40 minutes

Sunday night was completely unexpected. Izzy spent the weekend sick with a sore throat and mild drainage, but luckily, no fever. He improved as the weekend progressed and I was hoping it would pass without spreading through the house. I am pretty sure the minute I had that thought is when it did just that. Suddenly on Sunday morning, I felt a raging fire in the back of my throat. Annoying and painful. I fought through it, and tried to be productive by painting the boys bathroom. (It looks cute by the way!) Soon after, it was dinner then bedtime for my cute boys. Everything went as planned and the boys were asleep at 7. I decided that after the crazy 2 weeks I have had, I needed to go to bed early. I have been feeling especially drained lately and the lack of sleep is really starting to show in my patience level. 10:30 came and I was fast asleep. Pretty good since I don't normally go to bed until 1-1:30. Surely, this would be the night I would get rested up and wake up refreshed and ready to start a new week and get back to our regular routine. I was wrong.

In the middle of my severely comatose sleep, I hear the hysterical cries of my youngest. I shoot out of bed completely confused and unable to jump start my brain.
The following is a transcript of my thought process and what happened next.

"OH MY WORD, I am so exhausted! How could the night have gone by so quickly? My muscles ache, my throat feels like I swallowed firecrackers!" I do the normal check. Wet bed? Binky? Arm/leg stuck in crib? (No really that happens.) None of the above applied, so I got a warm bottle of milk to woo him back to sleep. "Hmm, I wonder what time it is? 11:10. WHAT? 11:10, I have only slept for 40 minutes? No wonder I can't feel my legs and my brain wasn't working well enough to screw the lid onto the bottle!" Soon I find myself back in my warm bed and just as I am about to close my tired eyes, the hysterical screams begin again. I tried several things at this point, to no avail. Hubby is in the midst of finals week and not only can he not be subjected to sickness, he needs his rest. Unsure of my next move, I grab my blanket and pillow and crash on Ashers floor. "Surely, my mere presence will calm him and we can both rest easy." Negative. "Maybe if I put him on the floor with me, I can cuddle and pat him back to sleep." Negative. "Hmm...wonder what time it is now? Wow, 3:45 and not a single minute of sleep." That is when the tears came for just a single minute. How can I take care of 2 kids and be sick myself with 40 minutes sleep? During this time, Asher is happy as a clam, but refuses sleep. If he feels himself drifting off, he jolts and starts clapping and singing. Cute, but not so much at 4 a.m. Finally, I resorted to a not so shining mothering moment, when I put him in my bed and turned on the TV where I believe he watched an infomercial about a vacuum for an hour. I didn't sleep, but just closed my eyes and prayed that he would just pass out. That didn't happen. He then decides to try to clap and giggle until he could wake up Daddy. Daddy wasn't amused. He told me to put him in his crib with a basket of toys and just let him play until a decent hour or he passes out. At 7 a.m., I beg Daddy for 2 hours of sleep and then I could (hopefully) function and take over. He obliges my request and I somehow wake up at 8:45 and feel like I can make it through the day. This included taking Asher to urgent care which took several hours and isolation in a respiratory room to find out he has 102.5 fever and a viral infection. I also found out that Asher weighs 30 pounds!!! The amount of Motrin they gave him was surprising and he instantly felt better. I would have never known he could have 140 mg so the visit was well worth the time.

Last night I put the air mattress in Ashers room just in case, but I didn't need it. He slept 15 hours and woke up without a fever. He is running around the house like Monday never happened. Looking back over the day, I think I handled everything pretty well. My only regret is that during bath time right before bed, my patience was thin. I had run out of steam and all of the extra steps to take care of 2 sick kids was wearing on me.

Funny how as a Mom no matter how much time and effort you put into your kids, it is never enough. There is always the guilt that you could have done more and done it better. I have to remind myself, that my kids love me in spite of my imperfections and I just have to do my very best for them every day. I am so blessed that I have such great kids and that Asher didn't have something more serious.

Today we are taking it easy. It is a beautiful day, and I think I might take Izzy outside to play while Asher rests. Sunshine always makes everything better.