Complications

I've been wanting to change our blog design for a while. I've done things here and there that I seem to like temporarily. But almost as soon as it is up and running I want to change it again. What I really thought our blog needed was some kind of tag line. A theme for our family, per se. I mean, yah, we're the Webster Family. But, whoopdeedoo! What makes us US? I've been thinking about it on and off lately, but haven't seemed to find anything that would fit just right. "It's a Wonderful Life"? Not that we don't have a wonderful life, because we certainly do, but it seems a little too boring. "The Fab Five"? Well, we are a family of five, (and I do think we are a fabulous family, if I do say so myself) but we don't all have the same haircut, so that's a no go. Well, last night I came across the perfect family theme: "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated!" When I first read it, I thought it was not only funny, but it fits our family for sure.

Let's reflect back on the last twenty four hours, for instance.

Logan has been very sick. Is still very sick. He has spent nearly all of his waking hours coughing, wheezing, and crying. Unfortunatley, almost all hours that exist have been his waking hours. Tuesday, he took one (yes ONE) 45-minute nap all day. I thought for SURE he would go right to sleep that night, but no. After a good hour of holding and rocking him, he finally drifted off. He slept for a good two hours, but was awake again crying. Screaming. Nothing seemed to console him. We tried swaddling him. We tried running the vaccuum and turning on the bathtub all the white noise tricks you are supposed to do with a colicy baby. Nothing worked. Not for an hour and a half. I'm convinced that he just wore himself out enough to finally fall asleep. We were both relieved as it was already 12:30 and we all needed sleep. But, our relief was short lived as Logan was awake again within half an hour only to start the same cycle again. During the day he has been incredibly fussy. I've been holding and holding and holding him pretty much all the time. If he does fall asleep for a nap, they usually only last 30 or 45 minutes. This poor kid. I don't even mind taking care of him one bit, I just wish I knew how to make him feel better.

