When Sick and Tired is Contagious!

Thank your lucky stars that this post does not contain pictures.

Usually I can handle losing sleep and cleaning up after sick kids.  Usually!  However when the sick kid happens to be a beloved spouse… well then,  in that case, it gets on my nerves a wee bit.  Just a wee bit.  Still love the guy.  And seeing that he doesn’t get sick very often I usually let his poor patient routine slide.  Last night however begins my sick and tired story. 

Now as a rule I avoid all negative comments about my Prince, unless it’s referring to his lack of fashion sense.  I don’t see the point in harping on his weaknesses as I probably have a pile more of them than he does.  But at 4:00 a.m. this morning I told him that I just couldn’t pass this blog opportunity up.  And he consented, in fact he almost cracked a smile.  I’m sure he agrees wholeheartedly that he is the worst sick person on the planet.

Thus begins my cautionary tale of the husband that can’t stand SICK.  Poor guy comes home from work complaining of an upset stomach.  Says he feels a bit nauseous.  Which is a warning that he will go around moaning and groaning about how upset his stomach is.  He avoids throwing-up at all costs.  In fact in the 20 plus years of marriage I can count on one hand the times that he has lost his cookies.  Now, if he were sensible he’d let it come out.  You almost always feel better after you up-chuck.  But the poor guy dreads it so much he goes to bed miserable.  And for the next three plus hours I don’t get that much sleep as he is constantly rolling around in bed moaning and trying to get relief only through change of sleeping positions.

Now lest you paint me as the unsympathetic wife of a tortured husband.  He really just had a case of the 24 hour stomach flu,  no appendicitis, or gall / kidney stones, or even hernia.  Just the stomach flu.

Then at 2:30 a.m. he sprints for the bathroom.  And I hear the results before he even left our bedroom.  You would think the guy was being gutted by aliens in a third rate B horror movie.  And I’m clearly surprised that our children were not awakened by his thundering hurling noises (and I’m now told by Lea that she did hear).  You would think he was literally spilling his guts, not just the contents of an upset stomach.  Clearly throwing up only 4 times in 20 years is not nearly enough practice on judging how quickly you can make it to the toilet before the spew happens.  He didn’t make it.

Here’s where the sick and tired becoming contagious comes into play.  I mercifully got up to help the poor soul out. Lets just say he nailed the whole bathroom floor, walls, and whatever else happened to by lying in close proximity.  And as we commented on the dreaded results of him putting off the inevitable, we both came to the conclusion that 4 year old Hope does a better job of hitting the target bowl when sick, than he does.

I get brownie points for sending him back to bed and staying up to clean up the mess.  He did admit to feeling better.  Like Shrek says, ‘Better Out, than In.’  I however doubt that he’ll remember the next time he’s feeling this lousy, say five years from now.

  I didn’t get back to bed until around 4, but by then, the smell had permeated my nose to the effect that sleep was driven clean out of my head.  Dear Prince Erik was slumbering quite nicely. 

He even took a four hour morning nap.  He did mention that he wasn’t feeling too good again this afternoon.  This time I handed him a large Rubbermaid container and kindly reminded him that if he missed the toilet he was cleaning up his mess.  Then I left to go find something meaningful to do in a room far, far, away. 

Meanwhile, somewhere in the back of my head I remember having a conversation with my beloved’s mother years ago after another such incident.  I hear he takes after his dad in this regard.  Don’t quote me as saying that because I’m running on little sleep here.  And I realized just how much better sickies my girls are over my boys.  Is it just mine, or do boys naturally have a harder time making it to the bathroom when sick?  This is not a scientific study that I personally wish to pursue or keep hard data on.  But who is better at being sick you or your spouse?

Energy Generated During Sleep…

‘Oh she’s/he’s sleeping, doesn’t she/he look like an angel?’

A common phrase heard when someone is remarking on the peaceful slumber of a young child.

Whereas, I have always referred to it as Sigh, ‘Recharging’. A time in which I scramble to accomplish all the other daily tasks that are nigh impossible to do with an extremely overactive preschooler under the roof.

Yep, my kids don’t sleep, they recharge. Much as our beloved cartoon hero’s Phineas and Ferb. My children also dream of wildly imaginative tasks that no one their age should attempt.

‘Aren’t you a little young you be giving a monkey a shower?’

‘Why Yes, Yes we are.’

But instead of building a rocket, backyard roller coaster or climbing up the Eiffel Tower. My kids are redecorating household surfaces and even toilet seats with permanent markers and climbing up the food splattered walls.

