So the first night of an eleven day road trip went like all other first nights of road trips. Carter woke up about 10 times in the night. She finally ended up coming into my bed. Whenever the dog tried to come into our bed she threw a fit so I had to get up to tuck him back in his bed. Carter woke up for the day at 6am and wanted Katie to be up right then. I convinced her to play quietly in bed until Katie woke up on her own. At 7 Katie woke up and screamed until I came in to her room to help her out of her bed so she could walk to my bed. As soon as she got into my bed both girls started fighting over covers and places and then both were missing their princess dolls and the correct dresses. We finally all got settled and the dog stood up whining to go out. I think I could handle an eleven day road trip with no problem if I just got sleep. Carter woke up with scarlet cheeks and has a fever. I sent our digital thermometer and tylenol in a suitcase with David since he is going to Virginia and we will be there in 2 weeks. I have another infant digital thermometer that I don't really trust. I really wanted to get out the door early to walk. We are almost ready to go but it is certainly not early! 9am!
Today is my parents anniversary. I think it has been 35 years! Hard to believe! Congratulations mom and dad.
Oh Jes, I can't even tell you how many times I've been in your position during all my child rearing days. Dad gets mad when I talk about it now, but I was so often run down, tired, lonely, all the things that happens to you when you are the only one trying to do so many things. He was doing his residency when you guys were little, which meant 36 hours on call, then 12 hours off, and during that time, he had to sleep part of the time. I know there were many days when you guys didn't see him before you went to school or before you went to bed, even though he had been home for hours during the day. We'd often go down to the hospital to have dinner with him just so you guys could spend an hour with him. I don't remember it being so hard when I only had two kids, maybe because I was living near my mom for awhile and she loved to take you and Maggie off to do her errands and even just a little respite helped a lot. Then when I had Claire, I was so clearly outnumbered that I either had to sink or swim, meaning get myself organized or literally sink. She was a night owl and was often up after you two were asleep. I started the habit of doing the 10-minute cleanup before I went to bed, and if I was too tired to do anything else, I made sure the kitchen was clean because there is nothing worse than getting up to start the day with a messy kitchen. I know I must have seemed like a drill sergeant making you guys pick up toys before bath time, but it was for my own sanity - I just couldn't do it all, all by myself. Over the years of all your lives, I have searched for the perfect organization/storage system for toys, games, clothes, etc. just to make you feel self-reliant and help me out at the same time. It's tough to manage, but with 3 kids you will clearly be overwhelmed if you don't get things organized. It's just the way life has to be or no one will be able to get what they need. I learned to always have some type of main dish in the freezer so I could cook it in a hurry if I had to, tried to buy only white socks so they always matched (which only worked till about age 6), and made you guys pick out what you would wear the next day so at least that part was decided already. It became part of the night time ritual before reading. We didn't have a dog, thank goodness, because I couldn't have handled it. I never minded the coming into our bed stuff because I liked it. Dad not so much, but I think it was because he never got enough sleep during all those early years. These times will pass soon enough and like labor, you'll look back and not remember a lot of the tough times, or at least remember then in a kinder, gentler way. You gotta wake up every morning thankful for healthy, active kids and just roll with it. Who really cares if your house is messy in the long run?
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