Appreciating my husband: Part 1

Aaron was gone for several days last week for training for work. The fact that the training occur ed at Keystone, Colorado and that his brother met him there and then they spent a few afternoons snowboarding should in NO WAY make you think that this wasn't totally job-oriented. Very serious. Much learning.


And he came home with an interesting sunburn, somehow exactly the outline of snow goggles?


Seriously, I was glad he got to go, since the opportunities for snowboarding are few and far between, living as we do in one of the flattest areas of the country, and having, as we do, three young children.


Speaking of those three young children.


I was home with them, but not really alone, since my parents live in town and made it known that they were at my disposal while Aaron was out of town. And BOY did that help. Especially on bath night, when Dad was here to hold Adam while I bathed Ben, drag a pruney Ben out of the tub while I put Adam to bed, and then give Ben a snack while I bathed Leah.


But gosh, a lot happened. Maybe I had better start at the beginning, which really started on Thursday of the week before. Adam started his yucky cough/wheezy breathing that signals ANOTHER bout of bronchioloitis (this would be his 5th, I think?). But this time his breathing was REALLY wheezy, to the point that he slept in our bed part of Friday night. Saturday we took him to the walk-in clinic. His oxygen levels were low, but still within normal, so the doc had us try a nebulizer treatment. Yeah. I've never had to do one of those before, but Adam was NOT liking it. Aaron held the mask on his face and I tried to keep his hands from whacking it off. He screamed the ENTIRE time, and it's something like 15 minutes long.


After all that, his oxygen levels were up slightly, but we mostly attributed that to the yelling. And since I had no desire to go through that whole experience again, we decided to just go home and see if he improved on his own.


Fast forward through 2 more nights of either Aaron or me or both of us being up with him for large amounts of time, and now our big concern was dehydration, since he had reduced his nursing to about twice a day, and then coughed until a few of those feedings came right back up. Monday we made an appointment at the clinic, where we found out that he had lost a pound between Saturday and Monday. Good thing he's got some weight to spare! I spent Monday forcing teaspoons of Pedialyte down his throat, along with alternating doses of Tylenol & Motrin. By then his breathing was pretty much normal, but we weren't really sure why he was refusing to nurse.


And then we put 1 and 1 together - and it equaled the 3 teeth he was cutting. One of his top front teeth, and at least 2 more looked like they were on their way . So I continued the pain meds, and he increased his eating every day. On Tuesday Aaron left for his trip (after deliberating whether or not he should cancel...but since he can't breastfeed, he would be just watching the other 2 kids...) and Adam looked like the picture of health. Except for that whole not eating thing.


And on to other facets of life: Tuesday afternoon my mom came over to "help" me put together a valance for my kitchen window. Then she spent the next 3 hours measuring, doing math, measuring, laying out fabric, cursing (in her head, I'm sure) my choice of wide-striped fabric, and doing more measuring.


At 4:15, Leah's classmates C & T, along with little C, the baby sister, came over while C & C's parents were at conferences. For an hour and half, I had SIX kids, and thank the good Lord that mom had planned to stay until bedtime, because I think I would have lost it otherwise. They were just having SO. MUCH. FUN. And Adam was being so clingy.

Anyway, eventually the extra kids went home, and we had Banana Oatmeal pancakes for supper. The kids got to bed, although is was a bit later than normal.

Normally, after the kids are in bed I get to do my own thing - reading,sewing, scrapbooking, usually playing on the Internet... But not this night. After the kids were in bed, I did the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, realized I hadn't touched the laundry (Tuesdays are usually laundry day). Also realized that I hadn't read the newspaper for two days or retrieved the mail for two days, either. The floor desperately needed vacuuming, but I literally didn't have time. Apparently when Aaron is gone, the house falls to pieces.

To be continued!