Someone get the Lysol, STAT!!

I'll be honest, I'm not really even sure where to begin this blog entry. So I'll go with what I'm comfortable with....Facebook. Let's just say that if I were on Facebook right now, my status would likely say:

"Ami Daniels Bunch is surrounded by puke. "

And that would not be an exaggeration. In the slightest. And I have witnesses. Those who are my facebook friends saw my post a few days ago which read...

So, Hunter just threw up. Then Piper (the dog) ate her throw up. I think I would like to throw up now. :)

Well, that status ignited a fury of hilarious responses, which is about the only reason I've decided to take this germy topic one step further... People love to read about misery... particularly when it's not their own. And what is it they always say? Misery loves company?? Well, there you go! Hello, company!

As my facebook status Thursday indicated, my poor little Hunter Bug threw up. On the carpet in the living room. Before I had a chance to clean it, Piper (the dog) had the whole mess taken care of....(GAG!!) Anyway, my little peanut's evening continued with diarrhea, but no more throw up. I posted about how I hoped the boys would not get what she got, particularly since Colton has surgery coming up in a few weeks. Yeah, well.....no such luck.

I already know that my words won't be able to do this ordeal a justice, but it's at least worth a try. Keep reading, it'll be fun!

So, Friday, I went to work, put in a full day instead of a half day, which made me even more excited to see my Bunchkins! As I drove up, I pulled into the garage, got the mail, then walked into the house and into the living room, where all 3 babies were sitting, looking up at me, smiling!

Because it had been my little Hunter Bug who'd been sick, I picked her up first and gave her lots of hugs and kisses. Then in my usual fashion, I set her down and picked up a second baby, Ethan. And this is where the story gets interesting. I picked him and gave him hugs and kisses and then noticed his face looking somewhat distressed. And that's when it happened. He just started heaving. All. Over. Me. He could not stop throwing up. This is the first time he's ever thrown up like this so I was just worried about scared he probably was. Like a good mother (or maybe a stupid one) I continued to let him puke all both of us so that I could pat his back and wipe his face. (And of course, yell to Brian to get the camera, as all good blogging mothers would do!) WARNING: The following images may not be suitable for those with weak stomachs.....That's right. That's baby puke all over us. Awesome! And for the record, I'd like to make note that this is outfit #1.

Well, as if a baby throwing up all over the place isn't problematic enough, keep in mind I have 2 others who want to crawl all over me! As much as it broke my heart to push them away, I didn't want them covered in their brother's throw-up so, I pushed them away. And thus began the crying. Eventually, I yelled for Brian to put the other 2 in the playroom to keep them away while I cleaned up Ethan and myself.

So there's Ethan and I in the bathroom, both stripping off our shirts (I know, I know, contain your excitement), Brian is rinsing out our clothing and the other 2 are in the playroom crying, wondering why they got shut in there in such a hurry.

Once Ethan was clean enough (meaning he's no longer covered in chunks) and I have on outfit #2, I hold him and go try to console the other 2, knowing my dad is on his way over to visit any time now. So on the way to the playroom, holding Ethan, I peek in and see this:

And I hear this...."ding-dong". So let's recap. I'm holding Ethan, the other 2 are crying, I walk into the playroom to see Colton now throwing up (yes that's his pile of throw-up on the floor and on the alligator) and then I hear the door bell. WHAT TIMING! So I quickly set Ethan down in the playroom, pick up Colton, (Hunter is still screaming), we answer the door and pretty much tell my dad to go in the playroom and make sure Hunter and Ethan don't crawl into the pile of puke so that I can clean up Colton and grab some paper towels to clean up the next mess.

So now, Ethan is momentarily clean, Colton is momentarily clean, I've barely said hello to my dad who is trying to console Hunter Bug who is essentially having a temper tantrum, probably because she is not used to this fury of excitement and chaos and is wondering what happened to "calm mommy." Well, she eventually calms down, and I eventually say hello to my dad while I scrub the carpet and wipe down the floor.

Breathe.....

And then, it begins again. We notice Colton's face showing those telltale signs of "Watch out, I'm gonna puke" and before either of us can grab the paper towels, he's throwing up again and trying to crawl into my lap. (Outfit #2 now covered in puke). Total vomit count? 3. Oh...wait, not so fast...There goes Ethan again. The count has risen to 4. So now we're trying to clean him up again, quickly noting that there just doesn't seem to be enough paper towels in this house for all these messes, and I proceed to put on Outfit #3. (As I reread this post myself just now, I want to point out that I am really failing to "paint a picture" of the frantic pace of all this. This is all happening in about 10 minutes time...)

My poor Dad. He knew Hunter had been sick when he asked if he could come over. But I'm pretty sure there was no part of him that imagined he'd be catching his grandsons' puke at such a furious pace.

People ask constantly if it is hard having triplets, and often, my honest answer is, "it's not that bad." Because it isn't. Well today, I felt the pressure of having three babies and the pain of not being able to console them properly simply because we kept having this back and forth throwing up escapade. So there were my two boys crying because throwing up is miserable and sad that mommy is not holding them... :(

At some point, I think I felt like we were all suffocating in the playroom with the puke everywhere, paper towels all over the place, and just general yuckiness surrounding us...So, we moved into the living room...where the nastiness continued. Frankly, I'd lost count at some point. All I know is that there was this back and forth and often simultaneous throwing up, crying, cleaning, consoling going on. All the while, little Miss Hunter is kind of playing by herself (frankly, she was probably enjoying that fact that her 2 brothers were too sick to steal her toys.)

And then, Aunt Mary showed up. Another innocent bystander walking into our warzone. I think by the time she got there, the boys had thrown up a combined 11 times. And don't be fooled into thinking she got it out of it. As the next picture will show, she got initiated almost immediately as Colton started again.

