I Dream of Sleep

The boys are passing around a little bug these days. They have all run a little fever. Well, except Isaac. He never runs a little fever. He's either at 102 or normal.

Anyway, it hasn't slowed them down much. As long as they get a little ibuprofen now and then, they are doing fine. They aren't eating as much as usual, but drinking tons of milk.

But, this sickness is wreaking havoc with our sleep. It's been about four nights now since we've been able to go to bed and sleep all night. It reminds me of the early days, though get up once or twice a night is a lot less brutal than getting up six to 12 times a night. Unfortunately we're even back in the land of the boys waking each other up with their crying.

And believe me, two upset infants haven't got anyting on two upset two-year-olds!

Here's hoping it passes quickly.

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Mayday! Mayday!

Yesterday morning at 6:00 my wing man went down. The stomach virus took him hard.

Then last night at 10:30 I succumbed.

By suppertime I knew it was coming, so I rushed to get the kids fed, the house picked up and everyone in bed before I curled up and tried not to think about throwing up.

Unfortunately, the kids didn't cooperate, and both Jeff and I were up multiple times last night.

Fortunately, Jeff was recovered enough today to deal with our now healthy and energetic children. I spent much of the day dozing on and off and gradually reintroducing fluids to my body.

So forgive me for not posting a recipe yesterday or today. I still can't face the thought of food.

This is not how we wanted to spend a long holiday weekend, but if we were going to get it, the timing was perfect. We were all here just hanging out with no real plans, which meant plenty of hands to hold sick kids and lots of time to swap back and forth and get the adults some extra sleep.

I promise a return to our regularly scheduled humorous and less disgusting programming soon. Thanks for hanging in there with me in the meantime.

Tomorrow one more round of Lysol. But for now, please pass the ginger ale.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

An Ode to Vomit

Vomit on the pillow,
Vomit on the floor.
Vomit in her pretty hair,
A peaceful night no more.

Crying in the bathtub,
Wailing in the hall.
Mom & Dad are busy cleaning,
not getting any sleep at all.

Laundry by the load,
Laundry by the ton.
Hope the laundry soap holds out,
Until this bug is done.

A request for breakfast,
We agreed and held our breath.
Whoops, here it comes again!
Guess we're not done quite yet

The washer kept on running,
We bleached and mopped the floors.
The afternoon was quiet,
The vomit was no more.

We hope this yucky virus,
has really run its course.
For while it was a long night,
It could have been much worse!


© Trippin' Mama 2010

Vacation And Puke Don't Go Together

I leave tomorrow for four days of vacation with my mom and sisters.

There were many, many things I needed to do tonight. None of them involved rashes and vomit.

Clearly, my children had other ideas.

One child clearly has a severe case of diaper rash. Another I believe to be heat rash. And the vomit? I think (hope, pray) it was the result of getting worked up over the pain of the bottom cleaning, butt paste and diapering.

And the recipient of the puke? Daddy, again. Even though I stay home with the kids now, Daddy always seems to be the one they puke on. It's been that way ever since Amelia was little, and frankly, that's fine with me. I've got enough gross jobs around here. Of course, I still have to clean up the mess.

I hope this all turns out to be nothing, because tomorrow afternoon I'm getting on a plane. So shape it up kids!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Pestilence, Round II

Seems the only one to succumb to Sam's sore throat (so far, anyway) is...me.

So forgive me for not blogging, but instead taking three ibuprofen and slipping off to bed where I will pray fervently that Sam sleeps all night so his mama can, too. No need for us to commiserate in the wee hours, buddy. There will be plenty of time for that tomorrow.

It occurs to me that losing my voice now in the midst of the great climbing act the boys are perfecting could be pretty tricky. Guess I'll add one more prayer to my list tonight.

Peace out.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Update on the Pestilence and Boils

Sam's fever reared its ugly head at 2:30 this morning, so I took him to the doctor today. He has a nasty throat infection. Fortunately it's not strep, but unfortunately that means it's viral and all we can do is give him Tylenol, push the fluids and hold him, hold him, hold him.

The doc said the infection should run its course in three to five days, and we're already on day three. Sam did seem much more himself this evening. Hopefully morning brings a much happier child, preferably one who slept all night!

I also told the doc about Amelia's boil, so he prescribed an antibiotic for her to help clear that up. Even though I cleaned it out again this morning (one of the grossest things I've ever done, by the way) it still looked pretty nasty tonight. We'll give the antibiotic a couple days to work and then see where we are.

