The Sick Mat

(photo taken today - slowly on the mend)

On Friday, Oliver threw up.  As in vomit.  Not spit up.  I thought it was just a wet burp that turned into a little more, however when it happened a couple more times we realized he was sick.  Poor boy.  Thankfully, it isn't standard vomit and is more like a massive spit up, but it's still bad.

We've had 11 vomits and 6 diarrheas so far and as it's my first time dealing with him sick, I've taken some notes.  First, I am SO glad I double sheet our bed (if you're new here, he sleeps with us... and I'm okay that you might not be okay with that).  I keep quilted dry pads in between each layer just in case a diaper leaks and last night, I was thankful it had migrated a little higher.  It made changing the sheets of our king bed a lot easier at 2am.  There was still a little too much that had gotten on the second layer of sheets so when Oliver fell asleep in the small swing upstairs, I just slept on the floor with him.

It just so happened that I'd had him in zippered pajamas, which made changing him a lot easier too.  When I realized this, I was SO glad I'd changed my mind.  Originally I'd had another pair of pjs that snapped around the legs and ick - that would have been so gross.  To prep for our second sick night, I had a stack of snap/zipper front pjs for Oliver and a stack of t-shirts for me, along with towels, a few sheets, and the sick mat.

On Saturday Chandler yelled that there was more throw up.  On. the. floor.  Ugh.  Nothing a little water and Country Save couldn't take care of, but gross nonetheless.  I then decided that since he would be awake and potentially throwing up more, I needed something to keep him on so there wouldn't be more throw up all over the place.  I thought about the quilted dry pads, but they don't really absorb liquid.  I decided a towel would be a great to put around it.  We only had a couple old ones so I used one to make a pillow case type cover.

Meet - the sick mat!  I had Chandler run to Walmart to pick up a couple of really cheap towels & Velcro to make two more for if/when this one is ready to be tossed in the wash.  The cheap ones are best because they're not as plush and I don't have to change out the foot on my machine.

I also thought I'd share a tip from the nurse I talked to this morning.  Pick up saltine crackers, soup, Gatorade/ginger-ale and whatever else you may need when you get sick b/c if it is a virus and we get it, we won't feel like going to the store to pick up sick food.  Maybe this is just a parent trick?  How brilliant!  So now we're stocked with sick parental supplies.  Oh - and Pedialyte just in case we need it for Rover.

I'd love to know your sick child tips!