The weekends have been really stressful for me lately. There's not enough time to get caught up on chores, much less to have fun. I feel like I just get further behind with every passing weekend. The pile of unfolded laundry on the couch gets taller and the piles of unswept dog fur on the floor get larger. All I've been wanting is some time to get caught up. Not to get ahead, just to catch up a little. It didn't seem like having the laundry cleaned, folded, and put away and the floors swept, and least for a day, was too much to ask. I should've been careful what I wished for.
Last week R's preschool class was kind enough to give her the flu. Which she has subsequently shared with the whole family. She was miserably sick last Friday, but by Saturday afternoon she was feeling much better and had turned into a full-fledged cranky Becky demanding that we bow at her feet. On Sunday afternoon it was L's turn, and he too went through 24 hours of misery before bouncing back. I was up a lot with L on Sunday night (yes, even more than usual!), and Jeff ended up getting up for the day at 4:00 a.m. with M who wanted to know why everyone else was up.
I had a meeting at work on Monday morning, but I went home after it so I could help Jeff since he was exhausted and it was a struggle to take care of the other two while L wanted to be held all the time. It's probably a good thing I headed home, because M got sick Monday afternoon, and then we had two babies who wanted to be held constantly, plus a very jealous big sister.
Monday night was the worst of it. Both boys wanted to be held. By me. Daddy was worthless. After having them scream from 10:30 - 11:30 p.m., I finally got them both settled down with me on the living room floor. It turns out their big fans of late night TV and love Conan. They dozed off, and I was happy to be able to get some sleep. But then M woke up screaming. And I got him back to sleep. And then he woke up screaming again. It turns out that he woke up screaming about every 15 minutes for the next two hours. Finally, around 1:30, both boys passed out on the floor snuggled together holding hands (it was SO cute!) and slept for slightly longer stretches. They still woke up every 45 minutes to an hour, but that's a huge improvement over ever 10-20 minutes.
I didn't make it to work on Tuesday. But, thanks to being able to strap a baby into the sling at all times, I did get seven loads of laundry washed and the floors swept. I napped in the afternoon while the boys slept, so I didn't get the floors mopped, but I needed my rest. And I ended up mopping that evening anyway because it was Pru's turn to be sick. To be more precise, Pru was sick all over the dining room, living room, kitchen, and hall. (Dogs and humans don't actually share diseases, but the stress of our house may have driven her to eat something she shouldn't have. Or she was worn down from staying up all night with me and the boys playing Nurse Pru. Or she is the first dog to get sick from humans. Who knows.)
I actually went to work on Wednesday. Unfortunately I had a late afternoon sneezing attack that turned into severe aches after dinner and full-on flu by the wee hours of Thursday morning. So Thursday was my day to stay home sick. Since the kids and I had all had seasonal flu shots, I suspected we had H1N1, and that was pretty much confirmed by the bizarre symptoms I had. I went through all the usual flu symptoms - runny nose, aches, chills, and fever, but I went through them one at a time and I felt much, much better after 24 hours. (H1N1 is a much milder flu strain than seasonal flu.)
By Thursday night, Jeff had a sore throat and R had developed a massively runny nose. I don't know if R's sneezing is a lingering side effect of last week's illness (she has been sniffly all week) or if she caught a cold thanks to her weakened immune system. But either way, we aren't done being sick yet!
Meanwhile our TV, the wonderful, fabulous electronic babysitter that it is, died. Completely. It won't turn on. It's old, has been moved to eight different residences that I know of, has made multiple cross country trips, and has been trying to die since Labor Day Weekend, so this was inevitable. But the timing sucks. And, yes, we only had one TV. Last night I was alone with the kids and thought, no problem, I will just pop a DVD into the computer. Only it turns out our computer is so dang old it doesn't have a DVD player. Noooooo! After watching an episode of Max and Ruby on youtube which someone obviously recorded off their TV screen, I started looking around for higher quality, legal children's programming. I couldn't find anything other than 2 minute clips. Aaauggh.
But things will be better. And I will never again wish my house clean. Ever.
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