Jeni Hears Weird Noises

In the middle of the night, or so I thought, I heard weird noises. Was that the washing machine running? And why were lights on in the hall? And hey, why is my door open, and who is in my bathroom? What time is it, anyway, and where am I?

All these questions were answered when Ben came out of my bathroom carrying the vacuum cleaner and announced that Bradford threw up. I stumbled into the boys' bedroom to find

Kilby dealing very professionally with the problem. The sheets were stripped and washing, the vomiting boy was on a different bed, and the non-vomiting boys had been moved to another room. It was 11:36. Kilby said she'd deal with him if he needed her, so I went back to bed to grab some sleep before Patie needed a little smackerel of something.

And this morning, I learned that Bradford had thrown up every hour on the hour until 4 a.m. At 5 a.m., when he was due for another round, Kilby went into him, rubbed his body down with cool washcloths in hopes that he wouldn't throw up again, got him Gatorade, and stayed with him until 7 a.m. when he went to sleep.

So this morning at 8 a.m., I closed the door to her room so she could rest. Or not. We decided to keep the boys away from the girls as much as possible, so she had the job of entertaining Ben and Nate in her bedroom, and I went on duty as mommy, nurse, and , not stopping for one minute to rest until now.

I am tired, but I am still functioning, since I didn't have to help Bradford all night long. He got much better care from Kilby, too, than he would have from me. Now we're praying that no one else, especially Kilby, doesn't get sick.