sick kids

[Honey693]

How do you split things up when you have sicks kids?  DD1 was so sick last night and even though DH had to go to work in the morning (his job is flexible so he can go in late, but he still has to go in this week) he did half the night with her so DD2 and I could get some sleep.  I was completely in shock b/c I thought I'd be handling 90% of it since he had to get up (I still ended up with all the puked on laundry though).  Now I'm curious to see what everyone else does.

[mbhf]

It depends on who it is. If my dh is home and it's one of the older 3, he generally takes care of everything so the little ones (and I!) can sleep (and because he's awesome) but if it's one of the little ones it's generally mostly me though he helps if I need it.

Of course they're rarely sick when he's home.

He also happily skipped the gym this morning to snuggle with our 2yo when she woke up at 4am so the baby and I could sleep another hour. I'm a lucky woman.

[TinkerBelle]

We handle it as a tag team. I clean up the child, he cleans up the mess. Then, we can all get back to bed.

I work and he stays home now, but when it was the other way around, even if he had to get up at 5 am, we still did it that way. Part of being a parent means that sometimes, you don't always get your sleep.

[ChristyMarie]

Depends on how bad it is.

For the most part, I'm find dealing with it at night.  However, puke is my limit.  If I have to strip a bed in the middle of the night, he's getting up to help.  Of course last time that happened he tried to put king sheets on a full bed.  How that actually helps I'm not sure...

[Honey693]

Originally Posted by ChristyMarie 

For the most part, I'm find dealing with it at night.  However, puke is my limit.  If I have to strip a bed in the middle of the night, he's getting up to help.  Of course last time that happened he tried to put king sheets on a full bed.  How that actually helps I'm not sure...

We gave up with the puke sheets .  I made DD sleep ona  shower curtain the I put a blanket over.  It's so much easier to clean up.

[Peony]

I do most of it, in the middle of the night though, it is often who ever has that child. We have 3 children and I'm pg with #4 so I have the toddler and DH has the older two in another bedroom. We don't usually have puking in the middle of the night, once in a while, usually is it really bad coughs especially in DD2 who has asthma. I handle all her meds, nebs, etc.. before bed and then send her off with DH. If it got nasty in the middle of the night then he would come and get me because he doesn't know her various meds well. During the day it is all me. If he is able to, he might come home 30 minutes early if someone is very ill. And because DD1's school doesn't have bus service when I have a little one that can not leave the house, that is too ill to even sit in the car, he will arrange for his secretory to pick her up from school. DD1 will just hang out at his office until he comes home. 

[2lilsweetfoxes]

DH will sleep either downstairs on the couch or in the sick child's bed while the sick child sleeps with me.  If the baby is sick, we move her crib into our room (she refuses to cosleep and thinks, unless she is in her crib, that it is playtime).  I'm operating on caffeine and sugar at work the next day.  (DH is the SAHP--but do not let him miss any sleep--last time I made him get up with a child who needed parental attention at 2 am, he just took her to the living room and let her scream for some time--at least 30 minutes as I laid awake listening.  I went downstairs-he was just sitting on the couch doing nothing to soothe her-, got her a bottle (she'd stopped breastfeeding about a year prior) and within 10 minutes, she was ready to go back to bed).

[MrsBone]

well, we only have one kid right now, so it's fairly easy..that and DS hasn't been that sick yet. Puking in the middle of the night? Usually both of us will take turns, during the day it's all me when DH is working, but when he comes home at night, we tag team. So yeah, been pretty manageable so far.

[CherryBombMama]

i generally take care of everything, if dh actually wakes up he might grab a much needed paci or something else that is in another room. i handle all the puke, otherwise my dh would start puking lol. as much as he tries, he is the type of person that cannot stay awake at night. he has fallen asleep sitting up in all sorts of situations (during both my labors, for instance)

[Llyra]

We split things pretty evenly, actually. DH is really good with sick kids-- he's very comforting and warm and can even handle being puked on and still keep his cool and stay calm, which I have a HARD time with. We have a trundle under our bed, and sick kids mostly spend the night there, and we go tag team all night. He's even sometimes taken days off from work, to help me when the kiddies were all sick, or if I was also sick. I feel like we're pretty equal partners on this.

My DD2 has cyclic vomiting syndrome ( a migraine-related disorder) so we're old hands at managing puke. When she has an episode, she vomits six to ten times an hour for HOURS, and we have a whole system worked out for managing it. We don't even talk about who does what-- we just spring into immediate action. I'm proud of that-- it means that I don't have to waste any time resenting or negotiating, so we're both fully available for DD2.

Now injuries? DH is useless on that front. DS got a huge cut on his face this summer, when DD2 accidentally hit him with a garden spade, and DH was like a wilting violet. The sight of blood makes him woozy and nauseated. You'd laugh I think if you saw him. He even gets woozy TALKING about injuries. I tried to describe to him how to take a splinter out, once, and even talking about it (in the absence of any actual splinter) he turned sheet white and had to sit down. So I handle anything involving blood and injury. (He did manage to hold it together through the birth of the kids, though, for which I am eternally grateful. I only found out afterwards how close he came to puking on his shoes-- he very valiantly hid it from me.)

[Anastasiya]

I usually take care of the sick kids during the day (unless vomiting is involved-DH will clean that up for me and I'll clean the kiddo), and at night I do the opposite of what most moms do. I have a real phobia of being with sick kids at night and I don't know why (not wanting to wake up being vomited on, perhaps) so DH sleeps with the sicklets and I take the couch.

[urbangoddess2]

We share sick kid detail.  Sometimes it's one of us or both that are up at night.  It depends on who gets woken up and how sick the kid is.  Puke necessitates both of us to be up (I insist! lol).  I'm usually the one awake at night and won't bother DH unless it's dire and/or puke-related (I'm a light sleeper).

[Aeress]

Dh will always help, sometimes he will take the day off work. It just depends. We tend to bring the sick dd to the couch, where one of us will sleep near them. When my middle dd was sick with ear pain last week, we took turns taking care of her at night.

[MnMtm]

For us, my DS only wants me when he's sick, so I've always done the full dut of taking care of him. He loves to play and roughhouse with dad, but when he's sick, or if he's gotten hurt, he only wants mom.

[Yaliina]

Like most, it depends who's sick and where everyone is.  DS1 has honestly only been very sick once in recent memory (thank God!), and I was nursing DS2, so DH ended up dealing with most of it, though once baby was sound asleep, I handed him off to Dad so I could comfort DS1 and he didn't feel neglected by mom.  Obviously, if the baby were to get sick, it would be pretty much all on me, though DH would be available to get anything I needed, if he's home from work. I love my DH, and he tries to be helpful, but honestly, he just doesn't have that nurturing instinct, so even when he deals with the majority of the illness, I'm pretty much standing behind him holding the baby and directing, lol.  ;-)

[Subhuti]

My husband's work is exhausting so i do the day and the night care for sick kids.However, over the weekend he helps out quite a bit.

But when a child has a really high fever or serious illness that requires around the clock monitoring ... I always do that, regardless of day of the week. I'm much more vigilant and more nurturing. Not to knock my dh, but it is just true.

[GoBecGo]

During the week i do it all.  At the weekend we split it up, and if i'm sick DP does it all.