I took Logan to the Dr last Saturday when they diagnosed him with ashmatic bronchitis. So, yesterday morning I decided that five days is long enough. He's not really getting better and he obviously needed to get back to the Dr right away. I called and made an appointment for 4:00. Meanwhile, I had scheduled a play date for Bria and Max that morning. Now, being that we had a sick baby, I'm sure anyone would have understood if I decided to cancel. But, I really didn't want to. Bria and Max had been looking forward to having a few friends over for such a long time. Max especially. He is suffering from one bad case of cabin fever. And, I really am glad they got to have friends over. It kept them both busy and they all had a great time. While the kids were playing, I walked around upstairs with Logan in the front pack. That seems to be a good holding compromise he and I have come up with. He's getting awfully heavy and this is about the only way I can continually carry him around. After about an hour of pacing the livingroom, he finally fell asleep, so I moved him to his crib. Now, I'm not crazy (at least I don't think I am). And, I know that ALL week he has only taken short sporadic naps. But as I was laying him down, I just knew that he must be so tired that this would be the nap of all naps. He would be out for hours. Maybe even the rest of the day. So, what do I do? Laundry? Dishes? Make the beds at least? Are you kidding?!? I've been wanting to dehydrate apples all week. Yep. I know. Complete priority, right? So...I wash the apples. I get the apple peeler/corer/slicer out. I get the dehydrator ready. I get the apples all cut up and ready to transfer to the dehyrator. And, just as I am ready to put them in and sprinkle on some cinnamon/sugar magic....Logan wakes up. And he cries. And cries. And, as my apples are starting to turn brown, I panick that they won't get into the dehyrator in time. So, I try to one-hand it while holding Logan. So, I'm putting the apples in the dehydrator and Max keeps coming upstairs to try and get help with the Wii (he really likes to play the Wii, but often has trouble actually playing without someones help. His character will just sit on the screen waiting to play. Max all the while will be holding the remote still - not pushing buttons or anything - wondering why the video game doesn't magically play itself. Until someone comes along to help him. If no one does, Max gets frustrated thinking it must be the game with the problem and asks for help changing the game. Only to come across the same problem with a new game, as they cycle goes.) Okay....back to the story. So, I'm trying to put the apples in the dehydrator and Max needs help with the Wii. I tell him to wait just a minute, Logan is crying and the apples have to get finished first. Just then I realize, I still haven't gotten my visiting teaching done this month. This is Wednesday. I only have until Sunday. Well, Logan is sick, so we'll probably have to do a treat drop off this month. But, I better call my companion immediately so she knows that I didn't forget. By this time, Logan's cries have subsided and he seems content to just be held. I pick up the phone to call. So, now I have Logan in one arm, the phone squished between my ear and my shoulder, and my other hand busy stuffing the apples in the dehydrator. Okay. Visiting teaching arranged. Now, I just need to find time to make treats. But, I won't worry about that now, the apples still aren't finished. "Mom." In walks Bria. "I'm starving. I've been asking for lunch for a while, when are you going to feed us?" "Ummm. In a minute. Let me get these apples done." Logan starts to get fussy again and I decide that maybe he is getting hungry too. So, I put him in the Bumbo and get his food ready. After he eats, I think he must still be tired, so I swaddle him up and put him in the car seat hoping he'll fall back to sleep. By this time the apples are finally ready and I start the dehydrator. The noise it's making seems to be soothing to Logan. So, I hurry and try to clean up the sticky apple mess all over the counter so there is room for the kids to eat. I make a quick lunch and spend a few minutes eating with the kids. After lunch, I somehow convince Bria and Max that they must take some sort of a rest so we can keep it sort of quiet so that Logan will keep sleeping. As I'm starting the movie, I realize Bria hasn't done ANY of her homework for school the next day. And, she has extra from missing school last week. No problem...change of plans. Bria needs to do homework. Max can watch the movie. I tell Bria to hurry and get her backpack just in time to hear Logan start to cry again. I don't know how he even realizes I'm gone. It's only been a few minutes. I tell Bria nevermind - if she could just watch the movie for a few minutes, that would be great. I go upstairs and hold Logan and rock him and sing to him and walk around the house with him. Meanwhile, instead of watching the movie, Bria and Max decide its way more fun to run around screaming and laughing. Oh, how I wish it were warmer for their sake. They need wide open spaces to run around and exercise those little legs. I go down stairs again to try and tell them to be a little quieter so we can get Logan calmed down when I realize it's already 3:00! Logan's appointment is at 4, so I really only have 45 minutes until we have to go. Bria still needed to get her homework done. So, we go upstairs dig out her homework and try to start working on it. But, Logan is being fussy and loud so I am having a hard time hearing Bria read. This isn't working. I tell Bria that instead I would like her to take her bedtime shower early so we can work on homework later that night. Bria gets in the shower, I go to the kitchen to try and stir dinner in the crockpot. I answer the phone for a quick minute. (Holding Logan all the while). I find Max and ask him to try and find his coat and shoes. I yell to Bria to hurry because we only have 10 minutes till it's time to go. I put Logan in his coat and buckle him in the carseat, which only makes him cry hard since I'm not holding him anymore. I help Max with his coat and shoes. I try to get myself sort of ready. I ask Bria to hurry and get her hair combed and can she please turn off the TV downstairs before we go. Just then Max in his rush to do...I don't know what...threw up all over the carpet. He's really not sick, but I think the huge amount of carrots I let him snack on earlier combined with chocolate milk and running around just did him in. Crud. We had to go. We were already late. So, I squirted some carpet cleaner stuff on the mess and decided to clean it up when I got home. I couldn't be more than an hour, right?

