Either way, this has been one heck of a week - that started Saturday night. It has not all been terrible, but it has been hectic and overwhelming more often than not. I don't want this to be misconstrued as complaining, but I do want a record of the 'fun' that the boys unknowingly put me through this week. :)
It all started on Saturday night when Christian had to start his new shift at work - 7 days a week, 6p-6a until further notice. He, of course had to get acclimated to it so it was basically me vs. the boys all weekend; but I had hoped that he would help me out by Monday. Now normally I wouldn't be without help - in fact, on the weekends my parents are normally taking the boys out of my hands as soon as I walk in the door. They of course, were on vacation 13 hours away all week. I also have the additional hands of my grandmother who will even go to the point of taking one of the boys away from someone else just so that she can hold them longer. I felt like I had taken advantage of my Grandmother more than normal the past week when she helped me watch the boys on Monday and Friday when my nanny called in sick.
So back to Saturday...talk about fussy boys! I finally got them to bed around their normal time and prayed for a quiet, uneventful night so that I could go to church the next morning. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. Daylight savings on Sunday threw them off on when they were to eat, so by the time I got through feeding both of them I only had 15 mins before church started and was still in my PJ's. Oh well, there is always next week....
Monday night is where the fun begins. Somewhere in between the boys dinner and nighttime bottle I started feeling crummy - you know, heartburn and nausea. I checked with Christian and he was having similar symptoms, so I figured that it was food poisoning since we had both eaten pizza the day before. I continue to nurse the heartburn with TUMS throughout the evening and decide to try to give the boys their last bottle a little early so that I can lay down and hopefully start feeling better. I had ordered new crib sheets for the boys beds, so I had planned to wake Luke up first, put him in his swing while I changed the sheets and then do the normal feeding routine with him and put him back in bed. While changing his sheet out, I started feeling fatigued and dizzy. After I got him back down and asleep I woke up Jacob and started the same process. After changing his sheet, all of the symptoms came on full force and I attempted to call in reinforcements because I really didn't think I could make it through the bottle. When I found out my reinforcement was already in bed asleep, I just pushed through and got him fed and back in bed as quickly as possible.
The rest of that night was a general blur between the chills/heating blanket, multiple trips to the bathroom and tossing my cookies a total of 10 times from midnight to 5:30am. Thankfully, the boys did not make a single peek the entire night! Never in my life was I more relieved at the thought of Christian coming home to help me feel better and my nanny to arrive to take over the boys. He finally got home around 6:30a and immediately got in the bed because he said he was worn out. By this point, I was so dehydrated that I could barely walk....but I had no Gatorade in the house and couldn't keep down water or Sprite. With no other choice, I got up and drove myself to the local store to get what I needed. As soon as I got home, I drank what I could and passed out for the rest of the day. I try to let my nanny go by 5pm since she has normally been with the boys from 7a until then, so after resting up as much as I could that I day I relieved her of her twin duties. She was kind enough to hang around and let me get a late shower and act as a back-up if I needed another hand. Although exhausted, I survived Tuesday.
The next couple of nights turn out to be the new sleep preventer. The boys were just fussy - that's all I can say about it. They are going all night without a need for a bottle, but sometimes they still want to cry after I have made sure that all of their needs are met. Even holding them and rocking them, walking around with them, etc won't calm them down. They end up just crying themselves back to sleep even when they are in my arms.
Thursday evening was probably the closest I came to going off the deep end. It didn't start out that way.... Bath time was pretty unnotable except for the fact that I gave them baths on my own in a tub instead of in the shower like we normally do. I am thankful that my nanny offered to keep one boy busy in the den while I got the other one clean and down for his nap. About an hour into Jacob's nap, he woke up and was inconsolable. He was not due to be fed, didn't have a dirty diaper, was not affected by gas drops and wouldn't even calm down when I held or rocked him. I had to keep him out of his room because he was waking up Luke. For almost 3 hours I did everything I could think of without luck. On schedule, I gave him his nighttime bottle and afterward he finally crashed, from what I expect was pure exhaustion.
After Jacob was down, I rushed to do the 18 bottles that need to be made every other night, before Luke woke up ready to take his. Things were quiet from when I got Luke down until about 2:30a and continued for every hour the rest of the morning until my nanny took over at 7.
My parents are due back from their vacation tonight and I am proud to admit that I am counting down the minutes! [I have decided that there is a new mandate for my parents vacations - they cannot go on one without me and the boys for the next 18 years. If I cost too much, they can just leave me at home and take the boys. ;)] ....Just having someone to hold one of the boys for 30 min allows me to do so much around the house. I know I shouldn't be concerned about it, but I really try to keep up with the laundry, dishes, floors and overall cleaning of the house. When I have that extra hand(s), it is completely possible.
I guess the thing that I am most thankful for, after all of this, is that currently the boys have not gotten the bug that I had. I have survived to enjoy another day with Luke & Jacob and know that it is all worth it when their faces light up with a smile.
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