The Perfect Storm

Yesterday was three, three, three bad days in one! An unfortunate confluence of events led to misery all around. The day had an ominous start, because I woke up feeling not great, but decided to go to work anyway hoping it would pass. It didn't. I left work before lunch and voted in the primary on my way home (stood in line for 30 minutes, which zapped my last ounce of strength.) The stomach flu got me...bad, after I thought I was finally almost over my cold of the last couple weeks. But wait, it gets worse:

I climbed in bed and woke up to the sound of ice pelting our skylight. An ice storm had come through, leaving the roads slick and with so may accidents that all the major highways and overpasses shut down for the afternoon rush. Of course this was also one of the days Justin had to work from his other office 45 miles away, and he had to go to a council meeting for the whole evening, so he was having his own bad day and couldn't do a lot to help me. He also has a bad cold. So what else to do but call my mommy. Mom was already home from work sick and dad wasn't feeling great (although they were more alive than I was). But mom and dad came over anyway to pick up the kids from daycare because I was in no condition to drive let alone get out of bed and take care of 2 kids. Meanwhile, the ice storm had turned every single side road in the area into a parking lot. Fortunately my parents were able to make it to daycare to pick up the kids before they closed (45mins to drive 2.5 miles), although Justin was very late for his meeting (took him 2.5 hours, and his commute is typically against traffic and takes less than an hour). He was relatively lucky though. One of his friends called at 7:15, and had been stopped in the Mixing Bowl (where the Beltway merges with I-395) for 4 1/2 hours already, with no escape in sight.

Eli was really sweet though. When he got home I was lying on the couch and he came over and said "Mommy, you don't feel good?" and gave me a big hug. Then I got up to make him oatmeal for dinner and he said "Mommy, you go lie down on the couch now, OK? You lie down you feel better."

I came the closest I ever have to passing out when I tried to walk downstairs this morning after not eating yesterday and not drinking a whole lot. Fortunately Justin took the kids to daycare this morning, although he was late for work and he has another all-night meeting after work, so I asked mom to come over to help with the kids again tonight. Today I'm home, still feeling like I got run over by a truck. But this is the most sleep I've gotten in the last 4 months...and a really NOT ideal way to lose those last 5 pregnancy pounds...ugh.

I just really hope the kids don't get this. Lena has already been throwing up several times this week because of her cold. She's congested and has coughing fits so violent it triggers her gag reflex (no, not just a little spit-up). At least Eli seems to be getting over his cold and is just a little stuffy now. I really hope we can all be healthy for a while and get back to the usual grind.