Been M.I.A. for the Summer.

It's been a difficult summer. I had so many plans and it's already the end of July. My oldest returns to school in a few weeks and we've accomplished nothing on that list. This summer has been full of virus after virus. My oldest actually missed the whole last week of school because of hand, foot, and mouth.

It seems like one by one we get sick. Then once we are all better it takes a week for us to get our house back in order. Then we catch something else all together and the cycle continues. I've tried immune boosting vitamins for all of us but the baby. She is still nursing so she get immune boosts from me. But still we keep getting sick.

It's not just things that are contagious. My husband hurt his neck and was unable to turn his head. He had to turn his whole upper body. Poor guy was like that for a week. He still isn't 100%. I went through a case of fatigue so bad I was just falling asleep randomly. I had to fight to stay awake. That lasted for two weeks. That was at the end of May and first week in June.

My birthday was June 1st. I spent it in the emergency room with sever pain in my abdomin. Apparently I was passing kidney stones. The next few days was completely laid up in pain but when my kidney stones pain past so did my fatigue, go figure.

So really since May we've been dealing with this or that. I haven’t had a moment of free time to write a single blog post. I will get back to writing posts after my house gets cleaned, so never. *wink*

Freya's First Birthday!

Freya carried on the family tradition of being sick for all those important days. Poor little girl was running a high fever, refused to eat, she just nursed constantly. My butt is now imprinted onto the couch cushions. I felt like it was those first two weeks when Freya was first born when she nursed every 2 hours but took an hour to an hour and a half to nurse. At least she is much easier to nurse now.

The good news is she had a wonderful party that she wasn't sick for a few days before her actual birthday. She loves lambs so I tried to give her a lamb themed party the best I could. I also had a color theme of pink and gold. I will post some how to info on the decorations I made at another time.

Right now I'm dealing with a sick little girl that just wants to cuddle. She loves hugs but they are usually very short hugs. When Freya is sick it's like her hugs never end. She has such a tight hold on me it melts my heart. She has these new toys from her family that she played with for all of a few hours before she started running a fever and hasn't really played since. But in true Freya fashion, no matter how sick she is she will dance.

We put up our Yule/Christmas tree yesterday. While we hung decorations I put on music to get us in the holiday spirit. Freya was sitting in front of me when she started bouncing up and down on her knees. She smile this big toothy grin which I hadn't seen in two days at that point. She then started to shake her shoulder and dance to the music. I was so happy to see my happy little Freya again. Nothing will stop my Freya from dancing! She also loves playing her dancing Care bear she got from her auntie, uncle, and cousins. It sings the Care bear theme song which Freya sang "care bear" after a few minutes of playing with it. She's not as talkative as Morrigan was at this age but Freya is more of a doer. But Freya will say plenty in song. It's so funny to hear her sing and sing words that she won't say.

I'm hoping today is better for my now one year old princess. Freya has finally been staying cool without Tylenol. I'm keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that the fever stays away. Maybe she is well enough to eat her little lamb shaped cake pop from her party. For right now, I will let her continue to brush my hair no matter how much she is actually tangling it and ripping it out because she is calm.

I'm in the sick kid time warp!

It's like one minute it's 7 a.m, the next minute it's 2 o'clock and my slow cooker pot roast has yet to be simply be placed inside the cooker. My house looks like a bomb went off and for once it's not due from toys being thrown about. It's from the 101 things I had started today that I've dropped for my two sick munchkins.

It really doesn't help that I'm sick on top of it. My husband is sick also and the sky looks sick. I haven't seen a single ray of sun shine all day. It has been gray and rainy which really zaps my energy. Combine it with the fact I have been taking down my Halloween decorations and putting up some Thanksgiving and my Christmas village. Also, Morrigan has to build a model of a atom due next week but she has a bunch of things going on so we are doing a little bit every day.

Well, that was at least the plan before we all got sick. Now, my table is covered in craft supplies and tiny fake trees. My living room is being taken over by all the unfolded clothes, and my kitchen still has the pots and pans from dinner last night still in the sink.

The kids have been difficult, to say the least. Morrigan's coughing is driving me up a wall, her constant sniffling has gotten on my last nerve to the point that each sniff sounds like someone is running sandpaper over my eardrum. We have been yelling back and forth because the girl would rather sniffle then blow her nose.

Freya has been crying for hours because she wants to eat the faux candles I have in the windows. She won't nap today, did I mention she was up until midnight last night and then woke today at 6 am? So she's a bit sleep deprived as am I.

