Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Pukeageddon
The last 30 plus days will forever be known to me as Pukeageddon. It has been completely surreal and frustrating. We have tried to find the humor but it has been a stretch. In the end I am just extremely grateful for healthy children.
It all started on January 20th. We had to cancel Sydney's first birthday party because Elizabeth had gotten sick to her stomach. That was really the beginning of the end. From that day on we have only had a one week stretch where someone hasn't been throwing up in our house. Abbie was next to get taken down. She was so worn out at one point she could not lift her head or stay awake. Pretty scary stuff to watch your child go through.
The height of pukeageddon visited us on Valentine's night. Nothing says romance like disinfecting your house after multiple children have been sick. If you are a Goonies fan, imagine the scene where Chuck is describing the movie theatre puke stunt he pulled to his captors. That was our house for real. The next best description would be the scene from the Exorcist, you know what I'm talking about.
Elizabeth, Sydney and myself were sick for the next 5 days. E was sick for much longer. To the point where it becomes scary. She went 7 days without eating. She visited the doctor multiple times, had blood drawn and every other screening imaginable. Her abdominal pain was so severe they decided to do an X-Ray. They found an enormous gas bubble filling both intestines. They retook the X-Ray the next morning bubble gone, pain remained and she still wasn't eating. However she was no longer vomiting so that was viewed as a sign of improvement. The next step we were told was to take her to Children's hospital in Chicago. We decided to monitor her for 24 more hours.Thankfully she began to improve. Slowly eating more and complaining less of abdominal pain.
We were clear for 2 days before Abbie got sick for the third time in the last 30 days. It is at this point as a parent you feel helpless. We are doing everything we can. Keeping them as separate as possible, washing sheets, bleaching touchable surfaces, washing our hands to the point they are bleeding. I have even used disposable plates and cups and hand towels. I am convinced at this point the only thing left to kill this SuperBug is to call in an air strike on this house.
I know in the grand scheme of things this is small and this too shall pass. It has just become our entire life for more than a month, so I deemed it necessary to go into the "you remember when" category. I am extremely grateful for all of our friends and family who have been so concerned and supportive. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in our life.
Friday, February 8, 2013
An Homage to Sleep
Sleep is defined as: "the natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored ". Or if you have babies nonexistent. These days I have been thinking a lot about sleep. I fantasize about sleep, I day dream about sleep. I long for sleep. Mostly because it is constantly evading me and Kevin. This should be expected since we have three very young children but it is still a hard pill to swallow.
The third child has been the hardest of them all to get to sleep through the night. They all started sleeping through the night and staying asleep at about 3 months. While Syd also mastered this she likes to throw us a curve ball every few weeks and revert to newborn sleep behavior. This has been going on for months. When we have a newborn I am a master of living without sleep. I was literally getting 3 hours a night and functioning normally for months. It's a different story now. It's as if my body has said "look dude I can handle this for 3-4 months, but no more, you are on your own". Recently the baby will go down at 8:30pm and on a bad day, she rouses at 11pm, then again 1a and is up from 3-4am. If we are lucky the noise maker in the big girls room blocks out the wailing. If we are not lucky it's a family reunion from hell at 2am. You can imagine this takes a toll on one's sanity. In October the kids alternated waking up every hour at night. At one point my sleep deprived, delusional husband said "there is nothing more I can do for the baby, she is just upset about Oklahoma and Kansas". While Kevin is an awesome father and is extremely helpful between the hours of 6a and 10p he absolutely cannot function in the middle of the night.
I am sure many of you have experienced or are currently experiencing the same thing. I am talking to you Jilly. I know we are all in this together and this too shall pass. It just feels good to vent and laugh.
All the this thinking about sleep, got me to thinking about how cute they are when they actually do sleep. There is nothing sweeter and more relaxing than seeing your child sleeping peacefully. That being said I put together a little slide show of my sleeping beauties. Special appearances also made by Aunt Melissa, Uncle Mark, Uncle Tom, Grandma Jersey and Maebyn.
