The washer, dryer, dishwasher, and Roomba are all running. The baby is sleeping. I'm stretched out in bed with a respectably sized glass of vino, endless Grey's Anatomy reruns on Hulu, the cat curled up at my feet, and the dogs snoring quietly on the floor at the foot of the bed.
And life is good.
Jerad left at 3am for a Solar training thing somewhere up north and will be back late Thursday night. Until then its just me and Marshall holding down the fort. I was a little worried this trip was going to be more than I could handle. Friday night Marshall slept for *11 hours straight* then pretty much wanted to nap all day Saturday. I think he took 4 naps? Something insane like that. Sunday he was a little stuffy and clingy, then Monday he was congested to the point of not really being able to breathe out of his nose. Sad. I think all the stupid weather brought it on.
I'm fine with Jerad traveling, in fact sometime I down right enjoy my time alone. But it is hard taking care of the baby, the pets, the house, myself and still managing to get out the door at 6:30 am for work. Add a sick baby into the mix and no sleeping and that doesn't sound like a fun time.
Anyways, Monday night was pretty pathetic. Marshall had a hard time nursing because he couldn't simultaneously breathe. We subscribe to the philosophy that "symptoms" are the body's way of taking care of business so for the most part when one of us gets sick we don't try to alleviate the symptoms, but instead focus on supporting the immune system and healing the body. I gave Marshall a few doses of Elderberry Extract (our go-to immune boost), some vitD, a steamy bath with eucalyptus, and added a little tea tree and lavender extracts to the humidifier. He woke up juuuuuuust about every hour for the first half of the night. We tried letting him sleep in our bed, and by sleep I mean "suck snot, snore like crazy, and thrash around," tried sleeping with him, and tried letting him sleep alone. Basically no one got any rest. Its a good thing Jerad didn't have to get up at 2:45 am and then drive for 5 hours.... oh wait.
He might have cried when his alarm went off, and I seriously contemplated not getting up when mine went off at 5.
Luckily Marshall woke up smiling and his usual happy self with just a slightly stuffy nose. I decided to go to work for the sheer fact that I was EXHAUSTED and lets face it, it is much easier to relax at work then while taking care of an 11 month old. Plus my mom gets all butt hurt when I call out and she doesn't get to watch him. Luckily he was 100% back to normal by this evening. So basically he was stuffy and fussy for about 18 hours. I was worried it was going to turn into a full-blown sickness and last for days. Looks like we once again dodged a bullet.
When stuff like this happens it makes me realize just how lucky we have it. He cried and screamed for 7 minutes last night while I tried to comfort him. That is the second longest he has ever cried for me (the longest was 10 minutes at about 1 week old). It curdles my blood. I honestly have NO IDEA how parents of kids that cry for hours a day manage to cope with it. It makes me terrified to have another child. Its a double edged sword. On the one hand Marshall has been such a breeze that I feel like I want 50 more babies... or at least a few:) I could single handedly handle 3 of him! Then on the other hand how could we luck out twice in a row? Surely karma will bite us in the ass next time with a super high needs baby.
My friend Beth says that Marsh is mellow because Jerad and I are easy going. Hopefully that's true. And I guess even if we did have another baby and he/she was a crazy demanding child at least I would know it was just the baby's personality and not anything I was specifically doing. It seems like it would be harder having the first kid high needs? I know I would take it personally. Obviously karma doesn't exist because I screamed through the first 4 months of my life and had to be rocked and walked all night. Every night. That was the kind of baby I was expecting to have. Thank God I didn't, because honestly at this point I don't think I have the patience.
I don't remember what I started off planning on writing about but I think the wine and sleep deprivation are making me ramble. I guess in summary; Jerad is on the road again, Marshall had a close call with being sick but is fine and sweet and cute, and, the end. Wish me some sleep over the next few nights?
Oh, also he stood up without holding on to anything for like 6 seconds today. Walking, here we come!
Edit: Actually the longest time Marshall ever cried was on our trip back from Arizona for about 5 hours. It was so horrendous I tend to block it out...
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