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OK, not trying to be dramatic about life. But, I feel no shame in saying I'm ready for my kids to be healthy this week. For about 23 days now, we've had a constant illness in our house.
It started the Sunday night we returned from St. Louis. Sophia woke up to the sound of Jossie throwing up in her bed. Thankfully, she had the wisdom to call us in there. By us, I mean Joe. Seriously, he's the BEST when it comes to dealing with sickness, and they all know it. Actually, it doesn't bother me, but since we have Norah in bed with us, it's often hard for me to leave the bed to go help, and so he handles a lot of the yuckies in the middle of the night. Yea Joe! I love you. Anyway, so he gets in there to Jossie having puked in her sleep and not woken up on her back. It's everywhere. So, he has to wake her up, throw her in the shower, change her clothes and sheets. Gets her settled into bed, and Sophie suddenly feels sick and pukes. She's a freak-out puker and won't put her head down in the trash can, so that's another ordeal. So, he gets all that dealt with and decides to make a palette on the floor to sleep. Starts to doze and Jossie starts puking in her sleep again! Ugh! Why she doesn't wake up is beyond us. It's so scary. Long and short of it, Joe sleeps in there for 3 nights, because Jossie is still sick, and we're too scared to leave her. Then, he's so tired from not really sleeping well on the floor, that he moves back to our bed. We go into pray and trust God mode, and turn up the monitor. She stays sick for a week, and pukes about once a night, in her sleep. Once we didn't notice it until about 45 minutes later when she fell out of bed.
To put it mildly, stomach bugs create lots of laundry. I probably did about 10 loads of laundry that week, which consequently sat on the couch or living room floor in baskets for another 5 days. I also disinfected my house and shampooed my carpets (thanks Dad for the shampooer for Christmas last year, works great!). I'm desperately trying to keep it out of the house. At the same time, trying to balance homeschooling Sophia...OK, I missed a few days due to all of this. And, as a result of one child constantly getting more attention than the other two, there's always one of them willing to step-up and force some attention, though not always positive.
So, 4 days after Jossie stops puking, Norah starts. (What am I complaining about I had like 4 good days). She pukes for 5 days/nights. She's also a sleep puker, but I don't have a problem with her sleeping through it, because she's usually in bed with me when it happens and I'm wearing it. Yummm.
After that, I spend a couple of days getting the very messy house back in order so we can have company on my birthday. Then, snotty noses begin with the big girls, and voila! sick baby! Norah has had a HIGH fever f0r going on 5 days now. By high, I mean like 104.5 kind of high. Not the whole time, but, we've been doing a routine of Tylenol and Motrin rotations every three hours for the last few days to keep it down to like 102.5, give or take a degree. Talk about freaking out. We called the doctor on-call like 3 times this weekend. Needless to say, didn't sleep much with a hot brick on my side. Made her puke a few times shoving more Tylenol and Motrin down her throat.
Joe had to have a "come to Jesus" talk with the big girls about their sleep. Because, in the midst of the Norah sickness, probably because they weren't feeling all that great themselves, they have also been getting up in the middle of the night. So, after severe lectures (OK, more like, "here's a sticker chart. You can have a sticker if you sleep through the night....Please!!! Please! Sleep through the night?!"), they finally slept through the night last night. We didn't, because, though Norah's fever was a little lower last night, she was up crying and fussing for about 4 hours straight. With my less than rational mind, I'm thinking she's got Juvenile Diabetes (my nephew just diagnosed recently), and Joe's thinking she has meningitis. OK, we know we're not so rational in the middle of the night, but that's what sleeplessness does to your thoughts.
So, today I'm tired, and I'm back to about 7 loads of laundry, eating my kiddos lunch scraps for lunch, about 100 dishes to clean or put away, and enough clutter to kick around on the floor in every room. Norah's still not wanting to be put down much though, as she's still a little warm, so I probably will have all those same things waiting for me tomorrow.
As my dad always says when these things come up, "This too shall pass, honey." Ah, so true. I do keep some perspective through it all. It's been a long stressful month, but not the worst month we've had this year. My sister-in-law hasn't slept all night for about 10 weeks (since her baby was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, and she gets to test him sometimes hourly all night long). My mom friend down the street has brain cancer and has 3 boys to take care of. Another friend of mine has breast cancer, and a 1-year-old with Cerebral Palsy, and yet, another friend of mine has a 9-month-old with kidney cancer undergoing weekly chemo treatments.
As I write all that, I feel like I should erase all of this post previous to that. I guess, it's all relative. I still am a bit overwhelmed by my own life this month. I still feel a little sorry for myself that I don't get to just do things for me sometimes, much less live in a clean house. Yet, I also know that if I don't count my blessings and see how easy I have it, I'm really missing out on life's lessons. I know I have a God who can do immeasurably more than I can think or ask. Therefore, I know I can trust Him and have peace in all circumstances. I'm so impressed with my family and friends who have much worse situations and handle them with total faith that God is in control. He is Sovereign.