The third child has been the hardest of them all to get to sleep through the night. They all started sleeping through the night and staying asleep at about 3 months. While Syd also mastered this she likes to throw us a curve ball every few weeks and revert to newborn sleep behavior. This has been going on for months. When we have a newborn I am a master of living without sleep. I was literally getting 3 hours a night and functioning normally for months. It's a different story now. It's as if my body has said "look dude I can handle this for 3-4 months, but no more, you are on your own". Recently the baby will go down at 8:30pm and on a bad day, she rouses at 11pm, then again 1a and is up from 3-4am. If we are lucky the noise maker in the big girls room blocks out the wailing. If we are not lucky it's a family reunion from hell at 2am. You can imagine this takes a toll on one's sanity. In October the kids alternated waking up every hour at night. At one point my sleep deprived, delusional husband said "there is nothing more I can do for the baby, she is just upset about Oklahoma and Kansas". While Kevin is an awesome father and is extremely helpful between the hours of 6a and 10p he absolutely cannot function in the middle of the night.
I am sure many of you have experienced or are currently experiencing the same thing. I am talking to you Jilly. I know we are all in this together and this too shall pass. It just feels good to vent and laugh.
All the this thinking about sleep, got me to thinking about how cute they are when they actually do sleep. There is nothing sweeter and more relaxing than seeing your child sleeping peacefully. That being said I put together a little slide show of my sleeping beauties. Special appearances also made by Aunt Melissa, Uncle Mark, Uncle Tom, Grandma Jersey and Maebyn.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
To Market To Market...
Today was the day I realized I need to start writing down my life or I should say our life. How many times have you heard, "one day you will look back at this and laugh". I have decided to document our little life so I don't forget these crazy times. I invite you to come along for the ride.
Since winter has actually become winter we have pretty much been under house arrest in the Kelly compound. As it is insanely difficult to take three children ages 4, 2 and 1 anywhere alone. I had been putting off running errands for days, the list of necessary items to live and or function in our house was growing. It was the wipes that finally got me motivated. We were down to half a container and with two kids still in diapers this spelled disaster.
At 8:30 I made the executive decision we were going to go out. Try to contain your excitement our destinations included, Micheal's, Target, a posh lunch a McDonald's and for the grand finale Jewel. I was literally sweating the thought of this before the get go. It took an hour and a half just to get out the door. The older two begged to bring their respective babies. When I conceded to that, bottles and blankets were added because "mom I don't want the baby to be hungry or cold". How does one refuse that argument? Without sounding like mommy dearest, you don't. The telltale sign that I should have nixed the trip was the baby and her stinky diapers. I change her. Put shoes and socks on the other two. Grab snacks, bottles, water and we are good to go right? Wrong. I pick up Syd to load her in the car and she stinks to high heaven again. Three nasty diapers later we are out the door and I absolutely have no choice now because the littlest pooper has depleted the last of our wipes.
Our first stop was Micheal's. It takes 15 min just to get the kids out of the car and in the store. It takes only 5 minutes as is usually the case before the first stranger comes up to me and says " You must have your hands full". I smile and nod but always think "Is there a reason to point out the obvious to me"? The second most popular statement I get is. "So you are going for the boy next". I have to bite my tongue so hard in these situations. Does it look like I need a 4th child at the moment??? Boy or not. Are these people crazy? It is here that I realize I have forgotten my debit card and drivers license. They are conveniently sitting on my kitchen counter. I almost start crying on the spot. Instead I drag the kids out to the car and regroup. I have a credit card on me as long as no one asks to check my license we are moving on.
Target here we come. Target has what we refer to in our family as the "fun cart". The fun cart is a regular cart with a part attached to the front where two children can sit caddy corner to each other. It is like navigating a freaking boat. You are now pushing a collective 75lbs of children plus your purchases, fun cart my ass. For the majority of the time in the cart Abbie and Sydney pulled each others hair and were air slapping each other, while I kept repeating "stop it, be nice to your sister and Elizabeth please stop dancing in circles and walk". At this point I am seriously questioning how much of a necessity the wipes actually were. We are nearing the check out when Abbie and Syd reverse tactics. They are now repeatedly leaning in to kiss each other. Syd being only 1 does not have the technique down yet and her tongue is out. Gross. They repeat this a trillion times. Kiss, laugh, repeat. They are not screaming so I say nothing and keep moving to check out. It is at this time E announces she has to go potty. Oh my God! There is no way to fit the beast of the cart into the bathroom. I can't leave my paid for items by the front door unattended. So I stand outside of the doors and E does her first solo potty trip in a public place. The entire 5 min Abbie is beside herself. "Where did Ebeth go was repeated no less than 50 million times. Lord help me. We all survived. Next up lunch.
