Raina hates bugs -- especially the stomach ones!

Raina is immensely bothered by bugs. In fact, the other day we were cooking fresh broccoli and a worm that the prep cook clearly missed was trying to escape from the boiling steam bath. It climbed to the top and wriggled frantically. It was very visible, and so was Raina's reaction to it: she fled to the other side of the room and huddled. And we called our Independence Day picnic short because of the occasional flying insect. All bugs are bad, in Raina's mind. Now she has another one to add to the list.

Raina was her usually perky self yesterday. She played happily for hours, rejoiced when we ate at a restaurant (even though she chose to take her own food), and then played Sesame Street games until bed. It wasn't until Eric was putting her to bed that Raina confessed her belly hurt. She had a rather bad case of diarrhea, so Eric sent her downstairs for another cuddle hug from Mommy and I sent her back upstairs to continue the bedtime routine.

Approximately 45 seconds later, we heard the panicked cry for help coming from Eric. Sam and I dashed upstairs to see a fair amount of vomit on Raina's bed, her cows, and her bedroom floor. Clearly she laid down on her cows, just like always, but then she got sick all over the place. And although she felt miserable and was really uncomfortable, she was perfectly calm and obedient. She did everything we asked of her, willingly got in the tub for a bath, and stayed put when we tried to clean everything up. She didn't even look sad when I told her she couldn't sleep with the cows because they had to take a bath too.

I had felt pretty badly earlier that day and had spent some time huddled next to the toilet, so we reinforced the message for Raina: if you feel yucky again, call for us and then head straight to the bathroom! So Raina got a surprise bath, and then cuddled some more, and then she willingly tried round two of bedtime.

It didn't last long. Apparently she got up and came looking for us, then got sick, then turned around to find the bathroom, and got sick some more. The poor kid. This cycle continued for a long time, about 3 hours. Multiple times a parent was holding her, recognized the symptoms, and then dashed off to the bathroom again. It was physically and emotional painful for us to watch Raina be so miserable but stoic at the same time. We kept repeating "I'm so sorry that your belly hurts, Raina!" and she'd respond "I know that, Mommy," like she was trying to console and reassure me.

Eventually, around 10 p.m. or so, Raina decided that she wanted to lie down, as opposed to cuddling in the cuddle chair. I drew first watch and I sat with her for about an hour before I trusted she was sleeping and not going to be sick anymore.

We've had no complications whatsoever today. I pulled out all the stops just in case, but they haven't been necessary. In fact, she requested "three blue boxes of cereal" for breakfast and she was overwhelmingly ecstatic at swim class today. All in all, a reasonably fast recovery. Now let's hope that the other Whomptons stay bug free!

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