Saturday, April 12, 2014

A Day in the Life/Sick babies/Longest Post Evaaaa

Inspired by the (strange?) excitement and joy I experience by reading about what other people do all day long- and loving Jenna's and Kendra's and Dwija's and all the other day-in-the-life posts, I decided to do one myself. You know, take notes, take photos, blog it likes it hot. Today got started with a super sick baby and at first I thought to myself "oh, no, no, no, no, NO you CANNOT blog today," but then I thought, "oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES. You MUST blog today." And so I did. It ended up being a crazy day. Usually we are fairly schooly and productive and not watching tv all day, etc. today was not one of those days. It was a sickness/cartoons/survival day. I'm choosing to post this play by play because, hello, we all have these days. Here is mine.

It's painfully long and mostly boring and contains 1,563 pictures. Brace yourselves.*all times can be read with an ish attached.

April 10, 2014

5:54- baby has been feverish and restless all night. He is finally sad enough for me to get up out of bed and rock him a bit. He is burning up. Decide to blog the day.

6:05- Hero wakes up and asks to take a bath. I let her because I'm so tired I don't care.

6:25- baby is settled, crawl back into bed. Doze while various children wake up and come in to our room. Kirby takes pity on me and locks me in so I can sleep a bit.

7:56- wake up to Kirby leaving for work and Cinderella on VHS. Baby stays asleep and I slip out of bed. Kiss everyone, turn water on for coffee, shuffle around picking up laundry.

8:10- start laundry
8:11- I intend to start oats but I clean a few various kitchen messes instead.
8:14- Clemmy digs through a box full of packaging peanuts, Hero requests "flapjacks" (what?), Johnny cries for pizza, break up a fight about cookies, Johnny cries for Skittles.

8:17- Realize I don't have a clean pot to cook oats in, wash a pot, start oats.

8:22- Dump the packaging peanuts in the trash before they take over my entire life and house. Realize how filled up the trash can is now, regret wasting trashcan space on packaging peanuts.

8:24- Make my coffee, cancel the dentist appt we have at 10:30 due to sick baby, who is still asleep. Pull out a frozen chicken to thaw for dinner.
8:29- Intend to sit down with coffee.

8:31- Get Clemmy a bottle, actually sit down with coffee, read a bit, pray a bit.

8:44- Mo' baba, mama.

9:00- Switch laundry, hustle the kids to their morning chores (make beds, get dressed, etc)

9:05- Clemmy is crying, Johnny gets in trouble for hitting me. He is special today. Maybe he is getting sick, too. Maybe he is a wreck because I haven't fed anyone yet.

9:06- Feed everyone.

9:14- Pack lunches for the girls. I hate packing lunches. I swear, packing lunches might be one of my top five reasons to never send my kids to regular school. I never have the right stuff, I never have matching lunch recepticle lids, then I have to collect the recepticles at the end of the day and make sure the food leftovers don't rot in them, there are always food leftovers but there is nothing you can do now because it's 8 hours after you made lunch to begin with. The girls homeschool charter offers two enrichment days a week. I usually send them once a week. I'm sending them today and my mom is driving them for me because of sick baby, who is still asleep. Bless him.

9:18- Remind everyone to make beds/brush teeth/brush hair/get your shoes on.

9:26- Clemmy feels warm. 100.8. Oh, dear.

9:45- Johnny gets his finger pinched in the swing rope as the girls are leaving with my mom for the day. He is screaming bad and his finger is bent at a weird angle. I say "oh shit, oh shit" even though all my kids are around me because I'm thinking it might be broken, or getting broken. I get it untangled from the rope. It's not broken. I suggest Netflix and Skittles because duh and Johnny perks right up.

9:50- Say goodbye to mom and the girls. Carry Johnny inside to cash out on my promises.

9:59- Netflix is being weird, start Toy Story instead.

10:04- Change Clemmy for the first time today. I'm not lying. I'm not proud and I'm not lying.

10:05- Put some fresh oatmeal in a bowl on top of someone's leftovers. Add extra butter, honey and chia.

10:07- It seems I've lost my phone. I eat my/someone's oatmeal, wandering the houses looking for my phone. I can't find it anywhere but I do find a broken window in the kids room that Hero had told me about the day before. Make a mental note to do something about it. After I find my phone and finish my breakfast.

10:15- I'm noticing that everything I touch feels like it has honey on it.

