Just Another Night in the Life

Salutations!

As your sitting there, awake, reading your email, I thought you might enjoy hearing about my night to put yours in perspective. ;) To preface my account, I'd like to go back to about 5:00 yesterday afternoon. Let me set the scene, I had just sewn the last seam in our halloween costumes a whole hour earlier than the party we were going to! I was literally holding up a silly little yellow tutu thing that Emily wanted to wear around her face as the center of her flower to show her when my cell phone rang. It was the Realtor with an appointment to show our house at 7:00. I said yes, of course, ignoring the clutter a foot deep in the living room, etc. etc. The party was supposed to start at 6, but we could be late, we were only bringing french bread for their spaghetti dinner, no big deal if we were half an hour late. As my heart began to race and I actually felt a little light headed, I reminded myself that I really did have 2 hours and that it really wasn't that much to put away and that Geoff had almost caught us up on dishes the night before, etc. I was rather proud of myself for not freaking out too much. :) So, rather than go into headless chicken mode, I didn't move fast, but I didn't stop moving. I talked to several lovely people on the phone while I was cleaning and I hoped they couldn't tell that I never stopped moving while we were talking. :) One call was from Angela, I'm so glad you called! It makes me feel good when you guys feel like you can talk to me because I love you more than you know!! One call was about Kindergarten car pool today because it's my turn. One call was switching the spaghetti dinner to pizza (this will be significant later- just keep reading.)

Meanwhile, Geoff is on his way home, but he wasn't even going to stop here, he was going to go straight to the party to get there on time. Instead, he re-routed and stopped here first and got here just in time to buckle the kids in the van while I did one last good luck swipe of the counter tops and we left. We went to a friendly halloween party at my sister-in-law Denise's. I spent my time on the couch with Landon talking and eating. Geoff was either there or in the kitchen talking and eating. Becca chilled on the floor in the room where the kids were playing in and out and the two middle girls ran around and around with their cousins and their cousin's friends. :) They also beat up a homemade Shrek pinata and played halloween bingo with smarties. :) We all had a really great time and even got away at a decent bedtime. It was 9-something when we finally got everyone in bed and Geoff and I discovered we were felling pretty tired, too, so rather than staying up watching nothing on TV and doing nothing together, we decided to hit the hay.

Somewhere around 3 am, Geoff woke up and tossed his cookies. How I wish that meant there were chocolate chip loving geese in our backyard and Geoff was breaking off pieces of a giant cookie for their consumption. No, the first image you got was correct. When I came to full consciousness thanks to Geoff, I heard Becca crying. I went in to find her swimming in Pediasure because her tube had not been closed properly. That is to say her tube was actually clamped on the part that goes into her belly and the med port was open, so not only was it dripping food onto her bed, but absolutely none of it was getting into her at all. Thank heavens for my hare brained idea of covering her mattress with a dollar store table cloth under her sheets! During a nice, warm bath she finally calmed down and quit screaming as I was singing whatever Primary song came into my head. :) It was actually quite pleasant bathing my daughter in the middle of the night. :) When we got done and she was dressed in warm pajamas, I heard the baby crying. So, Landon joined Becca on the floor in her room while I finished changing all of her sheets. I don't know how much food was lost, but I knew she must be hungry, so I put another whole can in the bag and got her hooked up the right way. Trust me, I checked like 3 times! :) Then Landon and I jammed to some country music videos in the living room while he ate. It's a good thing I like country, because that was all that was on at 4-something.

After I fed the baby and put him back in his bed by touch so as not to turn on any more lights, I checked on Geoff. He said he thought it was just the pizza he ate at the party being spicy, etc. and that he was still going to work. Knowing I can only take showers when they're asleep or there's an adult present, and don't you pretend you don't know who "they" are, I decided it was now or never, so I took a much needed shower. When I got out, I could hear Becca again. You probably just thought "Are you kidding me?" because that's what I was thinking. Unfortuneately, the answer is no, I'm not kidding. When I went in to check on her, she had twisted and shimmied around and it looked like she was trying to see out the window where the blacks were starting to turn into grays. I don't know why she was doing that, but she had kicked off her covers and gotten wet hair on her face. So, I smoothed her hair and wrapped her up in her blankets again and after checking the tube again, I gave her a cheek hug until I heard the pump go through 2 revolutions to make sure she was getting fed and to help her relax and make sure she wasn't going to cry again.

By the time my head hit the pillow (again) it was 5:45. Geoff got up around 7 and got Emily most of the way ready for school and I made the obligatory round of phone calls to keep sleepy Becca sleeping. The good news is, my house is really, really clean and maybe, just maybe the people that came last night will make an offer and make me the happiest Mama in the land! :) I love you all so much and part of why I love you is that you will sympathize with me without pitying me. Thanks for listening to me jabber and don't forget to appreciate your pillow!

Love,
Diana