Of course, my husband walk in the door as soon as Morrigan finally stopped fighting me about the saline drops and blew her nose to the point the sniffles are quiet for now which also quiets the cough. Freya was finally nursing into a nap, and I sat back looking through Pinterest on my phone for some overly ambitious American Girl doll projects. Go figure! I looked at the clock, 3 pm? Guess the sick kid time warp jumped me ahead another hour. Crap!

You know what? These days happen...I'm ordering a pizza!

My Work

Life sometimes gets in the way of things like blogging. We seemed to have had a bunch of different colds circling around our house for the past month. Just as you are getting well, you get hit by the next cold. I didn't just have me to deal with being sick, I  had a sick 5 month old child, a sick 8 year old child, and a sick 32 year old man-child aka my husband, to deal with.  There were two of these colds that made me so dizzy there was no standing, certainly no walking, so nothing got cleaned. My living room and kitchen looked like a bomb went off. It was destroyed. Some might have looked at the mess and saw a terrible overwhelming mess. What I saw was a renewed sense of importance.

My husband's role in our family is very clear. He is the bread winner, the provider. He works sometimes two jobs. I on the other hand stay at home. I hold no job, I earn no paycheck, but I still work and I work hard to maintain our home and raise our kids. The evidence of home much I do actually contribute was no greater than after being so sick I couldn't leave my room. Nothing got down and it was disastrous. My oldest was so happy to see me up so I could find her missing leotard for dance class.

See, I'm not just child care provider, I'm the maid, the cook. I pack lunches, I do the laundry, I wash the dishes, I glue broken things, I change diapers, I scrub the shower and the toilet, I scoop the cat box, I mop the floors, I find lost things,and  I teach things. I'm the official battery changer, a lady of lactation, and a expert boo boo kisser, I play a mean game of patty cake and I wield a laser pointer like no other.

My two human babies and my furry baby count on me through the day for so many things. Not only do I have to attend to their needs, I teach them, love them, play with them, and cuddle with them. All are important to foster a good relationship but it also fills our hearts with love and joy. I give all of my love and attention to my kids even if it means vacuuming the rug. I keep a clean house not just for myself, but for my kids and my husband too. That is what holding down the home front means. That really is my work.

I'm not feeling that great, still have a sore throat, a cough, stuffy nose, and I'm tired but at least I don't feel miserable anymore. I do however feel worse when I look at the overflowing hampers. There is probably 6 loads of laundry to be done and two folded that still need to be put away. But its nearly 11 at night so that will wait until tomorrow.

The tough nights

When we are expecting the first baby everyone warns you about those first few months of sleepless nights. When we actually experience caring few a baby that is awake most of the night, we cant imagine anything more exhausting. But no one warns you about the exhausting nights you will have when baby is sick.

My first daughter, Morrigan, was incredibly easy. She slept through the night at 2 months old and didn't get sick until 8 months old. My second daughter, Freya, is colic so i'm used to pacing her around while she screams her head off. But nothing prepared me for the day Freya got sick.

Usually I sleep so well in the rain but the baby in the bassinet stirred. Freya had been sick for a few days now. She was stuffy and congested. I had only closed my eyes for maybe 20 minutes. I had paced the living room until 1 am with her and finally laid down in bed once she fell asleep. She stirred more and she let out a tiny whimper which I know is only the start of what will become a angry screaming cry if I don't act fast. I jumped up and I took her into my bed laying her next to me. I turned her into me to nurse but she refused. The angry cry that came out of my tiny little babes startled me. I didn't expect her to get that upset that fast. There was a raspy sound as she inhaled and exhaled as she screamed.

Freya wanted to be paced again around so back to the living room so my husband could sleep.  I paced her around the living room again for hours. I tried my best to console her but there was nothing I could do. She would nurse for a short time then she would throw herself around until I put my focus back on pacing about. I suctioned out her nose which made her scream louder. I put saline in her nose, which too made her scream even louder. She was so tired she wouldn't open her eyes, she just cried and cried.

The sun came up as we paced until my legs wobbled under me, I was exhausted. The morning sky looked as sick as Freya with low gloomy clouds and drizzly rain that feel like her tears. It only made me feel more exhausted and sorry that my little girl felt as terrible as she did. I finally got her to settle down long enough for me to sit down. We sat in front of the cool mist humidifier and watched a little television.

After crying for hours Freya cried herself to sleep. I watched her start to cry in her sleep. Tears actually fell from her closed eyes.

Nothing pulls at your heart strings more than when your child is sick or hurt. I sat there and wished I could take this from her. 

No matter how many time your child is sick it will always make you feel like the first time. You will worry, you will be exhausted, and you will try your best to make them as comfortable as you can. That is what a parent does best. We have magic cuddles and boo-boo kisses.