No, No, No, No, Nooooo! Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! No! No!
This I heard coming from the bedroom yesterday morning. At least I think it was yesterday. From the bedroom where Kari was supposed to be sleeping late, so that I could get a nap before the red eye flight that I was going to have to do that evening.
We had stayed up later than usual and celebrated more than usual. Our good friends, Scott and Stella, along with their two kids just returned from Singapore and stopped by for a visit. Scott worked as a pilot out there, flying an Airbus, and we had not seen them in about four years. Not to mention, this was really our first social contact, other than family, since Reagan was born. So we stayed up later than we should have.
At any rate I was moving slowly at 6 a.m. when both twins started shrieking. The night nanny, Mary Ellen, was getting ready to leave at seven so there was little point trying to go back to sleep. Rylee and Reagan were already stirring as well. So Mary Ellen left, it was Hilda's day off, and Kari was still sleeping (for the moment). I was on my own.
Things were actually going pretty smooth, for a little while. I had the twins playing on the floor, the big girls in their high chairs, and decided that coffee was a priority. This is the day that the coffee machine decided to quit working. I spent about twenty minutes fooling with it before the kids demanded my attention. Reagan is cutting more teeth, so she has been a bear. And the crying is contagious, once Reagan got going the twins joined in with volumes set to high. I was doing the best I could to settle them down without waking Kari up, but I was feeling a little out numbered. I guess that it is good that Kari woke up when she did. Otherwise the stains might have set.
Yes stains. The dogs rarely have trouble controlling themselves in the house and they had been out not more than nine hours ago. But this day one or both had a BIG problem. I am pretty sure that is was Bunker who emptied his bowels at the foot of our bed, but I am not sure who vomited and who urinated. It was quite a mess.
You know when you are at a restaurant and someone offers to pay the check, but you reach for your wallet anyway, just to be polite? Well, Kari didn't even give me the equivalent of a "wallet reach" as far as cleaning up was concerned. I knew that the clean up was going to be all me. Not that I blame her, she didn't look to be in any condition to deal with that.
So there I was, about as tired as I have ever been. No caffeine in my system. Gazing in to the disaster area that had been our bedroom. The smell of feces, urine, and vomit wafting to my nostrils and the shrieks of two babies and one toddler assaulting my ears. I was vaguely aware of Kari gagging behind me. And I was thinking that this must be some kind of cosmic joke. Do you ever feel like the universe is conspiring against you?
So I spent the rest of the morning with a bucket, a scrub brush, and a shop vac. Try to make our only real sanctuary a livable space again. I did get my nap and was fit to fly when departure time rolled around at nine o'clock. All in all it was a long day.
In other news:
Madison is rolling over pretty regularly now. Jordan is moments away from crawling, she rolls across the room.
Madison is sick again. This evening she had a fever of 102.2 and we are a little concerned. We gave her some Motrin and that brought it down, but she has spiked again and her nose is getting stuffy. Kari is thinking about taking her in to the hospital if she doesn't improve tonight. I guess at this point, as long as she isn't dehydrated and the Motrin is breaking the fever, there is not much they can do at the hospital.
It is hard to accept that we are really dealing with normal babies now. We have spent so much time worrying about them when they were premature that it is hard not to overreact.