Tips for being ill with a baby 😭

[rickandmorts]

Feeling very sorry for myself, started vomiting at around 12 last night and have been up every hour to be sick again. I'm at the point I'm so thirsty but every time I sip water I heave it back up. Haven't had a wink of sleep. Laid in bed currently panicking as dp will be getting up for work at 6.30am and then we're on our own. DD is 6 months and very lively. Any tips for surviving until 5pm tonight when he's home? I'm also really worried being so dehydrated will affect my milk supply!

When I had a vomiting bug and a baby or a toddler DP used to take the day off work because I wasn’t physically capable of taking care of a small human. It happened 3 times in total when mine were little. Any other kind of illness and I got on with it, but all night vomiting makes me physically weak. If that’s the same for you, I don’t see how you can make it work.

Try a sports drink or flat coke if you've no rehydration sachets. It's easier to keep down than water. Get DH to bring a chair you can strap DC in or buggy or a playpen or cot in front of the sofa.
pile of towels for you.
Phone and charger at hand.
turn the tv on.
get him to ring you several times a day.
Will DD take anything other than milk?

WHAT?
He needs to stay home obviously?!?!
I have a 3 and 2yo and it’s always been the case that if either of us are up vomiting all night, have high fevers or are generally too unwell to be left to do childcare the other one stays home and steps in.

Im a SAHM now (used to work PT) but it didn’t change him staying off if I’m poorly. If he had been up vomiting all night would HE still go into work? No ofc not so neither should you. Plus you could pass your illness to baby. Tell him to get his act together!

I'll see what he says when the alarm goes off. It just depends what he's got going on at work, sometimes if he's in the middle of a job it's really hard to take time off as he has deadlines. I'm just panicking because yes I feel really weak and DD is clingy so if I've got my head down the toilet she'll be screaming her head off in a different room 😩

I don't have anything like that to drink but have some apple juice to sip? Okay if he can't take time off work that sounds like a plan! No she's ebf and won't take anything else. Literally started weaning this week so she's not really eating anything yet, just exploring it. Thanks

I don’t accept this ^
my husband is an NHS surgeon working 70 hour weeks with immense short staffing and stress and STILL manages to step up when needed with the kids. He’s literally cancelled entire surgery lists when I’ve been too poorly to function. Because he’s a husband and father before he’s an employee.

In all fairness to him he's still asleep and I haven't said he needs to take time off and he's refused. Will ask him when his alarm goes off. I'm really hoping it's something I've eaten and not a bug that baby will get!!

Not everybody's partner has the freedom to do this in their job. It's rubbish but a fact of life.

Op, hope you are feeling a bit better at least. Good luck.

You poor thing. Get everything you need in the one room and bunker down. Brief DO that if things get bad, he will have to come back.

Hunker down.^

Yeah this 😪. Will see what the situarion is when he wakes up. Thank you, still feeling grim. Think I need to go have my hourly vom

Have you got something full sugar and fizzy to sip? That actually sometimes helps.

Sounds like a plan. He only works locally so isn't far if he does need to go in x

If you're bf then your body will transfer antibodies to baby through the mill. Also your milk supply will be fine your body will prioritise this at all costs. I hopemyou feel better soon!

You can make rehydration drinks at home. Hang on, I’ll find you a recipe.

I’m not sure that’s true.

I’ll concede that perhaps there are a VERY small number of specialists circumstances, professions or situations where this might be the case but there’s a much higher number of cases where it’s simply not valued or prioritised that women at home (it’s largely women so this does become a gender/equality issue) also deserve the right to be unwell.

If you have a hubby who ‘can’t take time off’ just ask ‘what would he do if HE had been up all night vomiting?’
If the answer is genuinely ‘he would go into work and carry on as normal pushing through because he doesn’t have any choice’ then fair enough but if he would call in sick if it were him then he DOES have the ability to he off he just doesn’t value or prioritise you xx

That makes me feel better thank you. I've just been sick for about the hundredth time and I'm now sipping some apple juice. He's having to go in to work and baby is currently asleep but he says if I need him to come home he will.

If I was your husband's colleagues, I wouldn't want him coming in today when you've been vomiting all night. D&V bugs can spread so easily and quickly.

Here we go;
360mL orange juice, 600mL water and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt
https://www.quebec.ca/en/health/health-issues/flu-cold-and-gastroenteritis/gastroenteritis/hydrating-and-rehydrating-when-you-have-gastroenteritis

BUT every reasonable source I find (NHS+ other countries health services) says that commercial rehydration solution is better and homemade is only recommended as a stop gap until you can get the commercially available stuff. Definitely ask your husband to get you some at the pharmacy.

That's great thank you. He's just gone out. Baby has woken up and is v lively so I imagine I'll be ringing him soon to come back. He shouldn't have gone in 😩

Laughing over here as a single parent - how do you think we cope 😳

Your child is only 6 months OP so can't be that "lively" ie running around getting into things so plan for a day on the sofa with what you need within reach

Laughing over here as a single parent - how do you think we cope 😳

But OP isn't a single parent

He's having to go in to work and baby is currently asleep but he says if I need him to come home he will.

If he can come home, then he doesn't need to go in, does he?

He's behaved appallingly. He needs to come because his partner is unwell and he has a six month old baby to care for!

No she's not mobile thank goodness. She's just at the stage where she wants constant entertainment and is clingy so won't be put on a mat on her own. And she's started making really loud chimp noises so they're fun for my headache 😅. Setting myself a deadline of 9am and if I still feel as bad I'll ring dp to come back. This must be so tough as a single parent 😩

Your DP absolutely needs to stay off work.

When either one of us is ill, my DH or I agree to take car of our DS so the other can recover. Last time I had a sickness bug, I had no energy and couldn’t keep food down for a day.