Unwanted Christmas Presents

The Wednesday before Christmas we went to a party at a local Children’s Centre to see off one of the most fantastic midwives I’ve ever met who is taking semi-retirement.  What this woman doesn’t know about breastfeeding isn’t worth knowing!  It was a lovely afternoon and great to catch up with some mummy friends I’d not seen in a while and the children all played fantastically together.  Unfortunately, just over 24 hours later, we received a surprise gift from the afternoon as Bear began throwing up as we took her up to bed, closely followed by her sister.  Within hours, I was feeling the familiar churning in my stomach that could only indicate one thing.  I spent a very miserable night trying to catch Bear’s puke while holding my own in.  A quick look on Facebook confirmed my thinking as virtually every family that had also been there reported on the sickness running through their homes.

My sick babies hold hands to comfort each other through their illness

Two long days of vomiting later and the girls start to improve, but I’m still feeling dreadful.  On Christmas Eve, both girls are more or less back to normal, and even I’m feeling kind of ok.  So we do our last minute shopping (breakfast and lunch for the big day) and I get down to wrapping the presents.  I take Bunny out for a drive to see the Christmas lights before bed and we pop in to see Nanna, Grandpa and her auntie on the way home.  She’s far too excited for Santa coming to care though and just wants to go to bed!

I naively think Father Christmas is going to have an easy time delivering the stocking presents, but unfortunately, Bear woke up screaming just as we were going to bed and disturbed her sister.  It then took until nearly 1am for her to be asleep enough to risk going in.  Bear then woke up half an hour later and then every hour after that.  Any thoughts of feeling better for Christmas Day were out of the window through severe sleep deprivation.  All my excitement for Christmas and I could barely drag myself out of bed to share the excitement at the stockings being filled, let alone gorge on unhealthy food and drink!

I got through the day and even managed some Christmas dinner, but it really wasn’t the day I’d hoped for and I still feel a bit depressed that my favourite time of the year was so horribly spoiled by the hideous norovirus.  Last year we had it for new year so missed those celebrations too.  Maybe next year, we’ll just not leave the house throughout December and hope we miss the outbreak.

If you’ve had it, I hope it didn’t spoil your celebrations and you’re feeling better.  If not, I hope you don’t – and that reading this doesn’t jinx it!