at the nearest psych ward, please. I am headed straight there, I have no doubts. I am definitely losing my sanity. My day. Where do I begin? I should start by warning you that this post may be long, whiny, rambling, etc. Forgive me.
It began when we arrived home from my grandparent's house. Jack felt awful and was so tired he didn't know what to do with himself. It was 8:30. At 10:00, he still showed no signs of settling down, had a fever of 102.5 and was the most restless child I have ever seen. And then it began. The screaming. My son screamed for two and a half hours. Straight. Nothing worked. I rocked him, sat still, laid on the couch with him, put him in his bed, bounced him. And he screamed. And screamed. And screamed. At 12:00, I numbed his ears and his gums and gave him another dose of Motrin. Everything was numb and he was still wailing. Finally at 12:30 I put him in the car. He screamed for the first 15 minutes of the ride. So I kept driving. I called my poor Mom and asked her what in the world I should do. I was about two seconds from going to the emergency room and yelling, "Fix him!" She offered to come help and I told her I would call if I couldn't get him to sleep soon. Finally at 1:00, he fell asleep in the car. I brought him inside and was able to put him down at 1:30. I went to bed, drained and frazzled.
7:00...Jack is already awake. Five and a half hours sleep...are you kidding me? He is burning up. He looks pitiful and is screaming again. He insists that I hold him every second. As soon as the clock hits eight, I am scheduling a doctor's appointment. I go to wake up Sam, who I discover is also running a fever. I call the doctor back to make a double appointment so Sam can be seen too. I called my mom to ride with me and find out she is on standby waiting to hear from Allyson. All three of hers are sick...Cade sobbed all night with an earache, Cannon had a fever of over 104 degrees and Landry was a mess too. I told her to help Ally and I called Rebecca to help me.
9:30...The doctor says Sam has an awful cold, but it is viral so no meds for him. Jack has two awful ear infections so he gets an antibiotic. Off we head to Target for our prescription. Both boys are doing considerably well and we make it back home by noon.
We get both boys inside, give Jack a dose of medicine and hope they will soon rest. Nope. Jack will not settle down, cries uncontrollably and is beyond miserable. My poor Sam feels awful too and begs me to hold him. So both boys are in my lap, crying and fighting over who gets the most room in my lap. I talk Sam into resting on the couch and feel so guilty for neglecting him. He feels bad too, but Jack is demanding every piece of me. In the mean time, Rebecca walks out to the car to get her purse. The doors are locked with both sets of our keys inside. Did I mention I don't have a spare key? Great. I call Jody, who questions how in the world I could have done that ("How hard is it to put your keys in your pocket?" were his exact words.) and tells me he'll have to try to get in the car when he gets home.
Jack's medicine kicks in and he suddenly has energy. Too much energy. He is bouncing up and down in Bec's lap, head banging her and walking around shaking his head for no reason and laughing. He is so tired he is delirious. Delirious but funny, and by now we need a laugh. He ventures down the hall and goes to his room to "use the bathroom". Well, all his bouncing and laughing caused his diaper not to do it's job. So I walk in to find poop all over him and the chair in his room. Straight to the tub he goes. Sam walks into the room and over to the chair, sticks his hand in the poop and says, "What's that Mama?" Into the tub he goes too.
So now they are both clean and exhausted and I am seriously praying for a nap. Nope. Jack refuses. He screams and cries and will not let me put him down. I feel myself melting down and am at the end of my rope. Jody's parents came by around 4:00 to bring milk and Sam crawled in his Poppa's lap and Jack snuggled up with G-Ma and both went to sleep. Sigh. I just sat there on the couch in a daze. Peace and quiet. Unfortunately, they had to leave so they passed the boys off to us. I snuggled with Sam for the first time all day. Just as I closed my eyes to take a nap myself, Jack wakes up (after 30 minutes) and is out of control again. This is unbelievable.
I was so happy to see Jody arrive home. I needed a break. I was done, mentally and physically. Robin and Chad came to help Jody get in my car. This is the icing on top of the cake folks. Do you know why my car was locked? Our wonderful, sweet cat (can you feel my sarcasm) was in my car! For five hours! She must have jumped in while we were shuffling out sick children and we closed the doors with her inside. She hit the door locks while walking all over my car (did I mention I just had it cleaned two days ago). After a lot of tries, the guys were able to get in and free Lucille. Jody's parents came to help with the boys and I ran out for a while. Can you imagine if we didn't know the cat was in the car and I had driven off with her? I can picture me trucking along in my own little world and her jumping from the backseat to the front. Yes, you would all be attending my burial if that had happened.
I got home to both boys playing and acting fine. Jody informs me of how perfect they have been and he just doesn't know what is so hard about it? I bit my tongue. Jody took Sam to bed and Jack finally took a bottle and went to sleep. He has only slept 6 hours in the last 31...whew. He hadn't been asleep two minutes when he had a terrible coughing spell. He proceeded to throw up all over me, himself, the chair and the floor. I was soaked. Into the bath he went (screaming) and into the shower I went. We had to give him more medicine and finally after a long crying spell he went to sleep at 11:45. I was not able to put him in his crib without him screaming until 3:30.
It is now 4:30 am on Tuesday. I got a good four hours of sleep and now I am up and overwhelmed by all I have to do to get ready for Christmas. I told Jody if they aren't better by Christmas Eve, we would postpone Santa. They don't know what day of the week it is, so we may have Christmas on Friday or Saturday. We'll see. I just hope and pray that they (and Cade, Cannon and Landry who are all very, very sick too) get well soon and can enjoy Christmas. They are what makes Christmas magical and I desperately want it to be perfect for them. Say a little prayer for them all to feel better soon.
Waiting patiently for Mama to walk out of the room so they can each steal another ornament off my pitifully decorated Christmas tree. My tree started out quite decent. We bought a real tree this year and it was perfect and cute...for about two days. And then it began. Jack pulls all the round ornaments off and runs through the house yelling "Ball, Ball". I chase him (as he laughs hysterically), retrieve the ornament and place it back on the tree. Sam is a little more advanced. He doesn't really take the ornaments down that much. Instead, he turns all the snowflakes and picture ornaments around backwards. This drives my OCD self nuts. For days I was constantly chasing one, saying no to the other and rehanging all my ornaments. Well, after about four days of this, I threw my hands up and said "Forget it." Now, the ornaments are all stuck wherever, backwards, two on the same branch, identical ornaments side by side...whatever. I have given up on having a beautiful tree. And you'll notice there are no presents under the tree...I know better. I threatened numerous times to break out the gate (a full blown barricade that circles around the tree) but had scary visions of the boys scaling it and them and the tree crashing to the ground. So I'll wait. That perfect tree will have to wait for now. My boys will see to it.
My Sam has become the sweetest, kindest little boy. Don't be mistaken, he has always been a sweetie but lately his compassion and kindheartedness have me beaming with pride. He amazes me with sweet sayings or gestures on a daily basis and openly shares his love and affection with me and his Daddy. This makes me happier than I can express. One of my greatest hopes for my children is that they can openly express their feelings. I want them to be loving and caring and to never be afraid of showing it. Yes, I hope to teach them that if you love someone, you should surely do all you can to make certain that they know it. Show it with your words and your actions and don't ever be ashamed or embarrassed for doing so. 