I haven't seen any locusts around my house lately, but I bought a little Raid just in case. No sense taking chances!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Nothing Says Happy Easter Like A Sick Kid

It was a true family holiday here. We had family in from out of town, so of course one of the kids got sick. Thankfully it was only one.

Sam threw up once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Saturday that seemed to really make him feel a whole lot better, and the rest of the day was pretty good until he started to run a fever at bedtime. He had a rough night. He finally managed to get a couple hours of sleep snuggled in our bed, but he clearly just didn't feel well.

Today Sam's fever spiked to 103.3, but I was able to bring it down with a bath and some Tylenol. His fever broke about bedtime, but then he wanted to eat and play, so bedtime was a lo-o-ong time in coming.

Add a boil (poor Amelia) to our disease and it was a regular party around here! Throw in a little pestilence and we would have been celebrating in Biblical style.

Actually, it was a pretty good day since Sam didn't care who held him, as long as someone held him. And we had plenty of arms available. Thanks to good planning we ate Easter dinner while the boys were down for a nap, so we were able to eat the food while it was hot and stay at the table until we were finished. That's a real luxury for us. 

I have pictures of our Easter to share, but right now I have to catch some shut eye to make up for last night. Hopefully Sam will sleep well now that the fever seems to have ended.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, too, sans the plagues.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

How Parenting Is Like the Olympics

When the sound of a puking child broke the silence last night I executed some Olympic medal-worthy moves to go to her aid.

Seriously, I could have competed on the snowboard halfpipe with my moves. I launched myself from a prone to position to fully upright and across the room without touching the floor. Then I upped the degree of difficulty by pulling on a robe as I flew down the hall. Extra points for being unable to see because I didn't have my glasses on.

Eat my powder Shaun White!

Except for the fact that there are no medals or big endorsement deals, parenting is just like the Olympics.

Ever tried to answer a child's difficult question without really answering it? I give you ice dancing.

Navigated your playroom at breakneck speed to prevent further disaster or harm to a child? Slalom.

Sped through the day's schedule dodging tantrums and meltdowns at every turn? Why, downhill skiing, of course!

Felt that your days go around and around, endlessly the same? Speed skating it is!

Clearly I'm caught up in the Winter Games, but there are lots of Summer Games events that parents could compete in, too.

Child in danger? 100-yard dash, baby. Depending on the circumstances, you might even break a record!

Your child’s first day of school, first day with a driver's license, first date? Well, I don't know about you, but I'm thinking my stomach will feel like I'm about to dive off the 10-meter platform.

Juggling everyone's schedules and needs? Sounds like the balance beam to me.

I just hope Amelia keeps this bug to herself, or I'll be doing the decathalon around here. And I'm pretty sure I haven't trained enough to compete.

How about you? What's your favorite Parenting Olympic event?

© Trippin' Mama 2010

And Then There Was One

As I write this, Sam is still up. He's been a bit under the weather, so he's allowed.

We were up at 1:30 a.m. with both Sam and Isaac. It's unusual to get up with either of them, let alone both! Isaac had a dirty diaper and went right back to sleep as soon as he was changed.

But Sam, well, turns out Sam was the source of the smell in the nursery, not Isaac. He apparently threw up sometime after we put him to bed. His pajamas and blankets were prefectly clean, but that lion's mane of red hair was absolutely mattted down. ICK! I washed his hair twice and still didn't get all of the smell out, but apparently the smell didn't bother him since he slept in it for about five hours. Another couple scrubs today finally took care of it.

Luckily, thanks to the best piece of advice I received when I was expecting my first baby, Sam's crib was double sheeted. So we removed the top sheet and mattress pad and the bed was ready for him again.

You know, no one tells you when you decide to become parents that you're signing up for midnight vomiting sessions and blowout diapers.

Maybe that's for the best.

Because if anyone really knew all the gross things they were letting themselves in for, the future of the human race might be in serious jeopardy.

Snot and The Sound of Music

That title got your attention, didn't it? Well, good, because that's pretty much my excuse for not posting much in the past two weeks.

We have entered week three of sickness in this house, and I think we're finally winding up the fun. Fevers are all gone, and we're left with just two snotty noses -- Alex's and mine. I finally succumbed to the cold after surviving two weeks on four hours of sleep a night. It was really just a matter of time.

And that's where The Sound of Music comes in, oddly enough. I did note earlier that I was headed to my sister's for a girls' weekend. Of course, as soon as I got there, I relaxed a little and that's when I got sick. Thankfully I wasn't too bad, so I still enjoyed the break. And thankfully everyone was on the mend here, so the nights weren't too rough for Jeff either.

