Newborns vs. 2-year-olds

NOW (and kind of THEN too):  I’m sitting here typing this feeling like I was run over by several trucks.  I’m always tired, always, but this is just ridiculous.  And it’s because of a 2-year-old.  Not her fault, but I’ll get to that.

I remember when everyone told me, “sleep while you can”.  And that newborns wake up every 2-3 hours all night long for a while.  And that I was going to be more tired than I ever was in my life.

Boy, were people wrong.

Newborns DO wake up often.  But…..lucky me…..I was off work for 12 weeks, and Tim took 8.  So when the baby-feeding-alarm went off we just got up, warmed up bottles, got babies, set up the pump.  We sat and watched tv on our bed with our babies for about a half-hour while they ate and fell back asleep and I finished pumping.  Returned them to their cribs.  Returned to our bed.  Yes, we were doing it every 3 hours.  But that was during the day too.  So if we had wanted to, we could have slept while they slept.  Or at least relaxed and zoned out in front of the tv until they woke up again.  We look back on those days with fondness.  Was it hard?  Yes.  Was I tired?  Yes.

But I really don’t think it’s anything compared to how I’m feeling right now after being woken up twice by my sweet daughter.  My sweet daughter who had never thrown up in her life.  Until last night.

Now, they often wake me in the middle of the night.  It’s usually to retrieve a stuffed animal that fell or to fix the blankets.  So I do it and I trudge back to bed.  Although I don’t usually fall back asleep right away.  And if I do, it’s usually not the GOOD sleep I was into before being awakened.

But throw-up is different.  I obviously could not give her a hug and send her on her way and put myself back to bed.

The first time it happened she was very confused.  I walked into her darkened room with no glasses and she was sitting up in bed, holding something.  I asked what she was doing.  She explained, “I have this.”  First glance, in the dark with no glasses on, I thought it was poop.  “Aw man, what did you do Ariel?”  Then, looking closer, I realized it was red.  I became alarmed.  Red is blood.  I turned on the light.  No…..red is thrown-up raspberries.  Which she had dripping down her jammies, all over her hands, on her blankets and sheets.

I couldn’t do anything in this state.  I needed my glasses.  After retrieving them I started cleaning up her hands with baby wipes for the time being and got her out of her jammies.  Then I stood her on the floor as I started stripping the bed.  After a couple seconds I looked over at her and realized she was shivering.  Duh, should probably take care of the kid first.  But it was 2 in the morning, and our first throw-up incident.

So I brought her to wash her hands and face more properly in the sink and got her redressed.  I covered her with some blankets as she sat on the floor watching me take apart and put her bedding back together.

I turned the light back off, got her tucked back in, read her a quick story and took the dirty comforter, sheets, mattress pad and jammies downstairs to the top of the basement steps.

Ok, maybe 20 minutes later, back to bed.  Not back to sleep, but back to bed.  My mind was racing, as was usual when I try to go back to bed in the middle of the night.  I’m great at falling asleep initially, bordering on narcolepsy, but to re-fall asleep is hard.  I was kinda dozing off around 4 when I heard her crying.  This time I didn’t hestitate.  I rushed back to her room, grabbing my glasses on the way.  When I got there she was still laying down, on her side, in a puddle of puke.  Poor baby had it all over her pillow, in her hair, even in her ear, and obviously on her face.

I didn’t have to strip the whole bed this time, just got the pillow away and the jammies again.  However, the sink wouldn’t do the job on the girl.  I took her in the bathroom and she started crying again.  I soothed her, quickly so as not to wake Will, and knew she was mostly just scared because this had never happened to her before and at first she was shocked and confused, but calm.  This time she was upset.  And extra tired.  And so was her mommy.

I got her washed up and she seemed her happy self.  She crawled into bed with her book again and was pleased that I had brought her a new pillow with a star pillowcase that matched her sheets.  I asked her how her belly felt and she said sick.  I thought a cracker or something might help and she agreed when I asked her.  I went downstairs and decided I better just throw everything in the washer now, just in case.  Then I my way back up I grabbed a Club cracker for her.  She ate half, sitting up in bed, leaning against me.  Then she said she felt better and she’d go to sleep.  So she did.  But I didn’t.  Every time a dog would make a noise or Tim or the baby monitor, I would be wide-awake again.  So when I looked at the clock and realized I was supposed to get up in 10 minutes to exercise, I decided to reset my alarm for another hour.  No exercising.  Besides, my tummy wasn’t feeling the best either.

I never did get back to sleep so I probably should have just gotten up and exercised, especially since I signed up for an 8K this Saturday.  But once I did get up….my stomach troubles really hit me.  I felt so sick.  I got myself ready and ate some oatmeal and felt better.  But I was dragging myself.  By the time I got to work I couldn’t even stand up without feeling like I was going to puke.  Not good.  I chalked it up to lack of sleep.  I never like to admit I’m sick….that’s always a last resort.

I made it through most of the day, but finally had to call another teacher to take my class because I felt like I was going to pass out and/or throw up.  I went home a little early and let my parents take care of the kids until Tim got home.  Upon coming in the house I was informed that Will had also thrown up that morning….all over the carpet…..in my sickened state I could still smell it.  There wasn’t really anything I could do about it so I just sprayed a little Febreeze and figured I’ll vacuum tomorrow and re-spray.

After dinner we did our usual movie routine.  The kids sat on either side of me and we all curled up under a blanket while we watched The Little Mermaid.  Tim picked my favorite because I’m sick.  🙂   We even got them to drink some grape Pedialyte.  A year or so ago, whenever the last time was that they were sick, I had bought little individual packets of powdered Pedialyte.  It’s more expensive than buying the liquid, but the liquid expires like a week after you open it.  So spending more money and actually using the packets is way better than just throwing out the less expensive liquid.  And it’s good to have on hand at times like these because the kids had barely eaten or drank anything all day.  They sucked it right down, which I was surprised about because last time Will wouldn’t touch the stuff.  🙂  So we had a laid-back night, which was good.  I was still feeling pretty sick and tired and I didn’t know how often I’d be woken up by the kids in the night, so I took a sick day just to be safe.

So…..would you rather have the sleepy feeling of a mom of a newborn?  Or go to work after a night of being a mom to a 2-year old?  

Just for fun….here’s a picture of the twins and the snowman we made last week, when there was actually snow one day.  🙂