Before you become a parent, you hear stories about babies and projectile vomiting and think to yourself "How can this possibly be true?" Then you have a baby, and realize it is not only completely true, but a moment you can never forget or seem to get any control over. Our first projectile vomiting episode didn't occur immediately, we only had the daily reflux-after-eating episodes. Then, it happened...the nasty, acidic pediasure shot clear across the room, with no understanding of the moment, I grabbed the first thing I could find...nothing, except my hand...and yep, I put my hand over her mouth, trying to keep it in. That didn't work at all. It was a mess, and gross, and all over the carpet. She ended up with a stomach bug, so by the time we got her clean, the sofa clean, the floor clean...it happened again...and again.
Now, somehow we have successfully made it five years without a major episode in the car. We have had a few minor upchucks while traveling, but nothing that couldn't be contained....until today. Bailee has been sick with a cough, threw up in bed at 4am this morning, most likely from all the coughing and gagging on stuff. Then we went out for the "my child didn't sleep all night, maybe they will take a little nap" drive, and it happened. She started spitting (which we know now is her warning sign for "get the bucket quick, I am going to puke!"), but we were driving, and had less than zero control over the situation. Round one, grab the one washcloth we have and catch what we can. It was all over her sweatshirt and pants, not a huge problem, maybe it would stop. Wrong...not even close. It happened again and again, within seconds. We pulled over so Ben could get out and open the door to help. My method of turning around with my go-go-gadget arm was not really working. We had run out of dry space on the washcloth. At the this point we were trying to, at minimum, contain it to her lap, then the eruption came. All over the inside of the door to the van, the floor, more on her, in her hair...it didn't stop. We grabbed her blanket and any other absorbable material we could find...which include her giant Elmo. Ugh...never could I have imagined the ramifications of a "little" vomit. The van stunk...we rolled the windows down and proceeded on our way, each gagging from the smell.
Then she got upset because we couldn't go to Kroger covered in vomit.