My mom, my sisters (Minus Cathy. We missed you!), and I did a little shopping, toured the state capitol, enjoyed The Sound of Music at a local dinner theater, and then took a class in bird identification at the arboretum. The bird watching class was proof of what we always say: We can have fun doing anything! We learned a little something, and then took a walk through the arboretum.

We saw a few birds on our walk -- wild turkey, cedar waxwings, robins, blue jays -- but the birds were upstaged dramatically by the scenery. The maple woods, especially, were gorgeous! I took tons of photos, and I'm sure none of them will do justice to the yellow light that filtered through the canopy of trees. Some things you just have to enjoy in the moment, don't you?

All in all, it was a very nice break, and the opportunity to sleep all night long came at just the right time. I came home ready to tackle the last round of sickness and to get my boys all back on track sleeping at night!

I'll try to post some photos later this evening, but we are having some technical problems with our main laptop, too, so no guarantees I can get that job done.

So, my apologies for the unscheduled interruption. Thanks for hanging in there and waiting on me to resurface!

One Year Doctor's Visit

I know posts have gotten spotty all of a sudden. The boys have all been varying degrees of sick, and I haven't slept this little in a week since college finals. And, as I recall, there was a lot less crying then...

The boys had a doctor's visit on Tuesday, and they are all doing well, despite the cold and fever we've had. Here are the stats:

Sam: 31 1/2 inches (90th percentile), 21 lbs. 10 1/2 ounces (30th percentile)
Isaac: 30 inches (50th percentile), 18 lbs. 1 1/2 ounces (5th percentile)
Alex: 31 inches (75th percentile), 21 lbs. 5 1/2 ounces (30th percentile)

Even though Isaac is still a bit small, he's moving above his growth curve slightly, so the doc is pleased. And he more than tripled his birth weight of 5 lbs. 3 oz. in this first year, so that's great, too. He and Amelia are both built average height, but lightweights. But Isaac already eats more than Amelia does!

In other news, I'm leaving the boys here with Daddy for a couple days while I go for Girls' Weekend with my mom and my sisters. Thankfully the boys finally gave us all a halfway decent night's sleep last night, so I think we're past the worst of it and Daddy will be able to handle things by himself for a short time. Say a little prayer for him that the nights go well.

The Sick and The Whiny

Today has not been one of the best days in our house.

The boys all have roseola. Sam's on about day 3 of the rash, Alex just got rid of his fever Thursday and started the rash last night, and Isaac started the fever today.

Alex, Jeff and I did not sleep well last night.

And then to cap off a terrible night, Amelia woke up at 4 a.m. with a fever. She doesn't have roseola, but ran a low-grade fever until this evening. Seems like it's nothing major and will be short lived.

Thankfully, today is Saturday, so we could have a pretty lazy day. Alex took an extra nap, Amelia slept a little longer than usual, and Jeff and I both snuck in a nap, too.

We took everyone out for a little fresh air this evening, and we're hoping that tonight goes better than last night. But just in case it doesn't, I'd better get myself to bed.

Good night!

Breaking the Cardinal Rule of Motherhood

I broke the cardinal rule of motherhood the other night. That is: Moms don't get sick. This one sure did. I greeted Jeff at 6 p.m. with, "Take this baby. I have to go throw up." And I abandoned him with three fussy babies who were also getting sick and Amelia.

I did call in some reinforcements for the night feeding and for the evening. When you call someone and say, "The babies are throwing up and I am too. Can you come hold babies for a little while?" and they show up, those are GOOD people!

I threw up until midnight. The boys started a few hours after I did and threw up about 6 hours, too. Jeff slept in the nursery with them in the crib and in pack and plays. He put towels under them and just kept changing the towels. On the plus side, the boys just wanted to go right back to sleep after they threw up.

At 4 a.m., Sam needed to be walked, and by then I wasn't nauseous, so I took him for a while so Jeff could sleep. That next day was a little rough, since my whole body hurt from throwing up and the boys weren't feeling well either. One of my terrific neighbors did come over for a couple hours in the afternoon to help hold fussy babies. We rocked and walked while we watched the NCAA games. We even got two of three babies down so I could take a quick nap, which helped a lot.

Jeff spent Thursday at a conference where he had to do two presentations, so he didn't have an easy road either. But, we made it through, again with a little help from our friends.

Fortunately, the virus was short-lived, and mostly contained to throwing up. Sam and Isaac both ran a little low-grade fever the next night, but no scary high fevers or anything like that.

Now we're headed into the weekend and the boys pretty much back to their usual bright-eyed, happy selves.

