First Week at Work

Last Monday I headed back to work and ... let me not sugar coat this in any way ... it sucked!  Work itself has actually been fine - I'm slowly getting into the swing of things and it does feel good to be back amongst the grown-ups again, thinking about something other than bottles and diapers.  Other than that, this past week has been a tiring blur.  Putting aside the difficulty of getting all the kids ready for school in the morning with the parents getting to work on time (hasn't happened yet) or my picking the kids up and getting them home at a decent hour (hasn't happened yet even though I have been leaving work before 5) and forget how tiring the nighttime routine is (I actually drifted to sleep for a few seconds one night, standing up, while making the 12 bottles of 2 different formulas we have to do every night).  Let's just take the fact that Mommy's first week back at work was FILLED with sick babies.  If it weren't for my parents who, God bless them, aren't afraid of getting sick, I'm not sure we would have made it.  So, here is a little taste of our week:
Monday:  I pick everyone up and find out Catie is running a low grade temp of 99.  She is so congested, Grandma willingly agrees to watch her on Tuesday to help her get better quicker.

Tuesday: Ellis and I already feel like its been a full week of work with the morning/nighttime routine, but Catie is still running a temp. 

Wednesday:  Catie still has a temp so I take off work in the middle of the day to head to the pediatrician to get confirmation of a double ear infection.  In fact, her ear infection is so bad, the doctor calls it  a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 and one of the worst he has seen in a while.  He is surprsied she hasn't been running a really high fever with the infection.  So, she gets that awful, terrible shot of antibiotics that I know hurts like hell.  I head back to work for a few more hours.

Thursday: Grandma and Bapa agree to watch Catie for another day because of how bad the ear infection was --- except Carter throws up all over the place after her morning bottle as I am about to head out the door to work.  I throw my hands up in the air and call the doctor to bring Carter in.  I leave work early on my 4th day at work to get confirmation of what I already knew - Carter has her second ear infection within a month.  Catie, thankfully, seems to be responding great to the shot.  I head home with oral antibiotics and stay home to comfort the girls. But the next meal I give them at home that afternoon, Catie throws up everywhere.

Friday: Catie throws up twice and is fussing all day, barely sleeping, and Mommy slowly starts to go nuts!

Saturday: Catie throws up again in the morning, so I trek back to the pediatrician for a THIRD time.  He thinks its a stomach bug because her ears look fine and puts her on Pedialyte for 24 hours.  But I'm not convinced because no one else has gotten sick at all.

Saturday night: 3AM I awake to Carter screaming, open the door to the nursery, and get hit by the smell of throw up.  So, 3:30 in the morning, I am giving Carter a bath, finding out she has a 100 temperature, giving her medicine, and offering some Pedialyte for her too.  She finally drifted back off to sleep sometime after 5am.  I fell asleep for a hard 15 minutes to awake to Catie at 5:15am.  Ellis helps me make a bottle of Pedialyte, and I tell him to go back to bed so one of us is rested.  Catie is back asleep at about 6, I fall deep asleep.  When Carter wakes up 15 or 30 minutes later, Ellis gets up with her.

Sunday is a blur.   Fussy Catie, Carter sleeping all day long and hardly eating, and poor Will wanting attention and getting fussed at a lot because his overtired parents are trying to keep the babies happy.  I call the on-call doctor (again) because Catie still won't take any formula and threw up her antibiotic medicine for the ear infection.

Sunday night: Carter feels better at 2:30am and wakes me up crying because she is hungry and ready to rock n' roll.  She apparently would not go to sleep until 1:30am for Ellis who had just drifted off to sleep.  I was awake with her until at least 5 and then I think Catie woke up again... I think.  Actually, the nights are running together.  Let's just say Ellis and I have had very very little sleep these last couple nights.

But, today things are looking better.  We are slowly reintroducing formula to Catie, mixing it with less and less Pedialyte with each meal and she has not thrown up again after this morning.  Carter is totally better and back to eating her normal formula.  And everybody else is thankfully healthy (and better stay that way).

This will be a blog entry to look back at and "remember when." I know it will be rather humorous then (or maybe not?).  A couple of times, I have been ready to throw in the towel.  But, then we have an hour of peace or a few minutes of laughing, play time with all the kids, and then things look up and we get the energy to continue. 

I was watching an episode of one of my favorite new tv shows this morning and, perhaps prophetically, in one of the scenes the daughter was watching her stepchildren who all had the flu and she caught it too.  The kids were running everywhere and being difficult, so, desperate for help, she called her mom for advice. On the show, the mom usually has something very sweet and comforting to say.  But this time, she said, "You know what? Sometimes, as a mother, you just have to suck it up! So suck it up!"

So that's my new motto as we head into week 2 of being working parents: "Suck it up, Emily!"

Update:  Well, last night Ellis and I both got about 2-3 hours of sleep spread out throughout the night.  Catie threw up again.  Carter woke up at 3AM screaming for about 30 minutes - I could not comfort her and have no idea why it happened.  Catie threw up again this morning when I went back to just an ounce of formula with 3 ounces of Pedialyte.  We are now getting really worried. I just don't understand what is wrong with her.  I sense having to leave work early yet again to take her to the pediatrician.  I'm trying to suck it up but I'm starting to waver in my stability.  At least I got to work on time today, but it was extremely difficult shutting the door behind me with both my babies crying this morning.