Poor old Ruby. Three weeks into being a big sister and she has caught her first ever tummy bug. Admittedly we have been extremely lucky to get away for 2.75 years without a tummy bug, but the timing could have been better. There are no photos to go with this post; they would just break your heart - the pale listless face with the sad mouth. Today is the 4th day of it and she has finally managed to keep down the fluids and even had two mouthfuls of 'milkshake', so we are hopeful of reaching the end of it. We live in constant fear of our 3-week-old bubba catching it, or me - can't imagine trying to produce breastmilk while puking up every bit of sustenance.
The big brown eyes have been the killer - I have kept away from her as much as possible for fear of catching or transmitting it, and she has been banned from going anywhere near her baby sister. Not in so many words of course, but she understands the separation. What must it be like to be sick and not only has mummy been taken over by this new sister but now she can't even play with the baby. Hopefully that is only my mother guilt rearing its head rather than how she actually feels, but I can't help feeling it for her.
Who knows where this beasty came from, but we do vividly remember her effectively licking our car on Saturday. We were at a party and she got bored - Owen found her licking her fingers and then using the wet digits to 'paint' pictures on our car and re-licking fingers to carry on. Said car has not been washed for (erm...) who knows how long, so god knows what she collected off it. Probably not the gastro bug, but it does rather turn the stomach all on its own just thinking about it. One doesn't generally think "hmm, better get this car washed before our child starts licking it ... "