Frist, let me start by saying that both girls have come through the chicken pox just fine and I'm very thankful to have that all behind us now. It was a very busy and trying week. Nothing like being house bound with three kids and unable to even go to the store for popsicles and ginger-ale! I'm so happy we will NEVER have to do that again!

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I'm a just so tired.

Everyone says that when adding kids to your family that, depending on your circumstances, it's either harder to go from no children to 1 or from 1 to 2. We found both of those transitions very easy. I was sure that we would have no trouble adding a third because we are experienced parents who have two well adjusted children and tons of parenting tools at our disposal... What's that saying about pride going before a fall?

If we were only dealing with the logistics of caring for and meeting the needs of three children we would be great. If we were only dealing with one bio child completely regressing and throwing monster fits, we would be ok. If we where only dealing with 3 kids cycling through chicken pox, we'd be hanging in there. Add on serious breathing issues with the baby and Cookie having night terrors and we are about ready to throw in the towel.

I haven't slept for more than 3 hours at a stretch in over a week. If I wasn't so sleep deprived I might be better equipped to deal with my 7 year old who suddenly will not get dressed in the morning and throws fits so bad that she's physically attacking her dad and me. Just when I need my big girl to be the most self sufficient she is the least. Bedtime is particularly bad and she has been up screaming until 11pm or later every lately.

Cookie is a trooper and dealing well with the baby brother thing but Princess's wild behavior is freaking her out. She has started having nigh terrors that keep her awake for hours. She only will sleep if either Will or I sleep with her and it's almost impossible to get any good rest with a 3 year old kicking you in the face half the night.

Since one of us has to be up with Cookie all night, baby care falls to the other parent. Smiley has been waking up every 2 to 3 hours all night long. He usually will go right back to sleep after a diaper change and a bottle but for some reason decides that 4 am is play time and wants to be up for a couple of hours. He usually falls asleep just before my alarm goes off. If you’re doing the math, we go to bed after 11pm, wake up every couple of hours, and get up for good around 4am.... Good times!

I though we caught a break last night when Princess went to bed with only a minor fight and both girls were sleeping by 9:30. Nope. Smiley has been coming down with a cold that has triggered his wheezing and was up every 45 minutes screaming and wheezing and coughing. We gave him his inhaler and that seemed to help some but not enough. We contemplated taking him to the ER and if I had been more coherent we probably would have. Neither Zman nor I was thinking very clearly at this point. Sleep deprivation will do that to you.

Smiley was breathing better this morning but still wheezing so I took him into the Dr. She said that we definitely should have taken him to the hospital last night! She said that high-normal breaths per minute for a child his age is around 40; he was 68. We did another nebulizer treatment at the office and she gave us a prescription for our own nebulizer and Smiley is now on Albuterol, Steroids for the nebulizer and oral steroids. He is officially diagnosed with bronchial spasms. And we have strict instructions that if his breathing ever gets that bad again and the meds we have don't help that we are to go immediately to the ER. She said we were risking respiratory arrest by not taking him in last night... Very. Very. Scary.

Please keep us in your thoughts as we traverse these rocky times. I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and sometimes that light is the only thing that keeps me going.

posted at 12:00 PM  
Labels: Family, Kids, Parenting