The Joys of Mommyhood

I've spent the last 3 days with a newborn who loves to be held and a very sick 3 year old. Luke fell asleep in the car on the way home from preschool on Friday and I knew something was up. Within an hour of getting home he was looking glassy-eyed and was spiking a fever. It quickly reached 103 degrees and after I medicated him, he passed out for a long nap. I know some of you are thinking that I am a horrible mother and that I should have rushed him into the clinic or something but before you start judging, I have to tell you that I am pretty laid back about big things and I totally trust mothers intuition. He was telling me his tummy hurt so I thought that we were in for a bought of the flu - fever and barfing - rah! I did CALL the clinic to tell them about my child's crazy high fever and asked them if they thought I should wake him up and bring him in. The nurse told me that there has been the same viral funk going around our Army base for months and that is part of the problem living in such a small community - all the kids keep giving each other the same germs over and over. I was to medicate Luke as needed - a Tylenol and Advil rotation and anything else that he needed for whatever symptoms popped up. By that night, however, little man had an endless supply of snot and was complaining of his ears hurting and that darn fever would get reduced with every round of medicine and then would come crawling back up. So he has been a sicky poo - complete with throwing up on me at 2:30am last night (no, not the flu but an empty stomach with nothing but snot drainage in it), but the silver lining in the whole thing is that #1 - Hannah isn't sick (thanks to a fabulous supply of newborn and breast milk antibodies!) and #2 - Luke has been napping the past 3 days which, although I feel bad that he is napping because he is sick, it gives me a nice little chunk of time to get things done - like laundry and sewing (yay! I'm back in the sewing room!) and showering (haha), etc, etc, etc.....I think he is on the mend today which is great because I'm sure he has been feeling miserable and I really didn't want to catch what he had. Oh, have I mentioned that Brian has been working this entire weekend? There is a heavy training rotation in town so they are on full schedule. Thankfully I have married one of the bestest men around and even though he hasn't been getting home until late these last few days and is pretty tired, he helps me get Luke scrubbed up and ready for bed and Hannah fed AND he helps take care of the Hannah in the middle of the night, every night.

Anyhoo, just for fun, let me tell you about my night last night. We got Hannah to bed around 9:30pm. Around 2am she woke up and I went to get the bottle. Brian changed her diaper, I took the bottle back upstairs for him to feed her so I could pump. I got back downstairs and I heard a door open and little footsteps - Luke was up. I went to take care of him - he still had his fever but he was actually kind of energetic. I got out the thermometer to take his temp, put the thermometer under his arm and within a few seconds, I got barfed on. I quickly scooped up everything and took it to the laundry room, gave Luke a bath (along with some Tylenol and anti-nausea medicine for little kids) and brought him downstairs with me so I could keep an eye on him while I was up. Brian came down to check on us - we were fine and I was able to get Luke to eat some crackers - and then he went back upstairs and got Hannah back to sleep (around 3am) and in her bed. I got Luke back to bed around 3:30am and then I crawled back into bed. Okay, here comes the exciting part...around 6:45am, I hear Hannah start to stir and fuss. I laid in bed, exhausted, wondering if I should hurry and get her another bottle, when I decided to see if she would be satisfied with popping the pacifier back in her mouth (I am kind of dumb when it comes to using a pacifier, Luke never took one so I never know how often I should use it or when I should use it, you know?) Anyways, I put the paci in and next thing I know, I woke up and it was just before 8am and I actually felt rested! I decided to get my rump out of bed and start my day before the kiddos woke up so I was able to enjoy my coffee without having to do 100 other things and Brian slept in until 8:45 or so AND took a shower all before Hannah woke back up. So it was a fabulous sleep night all around and I'm hoping we get another one of those HOWEVER, Hannah has been sleeping A LOT today so I think we're up a creek tonight when it comes to getting some decent z's.

Well now you know what we've been up to the past few days - it's been hectic and chaotic but it all works out and it is one of the many joys of mommyhood. :)

And, as usual, I have some pictures of the kiddos. Luke playing with Hannah BEFORE he got sick and pics of Hannah from this morning. Enjoy! :)