And sometimes Miss Hope just gets so darn excited during her sleep planning sessions she forgets to breathe. Finally, after over six months of waiting we FINALLY got her into the sleep study center.

And they thought it might be a good idea to hook her up to all of these here wires. I was thinking entanglement nightmare, but it wasn’t has bad as I thought it would be. That and I didn’t have to untangle them in the morning.

I think the wonderful tech guy only had to come in and reattach cords 4 or 5 times during the night. Which is a major endorsement of the glue and tape they used to apply the electronics, because Hope flips and flops like a fish out of water in her sleep. I know, I’ve been the recipient of a few well placed slaps and kicks to the noggin over the years.

Here’s my little FrankenHope all wired up and ready for bed. Her hair alone hides another 6 to 8 wires. And the finger sensor, well that one was her favorite. It lit up like E.T.’s glow digit as soon as the lights were dimmed. Can you guess which wire they had to reattach the most often during the night?

Wires and microphones to detect every little twitch and snore. And then even to differentiate whether the snore came from Hope or her mother bouncing restlessly on the comfy cot they kindly supplied.

Now we just have to wait four weeks for the results. But the best news is Hope and the Awesome staff both survived the night. Hope walked away with tons of glue needing to be washed from her hair and a brand new stuffed tabby cat she named Ella. Can you sense that Pumpkin is going to have new furry friend to be forced to play with?

Mom however is in desperate need of a nap.

All Phineas and Ferb characters, episodes, and locations are Trademarks & Copyright © of the Walt Disney Company 2007-2009. FawnDear is in no way affiliated with The Walt Disney Company or any of its subsidiaries (but they can hire me any darn tooting time they feel like it.) All information included in this site, including character shots like the one above depicting Phineas and Ferb and their secret agent pet Perry the Platypus is here for strictly informational reasons (You know comparing their imagination to that of my offspring). That and the writer of this blog loves their cartoon and thinks you too should check it out. No copyright infringement is intended.

I love Irony

 

I have to love it.  It surrounds my every waking moment.

For example.  Being Unplugged = No electronic entertainment for the month of Feb.  Of course we said email was the exception.  Lo and behold Lea suddenly was very interested in emailing.  Now I've got to rethink the definition of unplugged.  It get's muddier every day.

 

The irony of Bedtime. 

It really means playtime to Hope and her sisters.

This is Princess an hour after she is supposed to be dreaming princess dreams being caught teasing her older sister.

We recently had some 'family fun time,' playing card games with the little girls.  Here's what our family fun looked like this evening.

Looks fun doesn't it.  To be honest both Prince Erik and I were bushed.   Usually we fake smile for Family fun time. 

More irony would have to be Kid's Homework.

They should really call it parent homework because the kids can't do it without us.  If only I could get school credit for all the hours of hand-holding I've done over the years.  I'd have my PHD by now.  Here's poor Prince Erik acting the Hippie Dude News Reporter for Evo-man's video book report interview.

So because there's so much irony here we have to love it right?

 

What a little sleep will do.

I'm one of those people who don't like change. My body has an internal clock and I knew I would be waking up at the same time this morning as I did yesterday morning, regardless of the time change. I was right. Wide awake at 4:45 a.m. isn't the funnest thing. I didn't stay in bed too long, maybe a half hour max. I figured that maybe we could actually leave for church on time today if I did a little kid stuff prepping.
Being late, even by 30 seconds, is one of my biggest pet peeves. Well we left about the same time we always do. I shoot to be in the car by 8 a.m., which means we usually leave by 8:20. Yes with six kids it happens. Even when you remind them of the time every 10-15 minutes all morning long. Evo-man misplace the socks I gave him, Lea forgot her activity pad, I misplaced the keys and like clockwork the baby decided to fill her diaper right after her coat when on. Those extra twenty minutes are my stresser, but I'm getting better about it now. That's why I shoot for 8. Even if we leave around 8:20 we usually get there by 8:40 which gives my kids plenty of time to get a drink, use the restroom, help set up chairs, or prepare the sacrament, before church starts at 9 a.m.
Today, I was amazed at how many cars there were in the parking lot. Apparently a few families had forgotten about the time change. I smiled because I've been there and done that one as well too, usually in the spring when it meant that we missed an hour.
My great husband was even kind enough to let me take a nap this afternoon to make up for my early-up time. So I can't complain about the time change this year too much. The extra hour did wonders for my kids. They all had a great day and even made it through church meetings awake. (This is rare for my boys) And as a parent, kids having great days makes it all worth it.