It's been a rough week at our house. If you live in the eastern half of the country, then you know that last week was unseasonably cold and wet. We even had some snow here in Kansas on Saturday morning. By Sunday, we were all ready for some sun. And I was looking forward to getting out of the house to the park this week. Things were looking up. The baby was sleeping pretty well, the weather was going to be nice again.
And then we went to dinner at some friends' house Sunday evening. The baby started throwing up. We figured he'd just over eaten. We got home and got him to bed to find that the dog had thrown up too! By Tuesday morning I was going on only a few hours sleep and had spent most of the last 36 hours holding a clingy, sick 9 month old who sometimes had a fever. I left him with my husband long enough to come down and let the dog out to find more dog yuck. It was evident that we'd need a trip to the vet.
So I packed up the sick baby and the dog to go find out what was going on. Turns out the dog has one of those spring-time dog things. She's on antibiotics and anti-inflamatories now. She's back to chasing bunnies and squirrels. Don't you wish vets could treat people?
We already had an appointment scheduled for the babies 9 month check-up yesterday, so I left the dog at home and headed for the pediatricians. The nasty virus he had is much better now, but he's still giving us trouble about going to bed at night and taking naps. And he's still spitting up massive volumes for no apparent reason sometimes and having diarrhea.
We've had to abandon no-cry sleep for the time being and have opted to let him cry at night. This came about when he REFUSED to go to bed on Tuesday night. He wasn't running a fever anymore and was acting just fine. He was ready to play. And it was 2 hours past his bedtime. I hear I'm lucky; he only cried for 45 minutes. Last night it was just 20. I still feel like a horrible mom, but he didn't give us any choice.
On Wednesday morning I awoke to realize that my hubby had the virus. He's been sick for two days now. The house is a disaster, and we're running out of clean clothes; the baby's barfed on most things. I feel awful for all three of them! And I'm exhausted. We've spent all of the nice days indoors sick, with the exception of taking the baby to the park this morning for about an hour. The weather forecast has it raining next week... So much for enjoying the nice weather.
Nine years ago this coming Sunday my sister died. I try not to dwell on it, but I do take notice of it every year. And it seems as though this week is always hard. It's almost like bad things are attracted to this time of the year in my life. I told my husband this morning that I wanted to go away to a desserted island this week one year so nothing bad could happen. I imagine I would just come home to find that the bad things just happened while I was gone, and I would still have to deal with them.
It doesn't help that Columbine happened this week. There are so many senseless things that happen each year in the wake of that tragedy. And this year there was new, more horrific, one. I know that for many people this week is hard and will always be hard. If you've lost someone you cared about in one of the many horrible things that this week is the anniversary of, or if you lost someone another way this week, I am deeply sorry. The thoughts and prayers of our house go out to you and your family.
I know for those of you who've recently lost someone, it is too soon to think about this, but I'd like to find something to celebrate this week each year. Maybe if we all had something positive to look forward to, we could start to heal, and the bad things could stop happening.
Anyone have any ideas?