My poor, poor babies.

We were cleaning up throw up with anything that was nearby...baby blankets, burp cloths, clothes, paper towels, you name it.

Again, I will say that aside from surgery at 3 months old, this was probably the hardest thing I've had to juggle as a mother of triplets. I wanted so badly to hold them both and console them, but the regularity of their puking was just too much. So while I held one, I was looking over at the other's pleading eyes, despite being loved on by either Grampa Sam or Aunt Mary.

Momma and Colton...

Look again. Momma and Ethan.

Grampa and Colton

Well, the evening continued at pretty much this same pace. Hunter was a champion, playing by herself allowing me to care for her brothers. Later, after at least 13 bouts of puking, we decided some fresh air might do us all good, so dad drove them around the backyard in their train.

And it was right about then that I felt that telltale twitch in my stomach like I was about to join my boys...

And I did. I succumbed to the "Bunchkin Bug" and was puking the rest of the night. As were they. As if caring for three babies, 2 of whom are sick wasn't hard enough, having to continue taking care of them, with Brian's help was just plain awful. But, if there's one thing I've learned about parenthood, it's that life can't just stop because you have babies. They still need to have diapers changed, pajamas put on, and they still need to eat. ( very minimally, of course).

So we struggled through the rest of the evening, got everyone changed and ready for bed, and when we thought the throwing up had finally ceased, we put them to bed in their cribs and kissed them good night. Then I laid myself out on one of the couches downstairs, Brian plunked himself on the other one and we kinda just hung out there for the next few hours, sporadically pulling myself up to go throw up again (my total count was 6, I believe...)

At 1:00 in the morning, I decided to get myself into my bed. So I woke Brian off the other couch and we took ourselves upstairs. But, like I always do, before I got into bed, I opened the door to the nursery to check on my babies one more time, and I nearly fell over. It was as though someone punched me in the gut, the odor coming from that room was seriously that foul. I almost did not want to take a breath, but I needed to know which baby (or babies it was coming from). And please keep in mind that my stomach is already unsettled from having been throwing up myself...

So first stop was filling up the humidifier and getting that running, hoping against hope that it would help refresh the air somehow. Next stop, Colton's crib. By the dim light of the night-light, I feel around in his crib and sure enough, I can feel a fairly large area that is dried and crusted, but was clearly throw-up. AWESOME. Because I really didn't want to wake him up, rather than totally remove his sheet, I instead cover the crib with blankets tucked into the sides to sort of "act" as a new sheet. It wasn't perfect, but again, it's now 1:30 am and I am wiped out. So I figured that was where the stench was coming from, but I was rather bummed when the stench had gotten no less pungent. Which told me there was another culprit. Next stop, Ethan's crib.

Again, I feel around in near darkness and I feel nothing. Whew.

Third stop? Hunter's crib. I lean over and POW! Found it. Except it was not throw-up, it was diarrhea and it was BAD. All over her jammies, all over her sheets. This one, I could simply "cover up." So, out of her crib she comes. Into the hallway, where I strip her naked, clean her up, put on a fresh diaper, and clean jammies. Then I need to strip her sheet off her bed and put on a new one. At this point (1:45 am) she is wide awake and standing, screaming in her crib.

By some miracle, the boys stayed asleep and she gave up after about 10 minutes. Thank God. Finally, I put myself to bed.

And about 15 minutes later, I hear it. Brian is in the bathroom, throwing up. Dear GOD!! Why us??? So he dealt with his bug on and off through the night. I awoke the next morning at about 7:00 wanting nothing to more than to stay asleep. But all I could think about was the nasty messes downstairs and I didn't want my entire sick family to wake up to a dirty, germy house. So I got up, opened all the windows, started vacuuming, mopping, wiping down surfaces, toys, counters, spraying lysol on everything, doing a load of laundry, and pretty much cleaning everything in sight.

The babies awoke at about 9:15...and they were lethargic from their day and night of throw up and diarrhea. It was seriously all they could do to lift their little heads off the carpet.

Hunter Bug

Colton

Ethan Bear

So the good news is that we spent the whole next day throw-up free (except for Brian who remained down and out for the day.) THANK GOD for a 24 hour bug. This is me and 2 of my babies in the playroom....I was lying on their bean bag and they kept crawling over to me and snuggling in....clearly happy to be feeling better. (And yes, that is me, unshowered and having been puked on for 24 hours....nasty)

So a whole day passed, and no one except Brian threw up on Saturday. Sunday, (today) came and almost went. I got a call from both my sister and my dad saying that they had both been throwing up all night and all morning. THIS STUPID BUG SPARED NO ONE!!! I feel really, really, really badly that everyone got sick from our house and our children.

And I felt even worse Sunday night, after I'd been home all day alone with the babies when Hunter started throwing up, followed shortly by Ethan once again. Wow. All I can say is Wow. Separately, I bathed Hunter and Ethan, started disinfecting as fast I could possibly go, and prayed hard that Colton was spared...

Thank God, Brian came home from work at about 8:00 and was able to help me with the kiddos. So for now, they're all asleep. And you can bet your sweet you-know-what that when I go to bed tonight, and open their door, I will be PRAYING that no one has gotten sick.

But I've got clean sheets and new jammies ready to go. Just...in...case...

Here's to a healthy tomorrow.

****Just a side note. It's as if this is the blog that never ends...moments before I hit "publish", Ethan has just thrown up in his crib...So I'm back after stripping yet another set of sheets, and making up a new set, and by god, I'm hitting publish now, and I'm not even going to tell you if anyone else throws up.

But I am putting ANOTHER clean sheet and another set of jammies outside their door....just...in....case... Again.