him back to bed.
I tossed the dirty items in the wash immediately to both get the puke off, and to have in case he continued to throw up throughout the night.
When Tim and I returned to our bed, we were both wide awake, and anticipating Noah throwing up again. We both had trouble falling back to sleep.
A couple of hours later, Noah started coughing again, and Tim ran in as I followed behind. Tim picked Noah up and had him throw up in the sink, while I changed the sheets etc. Again, Noah and I cuddled in the rocking chair and back to sleep he went.
I again, switched the clothes to the dryer and added this new batch to the washing machine.
A word of advice, always make sure you have a few extras of your little one’s favorite blanket or lovey. It came in handy for us, as all Noah wanted was his blanket. He said “where blankey go?” And we told him that we had a clean one in his cribby for him.
The next day, my husband and I discussed how awesome we worked as a team. We divided and conquered without getting on each other’s nerves, which is very easy to do in the middle of the night when you need to spring into action. We both remained calm, which I think was key because Noah also remained calm.
A couple days later, Noah threw up a few times again in the evening, but similar to the other night, we remained calm, I changed his clothes, and Tim cleaned the carpet.
This was the first time that Noah had ever thrown up and as a parent who has never experienced this before, you just figure it out in the moment and do what you need to do.
A few key items:
· Stay calm
· Work as a team and not against one another if you have a partner or spouse
· Keep extra blankets, loveys, or favorite items on hand
· Remind yourself, that this too shall pass