When You're Pregnant With Stomach Flu

Because things are never boring around here, the first weekend we had very little planned and just hoped to play catch up, I got the stomach flu. Ugh. (For us, very little planned means a Wolves game, play date brunch, baby shower, and possible dinner guest.)

However, stomach flu happens. Sure, it sucks. But, we've all had it and deal with the torture for 24-48 hours. When stomach flu happens and you're pregnant and you can't hold anything down for about 10 hours, your doctor tells you to go to the hospital to get an IV.

I fought the whole hospital thing. I really didn't want to spend most of the day there. I kept having long moments of feeling better and convinced myself I'd be OK. I even managed to get some work done, but then a sip of water would send me running back to the bathroom. I was wrecked.

And I was wrong to not want to go to the hospital. Yes, sitting in the waiting room for 45 minutes sucked and the bed was uncomfortable and I was cold and spent a few hours there, but this is what I learned: When you're pregnant and you have the flu and your doctor tells you to go to the hospital to get an IV: GO!

I can't tell you how much better I felt once I had a bag of fluid and some anti-nausea medicine pumped in my vein. Don't get me wrong, I'm still not feeling terrific, but I would have been in much worse shape if I didn't get the nausea under control and some fluids in my body.

So, if you're like me, and try to avoid the hospital and think you can power through anything... Well, here is one situation where I'm admitting that I was wrong. (Shocking, I know! It doesn't happen often.)

Luckily, everyone else in the house seems to have dodged this bug and I'm pretty much over it. When you're a sick mom, the first thing you think is to contain the germs so your kid doesn't get sick. And that was my first thought: Wash hands and be careful. My mom came over while I was at the hospital and washed the towels and wiped down everything she thought I might have touched. And then when I woke up Saturday morning I scrubbed the bathroom clean. (I even took a tooth brush to the toilet - not kidding. It was oddly fulfilling.) And that's where we are now. I have yet to eat a meal, still living on crackers and Gatorade, but I'm better.

Again, moral of the story to all the pregnant ladies out there, when the doc says it's IV time, take the offer.