Oh, and in cheerier news around here, Sam rolled from his back to his belly on Thursday and Isaac did it tonight, so all of the boys can roll over both ways now. Pretty soon they'll be rolling across the room -- undoubtedly all in different directions at once! I know that news calls for a new picture of each Sam and Isaac, but that will have to wait until later. Now I need some sleep!

Pox Update

Sam's coming to the end of his bout with chicken pox. He's all scabbed over and healing up. He had a couple pretty tough days Saturday and Sunday, but thankfully Grandma D. arrived Friday night, so there were extra hands to spend a lot of time holding him.

Alex also got the pox. They first showed up last week about Wednesday. I was braced for the worst since the doc said that cases tend to get progressively worse as they run through the family. But, Alex has about 40 chicken pox total -- about the same as Isaac. Poor Sam got enough chicken pox for all three boys.

Sam may still be a spotted pup on Christmas Day, but at least we'll never have to worry about chicken pox with the boys again.

Cold Coffee

When I was growing up, my mother was forever looking for her coffee cup. She'd set it down to tend a child or get busy doing something around the house and leave it somewhere. By the time she remembered and found the coffee, it was cold. So, into the microwave it would go. I'll bet there were days she reheated that cup fifty times.

Back then, I didn't understand how she could continually lose track of her cup and why it was always cold. I do now.

Spots, Round 2

On Sunday we woke up to find spots appearing on Sam. Here comes the chicken pox, round two! So much for the pediatrician's assurance that if the other boys didn't have them by now they wouldn't get them. It looks like Sam's getting a pretty good case, but so far he hasn't been too miserable.

We did get out on Sunday when our neighbor and her three daughters came over to babysit for the day so Jeff and I could go do our Christmas shopping. It was so nice of them, and we got nearly everything done. I have a couple more small things to take care of and I'll have to stand in line at the post office this week, but then there's just the wrapping to do. And I always enjoy the wrapping.

Sorry to be so spotty on posts. (HA! No pun intended, but that was a good one!) 'Tis the season, and I've had to sacrifice blogging for all things Christmas -- trees, decorations, presents and more. There's a post coming with video of Amelia decorating the tree that's worth the wait.

Sleep, Interrupted

Last night was going to be a big night for Jeff and me. With his sister Susie here and Amelia's sitter, Sarah, coming for an overnight, we were planning on a full night's sleep. Bliss! Then at 1 a.m. the cry came from Amelia's room, "Daddy!"

Ten minutes later came the horrible sound of a small body ridding itself of supper. Amelia threw up all over herself, her blankie and her daddy. Why did it have to be on a night when she ate a hot dog? On the plus side, as I am in week three of this cold I still have no sense of smell, which was a distinct advantage last night.

At least we weren't trying to deal with a sick child and feed triplets at the same time, thanks to the help we had on hand.

In the end, it was a short-lived virus. She had no breakfast, a very light lunch and a four hour nap today and woke up right as rain.

Maybe we'll get to sleep through the night some other time.

Today's Challenge

Amelia came home from daycare yesterday with a tummy ache. She had a rough night, and was pretty puny this morning, so I kept her home. While she was very good, at times it was a real challenge to deal with a sick toddler and newborn triplets today.

This morning Amelia and I watched cartoons while the boys slept, and I tucked her in on the couch for a video during feedings. You do what you have to do, I guess. She perked up by this afternoon, so we did some puzzles and read some books instead of watching TV. By bath time she was ready to splash and play, so I think she's back to her usual self now.

Unfortunately, nap times did not coordinate, and two of the boys were pretty fussy from 3:30 through 6:30 p.m., so this mama's headed for bed to catch a few ZZZZs before the 1:30 a.m. feeding. Still, if they are going to fuss, I'd rather it be in the afternoon or evening than in the middle of the night!

Welcome to the Infirmary

It's a sad commentary on life when the woman who is 27 weeks and 2 days pregnant with triplets and growing at an astronomical rate is the person in the house who feels the best.

Amelia has an infected bump on her bottom and started running a fever last night, so in between refusing to take her medicine (Even for M&M's!) and us getting it in her, she's bouncing back and forth between listless and wired.

Jeff is suffering the effects of not enough sleep due to Amelia's illness, which started Saturday, and too much sun and heat during yesterday's round of golf. Thankfully all he needs is some sleep and lots of fluids. And he doesn't refuse to take his medicine.

So we're taking a family sick day.

I'm hoping to get in three hours of work this afternoon during nap time, and I've been able to do a few things this morning while Amelia watched a video and read her books. So the day isn't a total loss.

Still, I guess the healthy people in our house outnumber the sick people 4 to 2!