10:22- Baby wakes up. Nurse, change dipe. He is happy. Thank you, Jesus. Johnny and Clemmy are happily entranced, thank you Toy Story.

10:38- baby gets sad. Move baby to Ergo. Take temp. 103.3. I decide to go outside and hand water the garden. The baby ends up falling asleep and the weather is so lovely, I just end up watering everything I see. I pull some weeds in the garden and fill up the chickens water, pick up a few toys and gather some random dishes left out from the day before. I'm loving being in the fresh air, feeling super awake and rejuvenated now. The baby's fever breaks.

11:08- successfully move sleeping baby from ergo to bed.

11:09- Fold laundry next to Johnny and Clemmy and Toy Story. I'm starting to resign to letting today be a veg day b/c it's obvious that sickness is moving in and we are supposed to leave for a trip with my in-laws tomorrow and I'd like for things remain slightly more chill than usual. Give Clem some couch snugs.

11:28- Switch laundry, pick up construction paper scraps off of the laundry room floor, get a bottle for Clemmy and put her down for a nap.

11:33- Brush my teeth and consider a shower. Decide to read a bit instead. This:
11:34- Check on baby, he is fussing and starting to wake up and I notice a fly near his head on the bed. I'm guessing the fly is landing on him and bugging him so I get my fly swatter and kill it in my first swoop. Feeling empowered. I sort of chew on my toothbrush while I pat the the baby's back to try and get him back down.

11:39- I start thinking about my phone again. Where is my phone? I think about the girls winding up sick at school and the school trying to call me and my phone being lost. I start to worry about that...

11:40- This baby isn't interested in being asleep. Nurse, finish my reading.

12:15- Pray the Angelus. I love this prayer. I try to say it at noon every day. I love it because it reminds me to keep embracing the will of God right then (fevers? chaos?) and I need that reminder every other minute. Some days I forget, today I remember.

12:16- get up with Peter and search for my phone. He is pretty happy now and his fever is down. Search, search, search.

12:20- clean up the kids bedroom while searching. Two birds, ya'll.

12:29- I pray that I find my phone. I find an old laffy taffy and a pee diaper from earlier that I had forgot to throw away, but no phone. I say an audible prayer to St Anthony for help finding it.

12:33- I FIND MY PHONE. St Anthony!!! It was in the closet where we keep our movies (Toy Story...) No missed calls, phew.

12:48- Heat up leftovers for lunch, Johnny gets in trouble for hitting again.

12:58- Eat.

1:01- Clemmy wakes up. She feels pretty hot...

1:06- Baby starts crying, I take him to my bed to nurse him. Johnny hits me again, gets in trouble again.

1:10- Johnny and I reconcile. He apologizes and cries and it's very sincere. He is having a rough day (obv) I give him a few good cuddles but the baby is screaming now. I bust out the iPad.

1:11- baby settles

1:18- the iPad flops over on Clemmy's face. She cries. Baby wakes up. Baby cries. He is still pretty hot.
1:40- the baby is restless but wants to be held, I fill a baba request for Clemmy, survey kitchen status. Status:messy. I go back to bed with baby.
2:15- the kids are engrossed in PBS on my bed and the baby falls asleep on my chest so I lay with them and catch up on a few blogs, consider Grace's fun link up (for the record it's I Dig A Pony by The Beatles.)

2:21- baby wakes up, I decide to try and put him down in our bed, so I kick Johnny and Clemmy out of our room. The iPad dies. I whisper-yell at Johnny to go play when he comes in our room threatening to do loud things.

2:25- it worked! Sick baby is out. I go into the living room noticed Clemmy is a sick-looking lump on the couch. I pull out my phone to take a picture of her and she smiles and says cheese then immediately reverts back into lump mode.

2:29- based on Clemmy's couch status, I decide to bring some visual entertainment back to the party. I turn on Miffy and go to clean the kitchen. I make a mental plan (provided baby stays asleep and Johnny and Clemmy keep watching Miffy.) My plan is this: Clean kitchen, restart dryer, take a shower, make more coffee and sit down and drink it.

2:30- implement phase 1.

3:00- I'm on a roll so decide to fold more laundry instead of showering. Clemmy helps.
3:18- I realize I haven't fed the chickens yet and I'd rather do that while I'm still unshowered (dirty) so I go and do that. Hi girls.
3:20- I start the shower. Clemmy has moved onto Handy Manny and I'm fine with that. She is looking still sick.
3:24- receive shower visitor request, fully undressed with a tangerine.

