When contemplating a second child, I never really thought about what we would do when we had one of those sleep with a baby on your chest in a recliner for three nights illnesses. When I found out that our second child had an inner-womb roommate, I couldn't let myself even consider the idea of anyone ever having time to get that sick. It happens, however, more frequently than I ever even thought possible. I usually get calls from my sitters at work between 1:30 and 2:10, which is 6th period (or block, if that's what your school system calls it) due to the fact that if one of my children is sick, they usually have their worst meltdown around the afternoon nap time. One of my students made a very innocent comment last time I received such a call that my children "sure do get sick a lot". I wasn't bothered since I am pretty hard to offend, especially since I was thinking the same thing. Usually, it's nothing big, but there are those times when someone is especially ill. That my friends is when I truly feel connected to my husband. I often look back on those times and realize that we work so great as a team, even when sleep and communication are lacking. This past week is one of those times.
Tank developed croup on Sunday evening. He feel asleep early, and he woke up two hours later very ill. We are no strangers to croup. Princess suffered from croup four times a year for three years of her little life, and she is still prone to it even now. When she had bouts of croup, Dean and I worked as a team and traded her back and forth using every doctor and grandma recommended treatment there was. With Tank, however, we didn't have the luxury of switching. We did figure it out, though. It went something like this....
Night one--I took Tank into my room in his bouncy seat (hoping that being in a propped up position would help). Dean took Princess into her room and laid down with her with the intention of staying most of the night so that I could put the bouncy seat on the bed. (At least that way, if I got too tired, he would have had some sleep.) Tank went to sleep two hours later than usual, and slept for an hour and 15 minutes. He then woke up and screamed so loud that he woke Tinker Belle up (whose mini crib is still in our room). Once she went back to sleep, I took Tank into the living room at the other end of the house and had Dean go into our room to tend to Tinker Belle (who still wakes up for two bottles no matter how hard I try to train her to sleep through). At some point, he ended up taking Princess in our room as well since she woke up crying from a bad dream. Tinker Belle drank every bottle I had prepared for that night. Tank rolled around on me and cried for the next several hours. Once I got to the point of exhaustion that makes you cry for no reason, I switched places with Dean. He kept the three kids until I woke up and we switched off again for him to go take care of the farm business for the day. Thankfully, we were off for President's Day, so the massive lack of sleep wasn't too bad. I ended up taking him to our general dr. that day and getting some antibiotics for him (for bronchitis).
The next few days went about the same with complicated nighttime switch offs. We also sort of took turns missing work. Tinker ended up getting sick as well, so I went to the doctor with Tank again on Wed. receiving medicine for the croup, and took Tinker on Thursday at the first sign of illness. To say the least, life has been crazy for a while, but you know what? We survived, and while we had tons and tons of help, I honestly feel like we took care of the three of them pretty well together.
Thank you God for letting us survive the times that seem so hard when we go through them but so small in hind sight. Thank you for blessing me with children and trusting me with their care. I praise you for healthy babies and a wonderful husband!!
P.S. Dean and I are both feeling sick now.....
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