It started the Sunday night we returned from St. Louis. Sophia woke up to the sound of Jossie throwing up in her bed. Thankfully, she had the wisdom to call us in there. By us, I mean Joe. Seriously, he's the BEST when it comes to dealing with sickness, and they all know it. Actually, it doesn't bother me, but since we have Norah in bed with us, it's often hard for me to leave the bed to go help, and so he handles a lot of the yuckies in the middle of the night. Yea Joe! I love you. Anyway, so he gets in there to Jossie having puked in her sleep and not woken up on her back. It's everywhere. So, he has to wake her up, throw her in the shower, change her clothes and sheets. Gets her settled into bed, and Sophie suddenly feels sick and pukes. She's a freak-out puker and won't put her head down in the trash can, so that's another ordeal. So, he gets all that dealt with and decides to make a palette on the floor to sleep. Starts to doze and Jossie starts puking in her sleep again! Ugh! Why she doesn't wake up is beyond us. It's so scary. Long and short of it, Joe sleeps in there for 3 nights, because Jossie is still sick, and we're too scared to leave her. Then, he's so tired from not really sleeping well on the floor, that he moves back to our bed. We go into pray and trust God mode, and turn up the monitor. She stays sick for a week, and pukes about once a night, in her sleep. Once we didn't notice it until about 45 minutes later when she fell out of bed.
To put it mildly, stomach bugs create lots of laundry. I probably did about 10 loads of laundry that week, which consequently sat on the couch or living room floor in baskets for another 5 days. I also disinfected my house and shampooed my carpets (thanks Dad for the shampooer for Christmas last year, works great!). I'm desperately trying to keep it out of the house. At the same time, trying to balance homeschooling Sophia...OK, I missed a few days due to all of this. And, as a result of one child constantly getting more attention than the other two, there's always one of them willing to step-up and force some attention, though not always positive.
So, 4 days after Jossie stops puking, Norah starts. (What am I complaining about I had like 4 good days). She pukes for 5 days/nights. She's also a sleep puker, but I don't have a problem with her sleeping through it, because she's usually in bed with me when it happens and I'm wearing it. Yummm.
After that, I spend a couple of days getting the very messy house back in order so we can have company on my birthday. Then, snotty noses begin with the big girls, and voila! sick baby! Norah has had a HIGH fever f0r going on 5 days now. By high, I mean like 104.5 kind of high. Not the whole time, but, we've been doing a routine of Tylenol and Motrin rotations every three hours for the last few days to keep it down to like 102.5, give or take a degree. Talk about freaking out. We called the doctor on-call like 3 times this weekend. Needless to say, didn't sleep much with a hot brick on my side. Made her puke a few times shoving more Tylenol and Motrin down her throat.
Joe had to have a "come to Jesus" talk with the big girls about their sleep. Because, in the midst of the Norah sickness, probably because they weren't feeling all that great themselves, they have also been getting up in the middle of the night. So, after severe lectures (OK, more like, "here's a sticker chart. You can have a sticker if you sleep through the night....Please!!! Please! Sleep through the night?!"), they finally slept through the night last night. We didn't, because, though Norah's fever was a little lower last night, she was up crying and fussing for about 4 hours straight. With my less than rational mind, I'm thinking she's got Juvenile Diabetes (my nephew just diagnosed recently), and Joe's thinking she has meningitis. OK, we know we're not so rational in the middle of the night, but that's what sleeplessness does to your thoughts.
So, today I'm tired, and I'm back to about 7 loads of laundry, eating my kiddos lunch scraps for lunch, about 100 dishes to clean or put away, and enough clutter to kick around on the floor in every room. Norah's still not wanting to be put down much though, as she's still a little warm, so I probably will have all those same things waiting for me tomorrow.
As my dad always says when these things come up, "This too shall pass, honey." Ah, so true. I do keep some perspective through it all. It's been a long stressful month, but not the worst month we've had this year. My sister-in-law hasn't slept all night for about 10 weeks (since her baby was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, and she gets to test him sometimes hourly all night long). My mom friend down the street has brain cancer and has 3 boys to take care of. Another friend of mine has breast cancer, and a 1-year-old with Cerebral Palsy, and yet, another friend of mine has a 9-month-old with kidney cancer undergoing weekly chemo treatments.
As I write all that, I feel like I should erase all of this post previous to that. I guess, it's all relative. I still am a bit overwhelmed by my own life this month. I still feel a little sorry for myself that I don't get to just do things for me sometimes, much less live in a clean house. Yet, I also know that if I don't count my blessings and see how easy I have it, I'm really missing out on life's lessons. I know I have a God who can do immeasurably more than I can think or ask. Therefore, I know I can trust Him and have peace in all circumstances. I'm so impressed with my family and friends who have much worse situations and handle them with total faith that God is in control. He is Sovereign.
