that was Tuesday

I spent the hours of 5am to 8am in mind-numbing pain. I’d been to the ER at 2am a week and a half earlier with the same pain. It felt like there was a vice grip on my back and on my chest, at the base of my sternum. It was getting tighter and tighter. It was hard to take a deep breath. I took half a Tylenol #3 that I’d gotten prescribed the last time this happened, and when it didn’t work, I took the other half. Preston woke up and was hungry. I changed and fed him, and while feeding him asked Noah to grab me a bucket because I was sure I was going to vomit from the pain. I didn’t, but finished feeding Preston and then lay back down in the fetal position.

Noah brought Kaylie to school and then went to work. The pain finally stopped. I was all of a sudden starving and went out to eat breakfast with Liliana. I went to wake Preston at the four-hours-since-his-last-feed mark because I wanted to make sure he wasn’t in a codeine coma. He ate and then fell asleep in my arms. I tried to put him down, but he woke up. I picked him back up and resumed rocking him. The doorbell rang. I answered the door with Preston in one arm, my hair all disheveled, in sweats, a huge t-shirt, a hoodie that had baby puke on it, and my front room littered with all the toys that Liliana had brought out thus far. The delivery dude put the package inside the door and made it easy for me to sign for the package with one hand.

Kaylie called. She didn’t feel well. I called Noah to pick her up. He did, but I couldn’t drive him back to work because Preston was finally asleep again, but he couldn’t bike back to work because he’d left the shed key at work. I needed the car to pick Meg up from the airport. By the time he and Kaylie got back to the house, Preston was awake and we all drove him back to work. When we got home, Preston was asleep in his carseat. He looked so adorable that I had to take a photo of him. The sound of the shutter scared the tar out of him and woke him up. At least we know his hearing is okay. I took him out and tried to settle him. He wasn’t having it.

It was nearly time to feed him again anyway, so I changed him, swaddled him, and lay on the bed with him while he nursed, hoping he’d fall asleep and sleep for a while. He didn’t fall asleep. By now it was lunch time and Liliana came into my bedroom saying that there was a 12 on her clock and where was her lunch? I told her to go play and I’d come out as soon as I finished, but she came in another thirteen thousand times. It’s no wonder Preston didn’t sleep.

He seemed to be happy to lay on the bed by himself, so I asked Liliana if she’d like her peanut butter sandwich toasted or not toasted. She said she wanted jam. I said we didn’t have any jam and would she like her peanut butter sandwich toasted or not toasted. She asked why we didn’t have any jam and I said WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH TOASTED OR NOT TOASTED? Toasted. I brought her sandwich to the table and she said CUT IT UP! She hasn’t wanted it cut up lately but OKAY, I got her to ask POLITELY and cut up her sandwich.

Kaylie finished her lunch and went into her room to rest. Preston started crying. I went in and nursed him for a few minutes until he fell asleep. I came back to the table to find that Liliana had used her peanut butter sandwich as kind of a stamp and now the table was full of peanut butter splotches. Awesome. I told her to go into her Quiet Time and she started crying that she was hungry. I told her that if she was hungry, she should sit and finish her sandwich and stop spreading it all over the table. She finished and I told her to go wash her hands.

Her new fear is of the tap dripping and the bathtub running water, and when she asked if the water would drip, I said no. She went to go wash her hands. She asked if she could use a wash cloth instead, I said no, go wash your hands. Preston started crying. Liliana went in to wash her hands. She came back out and I told her again to go wash her hands and she started crying because the stool wasn’t in the bathroom. I told her to go get the stool and now she was crying AND Preston was crying. The doorbell rang again. It was another delivery guy. I was still in the same shape I was when the last delivery guy came, only this time I had two crying children in the background. Awesome!

I shut the door after he left, helped Liliana dry her hands, and went in to get Preston. It was 1pm, I was still in my pajamas, still had unbrushed teeth, still had disheveled hair, with a baby (finally) sleeping on my lap. The phone rang, but it was out of reach. I didn’t want to get up quickly and wake Preston, and I was just hoping that the ringer wouldn’t wake him either. I’d planned to spend the morning cleaning and the afternoon doing groceries, in preparation for Meg’s arrival at 3pm. Groceries weren’t happening, and I was pretty sure the house was still going to be a disaster by the time we had to leave for the airport.

I heard once that you know a real friend when you don’t clean your house before they come over. I was just gonna go with that.

Finally, at about 1:15pm, Preston went to sleep and stayed asleep when I put him down. I did the quickest main-area house sweep I could, fed Preston again at 2:15pm, packed all three kids in the car, and headed for the airport. When Meg had been at our house for an hour, she’d already made a cake with both girls “helping” and had it in the oven. In addition to that, she’s played with the girls, rocked Preston to sleep, done the dishes, braved two going-to-a-mall-with-Liliana trips, and come to the basement with me to switch the laundry because I’m a total wimp about basement, especially basements at night.

She’s here for five days, but next time I’m making her stay a month. Life is so much better with her around.

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