15 months 1 day

Today was nothing like a typical day!

I went to bed just before 4 am, and when my alarm woke me up at 8:50, Randy informed that they were still upstairs as they had gotten up late today. I had fed them around 3:30, so I guess they slept longer. So Randy took them downstairs, and I started a 30 minute timer, as Randy wanted to feed them then. So we fed them at 9:35. I wasn't gonna put them straight to bed, but as it was later than usual, and Emmy was tired, they went do bed for their nap at 10 am. By the way, Emmy woke up quite a bit last night, as he could not breathe through his nose, and when he cried for a longer period of time, I comforted him. A few times I even picked him up, making him happy by holding him for a few minutes. Privilege of a sick baby!

I lay down with Tammy at 10, and it took her 20 minutes to fall asleep, and she then slept for 50 minutes. Randy picked up Emmy when he woke up after his typical half hour, and he fell asleep on his chest, but didn't sleep long as Sammy woke up a little later. Tammy went downstairs to join her brothers, once she had woken up, while I went back to bed. I hadn't even fallen asleep all the way, when I heard the babies cry, and Randy approaching the changing table that is right outside our bedroom door, so that's not that unusual. But then Randy stormed into the room and told me that Emmy was hard and swollen in the diaper area and had not poobed yet today. He made me check it out and said that he needed to be seen by a doctor. I was still half asleep, and thinking it was Friday, I thought maybe we should really go, as the weekend was ahead, plus Emmy's cold, and he had a shot yesterday.... So I never got to lie back down and sleep, but stayed up, preparing for us to leave.

At noon we fed them all, and then I dressed Emmy and myself, grabbed something quick to eat, and we left the house at 12:40. Sonja had arrived at noon, so at least Randy had some help. I was so tired that I forgot a pacifier, but had only just left, so I went back to get one. I also forgot to bring a bottle of milk for him.

Since the pediatrician's office for sick children does not want you to come with a stroller, as there is nowhere to put it, I put my baby carrier back on that I had not used in a long time. Emmy was facing forward on the way there, able to see everything, and he enjoyed it. It took us a while to get there, and before we went into the office, we went into a supermarket where I bought some food for him. I had no idea how long we were going to be in the waiting room.

When I walked in there, there were no other people but us. That was promising! I told them what was wrong, and they asked me to come to the changing table so they could put a urine bag on him. Emmy was crying when I put him on the table. By now they suspect bad things when they are the doctor's office! When I pulled his diaper off, it was full! So much for the constipation Daddy had been worried about. The assistant put the bag on, and then I put a new diaper on him and went back to the waiting room. A few minutes later we were called in. Again, Emmy was very suspicious and cried when she looked into his ears, mouth, and listened to his lungs. She said that his throat was a little red. She measured his temperature, and it was barely elevated. Then we pulled his diaper off, and there was no swelling whatsoever. And imagine this, I was so tired, we still talked about constipation! I had forgotten that I had just taken off a full diaper!!! Oh well. That was the whole visit. He got a prescription for nose drops to help him breathe better, and something to help with constipation. Leaving there, we went into the pharmacy to get all that.

Coming back out and going to the tram stop, it said it was a 10 minute wait. That was too long, as it was only one stop for us, so I started walking. I knew it would be challenging, and it was, as Emmy is already pretty heavy. My back was really hurting by the time we reached the subway.

Then we took two subways back home. I had Emmy turned towards me this time, knowing he was tired, and he fell asleep before I even sat down in the subway, stayed asleep when I changed subways, and then woke up some time on the second subway. He drank the whole pureed fruit, and had a few bites of cereal & fruit bar. We arrived back home at 3:15.

Emmy had hardly had any chance to move the past few hours, so I thought he'd be happy to move around, but this cold is definitely affecting him, so he was more quiet and moving less. And when I arrived, I was told right away that Tammy and Sammy were tired and needed to sleep. So Sammy went into his bed, while I lay down with Tammy, and Emmy was downstairs with Sonja. Tammy fell asleep fast, but time was short, as it was only 35 minutes until 4 pm, their cut-off time for sleeping. I nearly fell asleep with her, especially as it's already so dark outside at that time. At 4 I got up with her, waking her up, and got Sammy out of his bed, waking him up, and we went downstairs to play. Sammy is so photogenic! I love this picture of him with the playcube! He was the one in the best mood, playing and crawling, while Tammy was cranky as she was still tired, and Emmy was cranky too. So instead of pushing their meal time to 5:30, we left it at 5 pm; they were simply too tired.

Tonight I already prepared less bread for Tammy, and more bananas for Emmy. Tammy would not even eat ONE bite of bread tonight! She'd push my hand away every single time, and only ate the fruit and vegetable soup! She's now putting food into her mouth quite a bit on her own as well; Emmy has been doing that for a long time already.

Emmy did pretty well eating, but he likes throwing stuff on the ground, including food. He was done eating first, and given how tired he was, I put him into the bathtub, while Sonja finished feeding Tammy, and Randy was still feeding Sammy. I got Emmy back out before the others were done eating, and put him to bed first. Then came Sammy, and then Tammy, and Sonja left.

The boys were asleep right away, and I did what I've been doing, walking away and letting Tammy scream for a while. And then the doorbell rang, waking the boys up, and it was the beginning of a tough evening, as they did not just go back to sleep. Sonja had forgotten her phone, so she had no choice but to ring the bell. For the longest time I tried to get them to sleep again. Emmy was the most quiet, though not sleeping, while Sammy and Tammy were crying. I finally gave them all milk, but Tammy still had a really hard time. I got really worn out, as nothing I did trying to help Sammy seemed to work. So it was pretty late tonight before they were finally all sleeping. And Emmy is still waking up crying, because he can't breathe through his nose, even with the nose drops. I've already rocked him twice tonight to comfort him.

It's 1 am now, and I still have quite a bit of office work to do, even though I'm pretty tired, as I did not get my own nap times in today.