3:25- take a picture of him.

3:26- go check in on the baby before I jump in the shower, he is asleep but he is breathing fast so I assume he still has a fever, feel sad for him and say a prayer that this illness goes by quickly, shut the front and back doors, go back to shower and find this.

3:27- have a less than enjoyable shower.

3:36- get out of shower, transform shower into bath, Clemmy climbs in, decide on tea instead of coffee.

3:37- I put on the teapot.

3:39- I get dressed as quiet as a mouse while the baby squirms in my bed. I sneak out, he stays asleep. My plan is working!

3:49- the girls pull up. I totally forget that Mary is going to spend the night at my mom's (my mom is incredible and takes one kid a week for a sleepover. Amazing, right?) She quickly gets packed up. This is what she packs (one dress+one pair of undies in a tiny box). I am fine with it. Give her 47 kisses and send her off.

3:51- make tea. Earl grey with heavy cream and honey.

3:52- sit down with tea. Hero and Johnny run outside to play. Hallelujah moment.

3:57- realize I should preheat the oven for dinner

3:58- preheat the oven, return to quiet tea time.

.....luxuriate, luxuriate, luxuriate.......

4:12- Johnny comes in and snuggles me. We've had a rough day, obnoxious momlove is given.

4:18- start dinner prep. Kids are playing outside, baby is still snoozing. I text Kirby about picking up chicken food on the way home.

4:31- crap! My chicken didn't thaw. It looks weird. The legs are frozen straight out. I season it anyway and pop it in the oven. I question whether or not dinner will be successful tonight.

4:33- I pull some greens out of the fridge to chop. When I empty the ziplock, a bottle nipple falls out of the bag along with the greens. I'm always loosing bottle nipples. This is probably why but awesome.

4:35- I round up the kids to put away their laundry and Clemmy and I pair socks. She is looking increasingly not well.

4:44- I suggest Handy Manny. She bites.

4:53- I go through the mismatched sock pile in the laundry room and wonder how much longer it'll be before I become one of those moms who doesn't match socks at all, ever. Remember I put more water on for tea.

4:56- hear back from Kirby about the chicken feed. He's on it.

4:59- check weather in Santa Cruz, start packing for our trip this weekend despite the fact that we have two sick people and who knows if we are actually going,

5:06- hear from Kirby again, he is going to mass in another direction now and can't get chicken food. I'll feed them kitchen scraps instead. He is going to home around 6:30.

5:08- hustle Hero to her evening chore of picking up the playroom. She is going solo tonight since Mary is gone but it's probably better that way. Sisters+chores=playing and zero jobs accomplished.

5:11- find Hero peeling an orange in the kitchen. I remind her that she is supposed to be not in the kitchen peeling an orange. I check the chicken. The legs are still sticking out strangely.

5:14- continue packing for our maybe trip. Remind Hero to focus on her chores.

5:16- remind Hero to focus on her chores.

5:17- the baby is up, fever, crying. Packing is looking like this:

5:20- baby is nursed and contentish. I think I can fit all five of the kids clothes into this. I cannot.

5:22- baby is fevery and sad. Nurse him. Remind Hero to focus on her chores. Clemmy is getting increasingly whiney. Wants to crawl on my bed, wants to touch the baby. When she touches the baby, the baby responds like this:

5:28- everyone is crying.

5:30- hold baby on my left, scratch Clemmy's back on my right. Seems to be working out.

5:49- Clemmy asks for a bath in the saddest voice imaginable, Johnny is rolling around on the couch/not doing what I've asked him to do approx 53 times (pick up his mess, see below). Put baby in the ergo. He is either asleep or whimpering or both for the next few hours.

5:51- I check on the chicken again. It looks like it's going to cook fine. Bring veg scraps out to the chickens.

5:52- pack some more

6:00- clean up a strange spill near the tv. Remind Johnny to go pick up his mess and bring his bath towel in from the backyard (still not listening).

6:05- Clemmy cries to get out of the bath, put on Cinderella for her. She looks like this:

6:07- put on the heat for my tea water (again), find Johnny playing in the bathtub with a medicine syringe. I decide to ignore him for now because tired. I put away our (Kirby and I) laundry instead.

