2) As of this morning, I lost a total of 8 lbs. (So, I am basically back to pre-pregnancy weight, minus the weight of the baby itself.)
3) I have no idea why bananas are included in the BRAT diet. While they may not irritate the stomach, they are one of the worst things to come up via your mouth and nose, when vomiting.
4) When you are pregnant and dehydrated, you do NOT get up multiple times during the night to urinate. You get to sleep more than 2.5 hours at a time. (I think I may be onto something.)
5) We have entirely TOO MANY door knobs, light switches, remotes, iPads, and cordless/cellular phones. It took me every bit of 45 minutes to disinfect them all.
6) Combined, Warren and I have washed right at 30 loads of laundry. It should be noted that these loads were done within a five day span, and NONE of them consisted of regular laundry (clothes, towels, etc). Instead, they consisted of bed sheets, pillows, 647 stuffed animals, bathroom rugs, shower liners/curtains, nightgowns/socks, changing pad covers, and other items which were blown out or vomited on.
7) I developed a closer relationship with God. When you are pregnant, naked, and wet and have to drop down on all fours in the basin of your shower stall to hurl your guts up, you will cry out for God to help you. (If He did not already have my soul, I would have given it to Him.)
8) My mother has decided that they are going to give me drugs to keep me asleep throughout future Christmas Eves, at least those in which I happen to be pregnant. The past two have been brutal - overnight stay in the ER with a kidney stone (5 months pregnant) and a GI virus (4 months pregnant).
9) I have some amazing family and friends. Despite missing - yet another - Christmas Eve Dinner and Christmas Day Breakfast, the crew STILL came over to my house and entered a highly contaminated zone, in order to exchange gifts and spend a little bit of Christmas with me. (I love them all.)
10) I am incredibly grateful to have married a man who is unfazed by vomit and illness. Over the past few days, he could not have taken better care of the girls and I, during some truly horrendous moments for us. He cleaned up more than his fair share, gave the girls multiple baths, got up in the wee hours of the morning - many times - to help either me or one of the girls, and slept on the couch with whichever child was sick. In five days, I have not heard him complain - not even ONCE. (Maybe he is ill, too??)
11) There are few things in life that make you feel more human than eating real food, taking a steaming hot shower, and brushing/flossing your teeth, after being unable to do so for 48 hours.
12) Even when you can barely stand, you will find a way to make sure Santa comes and pictures/videos are taken of your children on Christmas Morning. For that period of time, you will forget you feel like death warmed over and will be overcome with emotion, while watching the joy on your kids' faces.
13) I cannot wait until this baby arrives and I may take medicine. (I be taking drugs, just because I CAN.)
14) I cannot wait until this baby arrives and I may drink. (I be drinking, just because I really WANT to.)
15) I cannot wait until this baby arrives and I remember. I remember that this whole week was just a small snippet of a bigger story; a story I will tell Baby #3, when we laugh together and I insist we almost died, but that it was TOTALLY WORTH IT (and I would do it all over, again).
