sickness and health

Poor Dorian. We made it back from England last Monday night and all went straight to bed. Tuesday was spent unpacking and catching up. Dorian got reacquainted with his toys while we disassembled his cot and removed his changing table. Now he sleeps on a mattress on the floor and has a cool tent from his Nana and Granta to play in. We didn't leave the house once, except to the store for groceries.

The next day, conscious he needed to be out and playing, I took him to a nearby playgroup. He seemed fine: toddling about, playing with the toys, reading books, watching the older kids...business as usual. I sat with him at the play-dough table, but became a bit too engrossed in making sure the guitar I was making was accurate. When I finally looked down Dorian had his face slightly scrunched, like he was about to cry. I picked him up and then stood. As soon as I did, a milky wave of baby sick emanated from him, all over my T-shirt and trousers. Somewhat dazed, I ran with him to the restroom to clean up. I presumed he'd swallowed some dough, so tried to reassure the other parent by shouting, "it's the plasticine! it's the plasticine!" Later I found out no-one here knows what plasticine is (trade name apparently), so I probably seemed a bit weird, covered in vomit and shouting incoherently. When I got him to the bathroom and half presentable he turned back into Mr Creosote and covered me a second time. I emerged from the restroom worse than when I went in and took a weak, fragile looking Dori back home.

After a bath and some food he seemed much better, so I figured I had been right about him swallowing some play-dough. He seemed well enough for me to take him to Gymbouree in the afternoon. I thought he would be excited to see his friends and all the Gymbouree stuff, but he just lay in my lap the whole time. I put it down to jet lag and the shock of his morning adventures (he'd never vomited before) so we left early and he went to bed.

The next morning he seemed brighter, but on changing his diaper it became obvious all was not well. It was filled with a pool of bright yellow diarrhea. Some had spread up his back and down his legs, but the worst was yet to come. As I held him up to put on a clean diaper I accidentally squeezed his stomach and he emptied out onto my lap! With a vomit shower one day and a diarrhea bath the next I was feeling like I'd passed some sort of initiation to becoming a real dad. Actually I was feeling pretty wretched, but Dori was worse so I couldn't complain.

For a week, he's not been eating much and producing a lot of watery poo. I've done a lot of washing (clothes, sofa covers duvets etc) - that stuff gets everywhere. There has been some farting that was probably picked up by the California Geological Survey and our appartment has been smelling like a chemical plant. Worst of all, we've not been able to go out much.

Thankfully he was back to his old self yesterday (just in time for the heat wave to give way to rain). It's been a looong week.