6:12- stop to make tea, get distracted by something.

6:13- take baby's temperature. 101.3... Better!

6:15- hang laundry (this is special. My hardest chore ever to stay on top of is hang-up laundry. I'm impressed with myself as I type this up) decide to pray the Rosary while I work. Today has the potential for going south in the mom department, so Rosary.

6:22- Johnny's out of the tub, I tell him to pick up his mess and give him a nice speech about daddy being home any minute now and you're going to have to tell daddy you didn't listen to mommy today and what do you think daddy will say??

6:23- finally make tea, catch a glimpse of the giant recyclables tower and regret not dumping them today, make a mental note to ask Kirby to do it, make a mental note to keep saying my rosary. The first decade...

6:25- check the chicken, accidentally push a carrot out of the pan and onto the floor of the oven, awkwardly fetch it out while protecting baby P in the ergo from the scalding oven heat blast, check in on Hero who looks like she has picked up 4 things and give her an inspiring pep talk.

6:30- start greens.

6:37- two missed calls from Kirby. Hmm.

6:41- pull chicken out of the oven. Remember I was supposed to reheat leftover mashed potatoes. Darn!

6:42- reheat leftover mashed potatoes.

6:43- note how hot my kitchen is and how it's not supposed to feel this hot in April and this is why you don't roast chickens in the summer. Decide to say another decade of the Rosary. Wonder where Kirby is. Baby is fussy, Clemmy is fussy. She hasn't moved from her spot on the couch. Feed Hero dinner. Remind Johnny he can't have dinner until he's picked up his mess. Where is Kirby?

6:46- feed her a few bites of dinner, while she lays flat on her stomach on the couch.

6:53- get her ready for bed while she lays flat on her stomach on the couch, baby is fussing pretty good in the ergo, threaten Johnny again.

6:58- Clemmy shuffles off the couch and walks to her crib, crying. She must feel very terrible. I tuck her in and say goodnight.

6:59- find Johnny picking up his mess. He casually tells me that wild pigs eat cactuses. I thank him for doing his job (finally) and he responds in the most chill of chill voices," just doin' what I can." (Eyeroll foreverrrrrrr)

7:03- reward Johnny's efforts with dinner. Where is Kirby?? Decide to say another decade of the Rosary outside.

7:07- Kirby gets home. I yell at him to wait at the gate so that I can snap a pic of him walking towards the house for this blog post. I run inside to find my phone. Can't find it anywhere. I yell for him to wait just one more second. He does (good man). I give up after about a minute because this is just ridic. Instead I snap a pic of him picking at the chicken on the stovetop.

7:10- learn that Kirby ended up at a mass for the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders with Archbishop Gomez. We laugh about this, Kirby is not a Latino leader (he wishes).

7:17- go to put the baby down in our bed, say the last decade of the Rosary, hear Clemmy crying...

7:27- change baby, he coos at me for the first time all day.

7:32- read Jenna's sweet birthday post for Atlas. Peter is happy beside me in bed, his fever broke again. I'm feeling kind of paralyzed so I just layyyyyyy.

8:16- baby is almost alseep. I overhear Kirby put everyone else to bed and go to crying Clemmy another 3 or 4 times. Spy him in the doorway checking his phone.


8:45- Clemmy wakes up again. She is fevery and miserable, Kirby brings her to the couch and holds her. Peter is out but I finish editing photos for this God-forsaken blog post. I give myself till 9 because Kirby is busy with Clem anyway.

9:00- emerge and observe kitchen mess, decide to get on it. Kirby puts Clemmy back down in her crib. We have a beer in the kitchen and laugh more about Kirby's presence at mass as a not-Latino Leader. Take a pic of him.

9something- get mad at him for continually looking slightly off to the side when I take a pic of him to be funny (He alwayyyyyyys does this.) He laughs.

9:40- I sit down to work on this post. Kirby collects junk from the deep recesses of underneath our table bench. Love him.

9:50- Kirby sits down with me as I work. I realized I've only typed up until 1pm today and I mentally shoot myself for deciding to do this post in the first place. Kirby pretends to read and asks me to take a pic of him. (Jk, he is really reading;)

11:00- Kirby decides to sleep on the couch because Clemmy is crying about every 4 secs from her bed and we are both gearing up for rough nights with the sickies. I go to bed with Peter. He is hot again. I foolishly stay up till 12:30ish writing this post. I think it's the most boring post I've ever written, but stopping now would feel like a huge waste of time (so I don't.)