Lunch consisted of the McDonald's drive thru because there was no way I was taking three cranky, hungry, tired children into a restaurant by myself even if it was McDonald's. We had a picnic in the back of the minivan and I have to say it was pretty fun. When I tried to take some of Abbie's fries. She looked me right in the eye and said "Hey mommy what are you doing with my fries, seriously"? A two year old ending a statement with "seriously" is funnier than I will ever be able to convey to you. It was that statement that made me realize I have to write these crazy days down. Even when it is really hard and completely insane these girls are the best part of our lives and I don't want to forget a thing.
Since winter has actually become winter we have pretty much been under house arrest in the Kelly compound. As it is insanely difficult to take three children ages 4, 2 and 1 anywhere alone. I had been putting off running errands for days, the list of necessary items to live and or function in our house was growing. It was the wipes that finally got me motivated. We were down to half a container and with two kids still in diapers this spelled disaster.
At 8:30 I made the executive decision we were going to go out. Try to contain your excitement our destinations included, Micheal's, Target, a posh lunch a McDonald's and for the grand finale Jewel. I was literally sweating the thought of this before the get go. It took an hour and a half just to get out the door. The older two begged to bring their respective babies. When I conceded to that, bottles and blankets were added because "mom I don't want the baby to be hungry or cold". How does one refuse that argument? Without sounding like mommy dearest, you don't. The telltale sign that I should have nixed the trip was the baby and her stinky diapers. I change her. Put shoes and socks on the other two. Grab snacks, bottles, water and we are good to go right? Wrong. I pick up Syd to load her in the car and she stinks to high heaven again. Three nasty diapers later we are out the door and I absolutely have no choice now because the littlest pooper has depleted the last of our wipes.
Our first stop was Micheal's. It takes 15 min just to get the kids out of the car and in the store. It takes only 5 minutes as is usually the case before the first stranger comes up to me and says " You must have your hands full". I smile and nod but always think "Is there a reason to point out the obvious to me"? The second most popular statement I get is. "So you are going for the boy next". I have to bite my tongue so hard in these situations. Does it look like I need a 4th child at the moment??? Boy or not. Are these people crazy? It is here that I realize I have forgotten my debit card and drivers license. They are conveniently sitting on my kitchen counter. I almost start crying on the spot. Instead I drag the kids out to the car and regroup. I have a credit card on me as long as no one asks to check my license we are moving on.
Target here we come. Target has what we refer to in our family as the "fun cart". The fun cart is a regular cart with a part attached to the front where two children can sit caddy corner to each other. It is like navigating a freaking boat. You are now pushing a collective 75lbs of children plus your purchases, fun cart my ass. For the majority of the time in the cart Abbie and Sydney pulled each others hair and were air slapping each other, while I kept repeating "stop it, be nice to your sister and Elizabeth please stop dancing in circles and walk". At this point I am seriously questioning how much of a necessity the wipes actually were. We are nearing the check out when Abbie and Syd reverse tactics. They are now repeatedly leaning in to kiss each other. Syd being only 1 does not have the technique down yet and her tongue is out. Gross. They repeat this a trillion times. Kiss, laugh, repeat. They are not screaming so I say nothing and keep moving to check out. It is at this time E announces she has to go potty. Oh my God! There is no way to fit the beast of the cart into the bathroom. I can't leave my paid for items by the front door unattended. So I stand outside of the doors and E does her first solo potty trip in a public place. The entire 5 min Abbie is beside herself. "Where did Ebeth go was repeated no less than 50 million times. Lord help me. We all survived. Next up lunch.
Lunch consisted of the McDonald's drive thru because there was no way I was taking three cranky, hungry, tired children into a restaurant by myself even if it was McDonald's. We had a picnic in the back of the minivan and I have to say it was pretty fun. When I tried to take some of Abbie's fries. She looked me right in the eye and said "Hey mommy what are you doing with my fries, seriously"? A two year old ending a statement with "seriously" is funnier than I will ever be able to convey to you. It was that statement that made me realize I have to write these crazy days down. Even when it is really hard and completely insane these girls are the best part of our lives and I don't want to forget a thing.
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