Rotavirus Hell

It's 3:30 am and day #12 of sickness in our house. I am currently laying next to my 8 month old who has a 103 degree fever. Thankfully, my 2 year old sleeps!
Last Saturday we began this hellish journey by waking up in the middle of the night to Gus throwing up in his room. He had never thrown up before and we thought it may have been due to some food poisoning or something of that nature. 
Boy were we wrong!
He was acting perfectly fine the next day but that night he again threw up in the middle of the night. He continued this pattern (along with a couple of morning/middle of the day puking sessions) for the next 7 days. For the last week, he's had constant diarrhea, on top of all the puking. 
Our nights have been filled with waking up to a child puking all over himself/bed/floor, moving him to the bathtub, cleaning up said puke and child, getting new blankets/sheets/towels/stuffed animals, placing kiddo back in bed and doing it all over again every 15 minutes for 2-4 hours EVERY night. We got in the habit of having a stack of 6 clean blankets, 2 clean pillows, 3 clean sheets, alternate cleaned stuffed animals for Gus to cuddle and a stack of towels at the ready every single night. One night, we went through them all. 
This Saturday we were close to taking August in to the ER when he was simultaneously throwing up and sitting on his potty with diarrhea. We were having him drink pedialyte, when that came all back up too. Dehydration in toddlers can happen quickly and can be deadly, so mama spent that night cuddling her first born in her lap, tears rolling down her face, while trying to bribe him into drinking pedilyte one slow teaspoon at a time. Of course worst case scenario went through my mind and I was worried. All I wanted to do was have his sickness transfered to me so I could take all the discomfort and pain away. I would have done that in a heartbeat- any parent would. But unfortunately I can't. I can only imagine what parents of terminally ill children go through every. single. day. I really can't wrap my head around it.
This went on for 5 hours that night and we managed to get an entire cup full of pedialyte into him and he finally stopped throwing up. Joel ended up sleeping downstairs with him on the couch and I was up every hour checking on him while nursing Finn upstairs every 2 hours. The next morning he woke up and promptly drank 3 cups of pedialyte so I am sure he was very dehydrated. 
Tonight marks the 3rd night in a row that August has slept through the night and not had any bouts of throwing up. He still has diarrhea throughout the day though and up until yesterday was surviving on bananas and bread and not much else. His appetite really started to come back yesterday though and he ate cheese crackers, noodles, bread, waffles and bananas.For an almost 2 1/2 year old who JUST hit 25 pounds on the scale, he really, really can't afford to lose any weight from his body and I am too scared to weigh him just yet, but I am betting he lost at least 4 pounds due to this....which is a huge amount from his frame....My goal is to really fatten him up in the coming weeks.
We ended up calling the advice nurse, as well as doing our own research online and are pretty confident that Gus got infected with rotavirus. It is a viral infection that causes severe diarrhea, fever and puking. And can last up to 2 weeks. It's basically the stomach flu but in toddlers. It is very common and is picked up through infected feces (I know ewwww). We could have gotten it from a changing table out in public, or from a toy that had been touched by an infected kid's feces or a number of other things. He and Finn, like most kids, have been vaccinated against it but a LOT of kids get it despite that fact. In fact, since the vaccine was implemented, the rates of rotavirus haven't dropped at all. The worst part about this whole experience is that there is literally NOTHING you can do to get them better. It's just one of those things that has to run its course and all you can do is offer lots of snuggles, backrubs and pedialyte!

This little guy has been attacking MY little guys!

As fate would have it, just as we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Phoenix started having severe diarrhea Tuesday morning and started getting a fever early Tuesday afternoon. Since then, his fever has not dropped below 101, even with baby tylenol. I've been nursing him as much as I can and snuggling him close. He is extremely lethargic too, which is highly unusual for him. He took 3 long naps yesterday and I can't even remember the last time that happened! He did have one 2 hour bout of throwing up earlier in the week but thankfully hasn't done it since. I was told my breastmilk helps fight off the infection since I have been exposed and I would create antibodies. Just another reason I am so THANKFUL I am able to breastfeed! 
In short, this virus HAS BEEN HELL. Gus has been exhausted, lethargic and had little appetite. And for almost 2 weeks was unable to sleep for more than a couple hours without throwing up everything in his stomach. Now Finn is fighting off the virus. I just hope he doesn't start puking. I have had a lifetime supply of cleaning up puke, diarrhea, toilets and laundering everything that it touched. We have been quarantined in the house for far too long now. I am hoping everything is better by the weekend. This has been one of our most trying times as new parents. It is not an easy thing to see your child so sick and to be on call 24/7. Gus and I are both catching up on our sleep the last few days and we are both still walking around like zombies most of the time. I would not wish this virus on my worst enemy. And I really hope this is the last time we ever have to deal with it.