 

 

35 comments:

  1. I think I love your family - came over here from Kendra's.

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    2. Oops. I'll say it again... Jenny- I did an *actual* fist pump when I saw your comment. Your last post was the best!! So glad you found me.

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  2. Loved this. My favorite line was this one:
    "I fill a baba request for Clemmy, survey kitchen status. Status:messy. I go back to bed with baby."
    So my life.
    (PS. Wish we'd had more time to hang out together before we left CA!)
    xx

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  3. Your babies are so beautiful. This post inspired me, especially the Rosary part.

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  4. I love this post! I'm so glad I found your blog. Hope everyone is well now! - Amy

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  5. Yay for the Mass that Kirby attended - I was there too! Tell Kirby that we are cool with his non-Latino roots!

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  6. :)
    I love your house and family and well-used kettle.

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  7. That was fantastic... Thank you! And go to bed earlier next time ;)

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  8. You are seriously super woman. Every time you mention tending to one kid, I wonder what the others are doing. Mine are still small but I can't even imagine just letting them be while I take care of one. This post was awesome, and thank you for sharing. <3

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  9. Natalie! It gets so much easier, promise. Xo

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  10. 5 something pm "everybody crying" ha yep, sounds about right. also "where is kirby?" haha

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  11. I love this post! Thank you for sharing!

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  12. Totally NOT a waste of time. Really enjoyed that someone else prays rosary like a mom= boss, takes long time to make tea/coffee because kids and . . . Kids! Found you through Grace . . .

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  13. Girl, you are awesome. I hope that someday I can do a quarter of what you did with as much humor.

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  14. Any Mother with more than one baby is super woman in my eyes- and you have FIVE! Holy Smokes I don't know how you do it. I have a 5 month old and i'm overwhelmed constantly. Anyway, just found your blog. You make me laugh. Can't wait to read more!

    Hope everyone is feeling better!

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  15. Ladies! Thank you for the comments/commentary/niceness. I'm so happy you found me!

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  16. Not boring. Honest and real. I love a good day in the life post. More power to you mama!

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  17. Best blog post I've read in awhile. Definitely laughed out loud:) Love your honesty!! I have a 3 year old and 1 year old twins...can't imagine 5 littles!! Keep on keepin' on mama;)

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  18. Best blog post I've read in awhile. Definitely laughed out loud:) Love your honesty!! I have a 3 year old and 1 year old twins...can't imagine 5 littles!! Keep on keepin' on mama;)

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  19. Dude, I have so much respect for you.

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  20. I also LOVE "Day in the Life" posts.
    I love your little family. I only have one kid (so far), he is 4 and a handful- and I work away from home- so I have the weird combo of being jealous of you for being a stay at home mom with all the young'uns- and being blow away by you for being a stay at home mom with all the young'uns.

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  21. Hi Blythe:)
    I found you through Grace Patton's blog. I loved (just deleted many extra o's from "loved") this post! I have a 4 yr, 2 yr and 1 month old and wonder what so many other mom's not perfect days look like. I laughed so many times and felt very comforted by your day! Then was watching your Catholicism video (good job on that!) and saw your mom friend Hope--my next door neighbor in the dorms freshman year in college. What a small Catholic world it is!! (Is it obnoxious to ask you to say hi to her for me?). Thank you so much for doing a blog! Looking forward to reading more:)

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    1. Oh how awesome! I will really say hi to hope for you. I et it'll make her so happy!

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  22. Just found your blog tonight. this day in your life post was so awesome to read. As a mom of 3 I had plenty of laughs picturing the moments playing out. Loved how you fit prayer into so many moments.

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  23. What a very busy day, Blythe! With all those house chores and your kids being sick, I you must've been very exhausted at the end of the day. Anyway, how are your kids? I hope they don't be sick at the same time again.

    Darryl Hier @ US HealthWorks

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  24. What is it you're reading up there at 11:33? I love your blog by the way. So glad I found you :)

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  25. Poor baby, and poor you! You really had your hands full that day. I commend you for being a super-mommy, and faring well all through the day. Your family is picture of happiness, despite the slightly rough day. Stay healthy!

    Logan Rojas @ Focus on Kids Pediatrics

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