A day in the trenches

I wish they gave out medals to mothers. Because I would wear that gosh darn thing with pride right now. That's right. Because I would have a big one.

This is not a medal to boast about my parenting skills as they clearly are not medal-worthy. It's a medal to signify survival. Surviving a stomach virus with your husband out of town and 2 small children to care for and nobody to rush over and save you.

Jacob had it Saturday night. He woke up vomiting and "the other thing" all night long. Since Mark tends to catch these stomach bugs and had to fly to New York for the week for work, we decided he would stay away with Maddie (so she wouldn't be as exposed to it as well) and I would take care of Jacob. I never, repeat never, get these bugs. It's one of those things I am (well, I was) quite proud of. Jacob recovered quickly after about 24 hours and was back to his energetic self. Mark left on Monday, and on Monday night, I woke up around midnight feeling awful. Every single hour I was running to the bathroom. Needless to say, I got zero sleep and when I heard Maddie crying at 6:15 am, I knew I was in for a long, trying day.

How do you take care of 2 kids when you are bent over the bathroom toilet all the live long day? They still need to be fed, changed, wiped, entertained, supervised, reprimanded, consoled, etc. Having Jacob alone wouldn't have been so bad. He would gladly let you let him watch a bunch of movies all day long. But Maddie? Oh my lord, she is a handful. And she is not really happy unless she is climbing on top of you or in your arms all day long. I desperately wanted to call someone and beg them to come save me as all I wanted to do was crawl into my bed (or my oh-so-comfortable-pull-out-couch-bed) and sleep for a zillion days but there was no sleep to be had and no break to be found. I couldn't even consider asking a friend to come by because all of my friends have kids and I would never, ever want to expose them to this awfulness.

By 8 pm that night (14 hours in the trenches), I zonked out as soon as Jacob was in bed and I didn't wake up until 7 am the next morning.

But I did it! I (we) survived. For that, I tell you, I want a medal.