Monday, June 1, 2009

First One Thing, Then Another

Lucy seems to be doing a bit better on the reflux meds. She actually slept from 8:30 pm until about 3:00 am last night. We are still working on the pooping issue (switching her formula AGAIN), but she is less fussy and a bit more comfortable with just the addition of Pre.vacid.

Finn is decidedly less comfortable, unfortunately. Because he somehow contracted croup. Aargh. He has been miserable and waking up quite a bit at night. It has also been really hard to keep him away from Lucy - he doesn't understand why he can't touch her and kiss her right now. Saturday night he woke up at around 9:30 with a coughing fit, and couldn't breathe. It was actually pretty scary for M. and me. He woke up off and on all night long, shaking with fever and coughing uncontrollably. We've been doping him with pain relievers, and he has been on a steroid medication for a day and a half now to help open his airways. He is doing better, and will hopefully (I fervently hope!) be going back to daycare tomorrow. But he is still unbelievably whiny and clingy. My first foray into having both kids home with me all day has been more than a little trying, and we still have at least 4 more hours to go until M. gets home. I'm trying to have patience, but it doesn't help that at soon as I got the second child (Lucy) down for an afternoon nap, her older brother woke up not 10 minutes later. This happens often on the weekends, too - it seems like the two of them have some kind of sensor that goes off whenever the house is temporarily a quiet, adult-only zone.

In other news, Lucy starting giving us real, actual smiles on Saturday, of the social variety. Not the "oh my, I just farted or had a fleeting pleasant thought" variety, the "Mommy is smiling at me and talking to me so I must smile back" variety. I am terrible at record-keeping for my kids (Finn's baby book consists of a piece of printer paper with a list of dates and milestones on it), so let this blog show that at 5 weeks old, Lucy began smiling. For real. And it's adorable. She is also starting to explore her tongue, but it's more lizard-like than cute at this point so I won't gush on and on about it.

How do stay at home moms do it? We're already, shamefully, on about hour #5 of television, today, had a trip to Target, and about 40 minutes of playground play. How do you entertain two kids of vastly different ages and developmental stages, both of whom (one due to age and the other due to illness) want you to hold them all the time? And how do you get them to nap at the same time??

Lucy crying, must go!

5 comments:

  1. In our house, all bets are off when someone is sick! I don't care how much tv they watch or how much time I spend on the couch. If it keeps them from crying and clinging, that's what I do. I've even (gasp) broken from our rigid schedule to let them take naps on the couch or whatever if they're not feeling great.

    Hang in there!

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  2. Yeah, I have to say that I am not planning a second one after hearing you talk about your trials over the past 5 weeks! But I'm sure it's like anything else and soon everyone will be on a good schedule.

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  3. To answer your questions, it requires a level of obsessive-compulsion and neurosis that I wouldn't necessarily recommend. Also, it requires video on-demand.

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  4. While I was on maternity leave DS1 was not sick once but twice plus we had an extra week with him at home due to the daycare provider's vacation. When DS1 was sick I had popsicles and movies...trains and books. Lots of cuddle time with both. DS1 hasn't really napped since last year - so we deal. It is juggling a lot, but you get used to it and it isn't so bad. Fortunately for me DS2 has been an easy baby (generally)...but the DVD player is your friend when you need a moment to breathe (or pee).

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