Sickawucka!

(pronunciation: sick-uh-whu-kuh)

Yeah, sorry for the hiatus. In case you're wondering about the title of this post, Ethan has a way of making up words that end up in our everyday vocabulary. He made this baby up sometime towards the end of the summer, and to be honest I have no idea what he originally meant it to mean...he probably just liked the sound of it. Since then it has come to mean several things in our house. First and foremost its a semi-derogatory term with slightly teasing undertones (as in "Mom, you're a sickawucka"). It has also become an expansion on the word "sick," meaning gross (as in "Grace, don't eat that, its sickawucka). And finally over the past couple of weeks its come around to meaning "sick" in the literally sense of the word (as in "Thanks kids for getting the baby sickawucka").

Yes, that's right. My poor little one-month-old has a cold thanks to her snotty (and I mean that literally) big brother and sister. Um, can I just say that having 3 children sick at the same time -- especially considering there ages -- is not fun? The following is a recap of the last month (or at least since the last time I blogged).

(here's the poor little sick one-month-old)

After the Valentine's Day debacle, I realized I had no idea what I was getting myself into by having a third child. Ethan and Grace were sick with Ethan randomly running a fever off and on and Grace bouncing off the walls out of control (because apparently thats how her body reacts to the very early stages of being sick). And between my growing sleep deprivation due to the nightly feeding and subsequent rocking (and rocking and rocking) of the baby and the exhausting daily task of keeping Ethan and Grace and their sickawucka selves away from her, I was wondering how I was going to survive (little did I know how much worse it COULD get). Luckily, oh so luckily, my mom came to the rescue not too shortly after as only a mom can do.

(here's Grace rocking out with my headphones --and no they're not attached to any real music, she just insisted on wearing them that whole morning)

(and here's Ethan crashed at bedtime while he had a fever)

That weekend following Valentine's Day, my mom flew out over Mardi Gras vacation. She cooked for us and watched the kids and let me sleep in every morning after I handed off the baby and she even made a ton of meals and put them in the freezer for me to have when she left. Unfortunately, her visit only lasted so long and by the following Wednesday she had to get back to teach school. Thus began the hardest week EVER. Scott's parents (who have also helped out TREMENDOUSLY since having the baby) left the same day for a 10 day trip to South Africa for church-related PEF stuff, and Scott was in the middle of finals for his 3 1st block classes. So basically I was left to fend for myself with 2 sick children and a newborn without being able to accept offers of help watching the kids because I didn't want them getting anyone else's children sick.

Sophie and Granny Nanny

Sophie at 3 weeks

Well, fast forward a week to my birthday (and thank you to all who helped make it great despite the suckiness of the day) and Sophie started to sound a little congested. Well, by the next evening I was really worried because she was really struggling with breathing every now and then and its still RSV season, so I took her to the Urgent Care after hours -- because as we all know any sickness always gets worse after the doctor's regular hours are over -- and fortunately the doctor said her lungs sounded fine and her oxygen levels were good, so basically its just a cold that will run its course. Great. Another sick kid. So, fast forward another week, and we've got Ethan barely on the upswing from being sick, Grace KIND OF recovering (although she still has a bad cough and runny nose), and Sophie never sleeping for more than an hour at a time because either her congestion or coughing wakes her up. Luckily Scott's parents got back on Saturday and have been able to help out a ton, but I think I'm going on 2-3 straight days here of never sleeping for more than like an hour at a time all night long, and in between those elusive breaks, it sometimes takes at least an hour to get her back to sleep. Add in the fact that she seems to want to eat like every hour or two these days, and I'm finally to the point where I'm so tired I don't even think I'm making sense.

So, there you have it folks. The reason for my blogging hiatus. Will life ever be the same? I don't know. I know a lot of people who have said that the transition from 1 kid to 2 kids was harder for them than the transition from 2 to 3. To all those people, I say -- wow. I'm just trying to survive one day at a time here. I'm hoping that its the sickawucka thats bringing us down for right now, but I don't know.

Sophie is actually asleep right now and even though I've probably missed my window of opportunity to actually lay down and get a cat nap in, I'm going to try anyway. Wish me luck.

(I will re-post with pictures once Scott gets home with the laptop. Sorry you have to get through so much text this time!)

Update. So, I managed to squeeze in a 20 minute power nap while the kids watched Postcards from Buster which while nice was not nearly enough to recharge my batteries. I did not want tonight to be a repeat of the last few nights, so after going online and reading all the rave reviews of the Fisher Price Papasan swing, I decided that perhaps this will be Sophie's new crib. I'll let you know how it works.

(Seriously, look how comfy that swing looks. I want one for me!)

Alright, the baby is crying and I think she's hungry (again), so hopefully after this we'll all get some sleep! Good night.