The Petri Dish formerly known as the Ayotte Household

That's how we are feeling over here - a big old pot of germs, floating, spreading, infecting.

It all started a week ago with me. I came down with a killer chest cold complete with mucus and cough. So it was inevitable that at least one child would be coughed or sneezed on and catch my junk. What I didn't expect was for the stomach flu to infect our house too!

Jonathan started puking Thursday night, but I thought it was because he had a lot of mucus and was having trouble managing it. We finally got him to sleep only to have him get up in the morning with more puking and what I thought was trouble breathing. We go to the doctor praying for some anti-mucus drugs, of which there are none. Stupid FDA. And come home to the FOULEST diarrhea I have ever experienced. (I described it to my mom as old man breath mixed with poop. Lovely!) So, now I'm wondering if it's still the mucus or if it could possibly be the stomach flu picked up at Kid's Day Out on Wednesday. Jonathan eats 4 saltines for dinner and a couple bites of applesauce. No puke and no diarrhea. Hooray we've rounded the corner.

Friday night - not to bad. Everyone sleeps through the night and Jonathan seems to have a little more of an appetite. I think we have rounded another corner only to find another hill to climb on Saturday.

Saturday night - Jonathan screams when I try to put him to bed. He'll only sleep if I'm holding him. So, I finally give up the fight and put him in bed with us. Midnight - Jonathan's finally asleep and then Andrew comes in our room to tell us he just got sick. So, we are up from 12-3 cleaning up after poor Andrew. Who, after throwing up a couple of times declares, "This is a bad day." Amen to that!

3 a.m. - Andrew is finally sleeping and now Jonathan is screaming. I give him some Motrin and we doze in the chair for a couple of hours. I finally successfully transfer him back to his bed and get to sleep, only to have Andrew up and ready for a new day a little before 8. Stop the madness! Keith and I look like we've been hit by a truck at this point, and Keith's stomach is starting to feel funny.

I call my mom to vent about having a houseful of sickies. She surprises us and comes to offer some relief in the late afternoon. I called her our Angel of Mercy. Andrew acted fine all day, but had very little appetite.

This morning at 5, Andrew was puking again and is now a very sick little boy. He doesn't seem to know that and keeps demanding that I feed him pizza without pepperoni, pretzels or anything but Pedialyte, which he needs. Keith is still sick and Jonathan still has a snot nose and refuses to sleep unless I hold him, and then I have trouble transferring him. I'm still coughing up a lung and hoping we round another corner tonight without any more hills!

And right now - everyone is sleeping and I should be too, but instead I'm writing about the sickest weekend we have every experienced and hopefully will never experience again!