We get to the Drs office and it is packed. They take walk-ins, but I made an appointment, so I'm hoping I'll get in a little faster. After a few people get called back I realize it's probably going to be a long wait. Even though the Drs office is a change of scenery, Logan is still not feeling well and continued to cry in the waiting room. I recently read in the Reader's Digest that in an ER, sometimes a crying baby will get you straight through. I'm wondering why it's not working here. Just then, the receptionist gives me a sympathetic look and says that they'll get me back to a room so everyone else in the waiting room won't have to keep staring at the mom with the crying baby. I have no problem with that and am relieved to finally get in. So I pack three kids and an arm full of coats back to the patient room. I let Bria and Max bring the Leapsters. That seemed to keep them busy. Logan was curious and interested in the new room so he had calmed down temporarily. At last some peace. And, I have to say, I love the Dr I've been going to. He really listens and actually acts like he cares about my kids. When he came in he was very apologetic about the long wait and listened very carefully while I told him about the last Dr visit over the weekend and how Logan wasn't feeling better at all. I took in all three prescriptions Logan's been taking to show the Dr. He was surprised that we would have gotten liquid Albuterol for a six month old. Normally, it is given through a nebulizer so the medicine is delivered more localized. He said the liquid form can give adults a "buzz" and cause a lack of sleep. So, you can imagine how that would affect a 6 month old. He suggested we do a test for RSV. The test came back positive, so poor Logan got a shot and we got set up with a nebulizer to get him the medicine the right way. So, we leave the Drs office and head to the pharmacy to get the right medicine. I was feeling really glad that we could actually help our poor little guy feel better.

We finally got home and it was 6:00! I don't know how the Drs appointment ended up taking two hours. But, okay. We've got to get on with our evening. I was glad to see that Dave had gotten home already. I was embarrassed as I walked in the door and realized I meant to have Max's throw up cleaned up before Dave got home. Sorry, honey! I get the throw up cleaned up, got the nebulizer out to give Logan a breathing treatment, stirred the chicken in the crockpot. Then, I remembered that poor Bria still needed help with her homework. I had her do her worksheets, but there was no time right then to the practice timing for the IRI testing we're supposed to do every night. I asked the kids to get in PJs while I dished up dinner. The problem was I forgot that Logan still wasn't feeling well, and he started to cry again. I went to hold him because that poor baby really does need his mommy right now. Dave volunteered to finish getting dinner ready, but couldn't help Bria with her homework because he had homework of his own due. So, we ate dinner and I looked at the clock just as it changed to 7. How did it get to be 7:00? That is bedtime. I wouldn't have cared so much, but Bria fell asleep in school on Tuesday, so she needed to get to bed on time. Homework. Shmomework. She is in kindergarten. I decided her teacher would just have to understand if one night of IRI practice went undone. We rushed to brush teeth, say prayers and in some sort of blur, all three kids got put to bed. Even Logan went right to sleep, which I couldn't believe.

Quiet. Peace. Finally. So, of course I collapsed out of sheer exhaustion. Yeah, right! Because, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, our blog needed a makeover. So, I stayed up past midnight working on our blog. And, making a new blog (because, really how can one blog ever be enough, right?) And, before I knew it, it was light outside and Bria was waking me up to get her ready for school. We had a few extra minutes this morning and I decided her homework really was important and better late than never, so we sat down to practice the IRI. Poor Bria was so tired. She has a piece of paper she looks at with random letters, both upper and lower case. In order, she is supposed to name as many as she can in one minute. She is getting pretty good at it and often finishes the whole page (52 letters) within the minute. But, this morning she was tired. It went something like this: Bria: ".................M.....................P.......................L........................R" "Bria, you are going to have to go a little faster, it's already been 25 seconds and you only have 4 letters!" I think that was probably her worst score! We finished up and as I'm hurrying her out the door and wishing her a happy day, I remembered that she was supposed to do show and tell. There was no time for picking something out, she would miss the bus, so I tossed her something and told her to have a great day! I hope it went well.

As Bria leaves, I look around at the sink full of dishes, the piles of laundry, a three year old boy that hasn't had a bath all week, and the settling chaos around us and I decide.....it's high time we make that homemade play dough that Max has been begging me to make for the last month!

I get that having a sick baby isn't totally normal, but we always seem to have some crazy thing or another going on. We are a family of complications. Good complications. Just ask Dave who works full time, is working on his Master's degree and has three businesses. And, if that weren't enough, he just bought another domain name to start a fourth! We like to be busy and I don't think we'll stop anytime soon. But, I love it. LOVE IT. I wouldn't trade this crazy, chaotic, disorganized life for anything in the world! So, here's to filling up our life full of living and insisting on complications!

P.S. Logan is doing tons better today. He is still coughing and wheezing a lot, but has so far only spent half the day crying (as opposed to all day) and actually took two pretty good naps so far. I think he is finally on his way to recovery!