exhaustion

I thought I knew how it felt to be exhausted. I'm the mother of three young children, all of whom tend to wake at night and crawl into bed with me.

Today I'm feeling the total exhaustion. Not just physically tired but mentally as well. I've been ready to drop since, hmm, this morning? The source of this I know - it's kids. And not just my kids. This week was the first week that I babysat both my nephew and his sister. While they are both very sweet kids, as are my own, the combination of all of them was trying. A lot of it has to do with figuring out a routine and sticking with it.

There are fights over everything - what to eat, what to watch, who gets to play with which baby or toy. Alexa is having to share a lot more than she's used to. Normally her room is off limits for the twins. I set this rule because she needs a space of her own to have her toys that aren't safe for kids under 3. But they were in there a lot as someone was always leaving the door open.

I'm tired of picking up toys, doing dishes, laundry, changing diapers, wiping butts (big and small), cooking food. I'm tired of being a referee and having to constantly stick someone in timeout because they are hitting again. This weekend I'm going to work up a dinner and snack menu. I'm going to come up with an activities list. And I'm going to put both feet down when it comes to quiet time. My friend is a daycare provider and we were lucky to have her watching Alexa for a little over 4 years. I now understand how she treasured her quiet afternoons, even if it was only for an hour. So much can be accomplished in an hour. Heck, just 5-10 minutes of doing nothing can rejuvenate you.

I plan on spending this weekend enjoying my three kids and resting for the week ahead. At least the weather is getting nicer, hopefully we'll be able to take full advantage of that!

the crew

randomness

The first official day of spring must be right around the corner. The snowbanks are receding at a pretty rapid pace, the snowfort now a memory. The days have been a bit warmer while the nights still are pretty chilly. After the snow comes the mud, which should be interesting this year. I've yet to go invest in some muddin' boots for the kids and myself. I should probably think about moving it to the top of my agenda!

I've got another bloody cold coming on. So all day I have been suffering the tingle of a sneeze yet nothing happens. Personally I think that is the worst, it'd be so much better to just sneeze. Only one of the kids seems afflicted and unfortunately it's Jacob who handles colds the worst. Hopefully he'll make it through this one without any asthma issues. On top of that Alexa is sick again. The beginning of last week she ran a fever. I ended up calling the doctor to check in because I was concerned. Not only with the fever but how horrible her urine was smelling in the mornings (still in pullups for nighttime). I was told to give her lots of water to drink and call if it got worse.

It didn't get worse till late on Friday. We'd gone swimming at the pool and she'd been complaining about being cold ever since. I just assumed she'd overdone it. Once we got home I took her temperature and it was way up again. Later that night she started vomiting. Very fearful of a repeat of January I called the on-call doctor immediately and got in to see him an hour later. A physical exam and urine catch told us the culprit - the poor kid has a kidney infection. I'm sure I'll be talking to our regular pediatrician tomorrow and hopefully prevent this from happening again. She's a little better today but in my mind is how quickly she got dehydrated before so I'm hounding her about drinking a lot in small sips.

busy, busy, busy

Here it is the middle of March (okay, not quite but almost!) and I have yet to do an update! There has just been so much going on and it can be hard to get to sit down at the computer for more than a few minutes, not to mention being able to think! In fact I can now hear someone crying courtesy of big sister screeching about the library.

February ended/started with Alexa being sick and then Jacob. Since then we've all been through a round of colds, got to love the germs! Everything could use a good disinfecting but I've yet to find the most effective way to do that to so many toys. Suggestions are welcome!

Alexa is busy with school three days a week. Kindergarten is not that far away and she's getting excited, or at least most days. I know she's looking forward to the bus. I'm just not sure how long that enjoyment will last. She's learning to spell and has gotten really good at telling the same bad jokes over and over again.

Elizabeth is working on building her vocabulary. I'm beginning to be able to understand a lot more of what she is saying. She can say everyone's name, one of her favorite things to do is run through the house yelling "Jakey!". At first we thought she was hollering "Daddy!" until the day she chased Jacob down to give him his drink. She's quite the little mother and does a good job of taking care of her baby doll. Her random clothing fetish continues - from head to toe, you can never be sure what you might find her in. On the other hand she likes to streak!

Jacob is more quiet but very loving. He's the one most likely to give you a big hug and snuggle. He's not quite as chatty as Elizabeth but he does understand the things you say to him. He has developed quite a love for his dump trucks and tractors. Of course he's usually playing with them wearing his beaded necklaces and may be pushing Barbie around in them.
We are all awaiting the arrival of spring. Today is a cold rainy day, so different from this weekend. We're trying to get out for walks when we can and soon the playground will be accessible again!

the end of January

Phew...one month I am very glad to see over. It was a long one and half the month was spent taking care of a sick Alexa.

Chris ended up not taking her to the ER like he said he would. Instead we waited till Wednesday morning for her appointment. The doctor apparently took one look at her and just sent them right to Pen Bay. The nurse had weighed her and she had lost 4 lbs since being there Friday, not a good thing.

I wasn't able to get over to see her until Thursday courtesy of a nasty snowstorm and 3 balding tires. We all spent a few hours there that afternoon. What fun! There is nothing better than a few 18 month olds in a small hospital room. Alexa got her bed adjusted a few times by Jacob. Thankfully the bathroom also had a lock on the outside of the door so we were able to lock them out of there. Elizabeth just wanted to snuggle in bed with her big sister. We tried to have lunch in the cafeteria but it didn't end well.

Friday I went over by myself for a couple hours. Alexa was nasty and cranky the entire time. Very frustrating to have her acting like that even though I knew she didn't feel well. She is most definitely not a nice sick person. Saturday I arranged to go over for a few hours then have my grandmother relieve me as Chris had to go to Gorham to officiate a wedding. I found out when I got there that she'd likely be released if she could keep her pasta down (serious infatuation w/ pasta those drs had!). We got the walking papers around 5:30pm and heading home by 6pm.

So she spent almost 4 days, and 3 nights there. Chris was able to stay with her the entire time while I was at home with the twins. The final diagnosis was that she at some point had a stomach virus and a bladder infection. Both of those just really messed her entire system up and caused her to be constipated and to have a large air pocket in her stomach. I'm still not sure what exactly they gave her to help clear things up but know that the pediatric GI from Portland recommended it.

Now we are all working on recovering - getting caught up on sleep and housework that wasn't done. The twins are glad to have their sister and dad home. They were waking up every morning, especially Liz, looking for them.

These were taken the night before she went to the hospital. Don't mind the freaky face - she says she was trying to smile like Dora in Dora Saves the Snow Princess.

Alexa update to the update

Okay...so I was a bit more optimistic than I normally am. And this time my optimism proved failed me. After school she nibbled at lunch and went to nap. By afternoon she was vomiting again.

Today she's just been laying around, actually in bed since 12. She was able to handle breakfast but nothing but a cracker (1/2 actually) and water since. And started vomiting again this afternoon.

Chris is planning on taking her over the ER when he gets home this evening. I hope she won't have to stay but if she needs to she needs to. My mom talked to a dr friend of hers and he gave his recommendations as to what he would check for if he saw us in the ER (which won't happen b/c he's someplace sunny and warm...lucky duck!).