21 months 20 days

Day 659.  What a day! Another day of sick babies. But last night was the toughest part. I made it to bed by 12:30 am. At 2 am it started. Emmy was crying, and his body was hot. Tammy's fever started Friday morning, and now it was Emmy's turn. From 2 to 3 I stayed with him, trying to get him to sleep again. By 3 am I gave up and took himto bed with me. He was able to sleep then, but me not really. At 4 am I decided to try to put him back to bed, and it worked. At 6:30 he was up again and crying, and I picked him up again and lay down with him, but he wasn't gonna go back to sleep. And his siblings were awake as well. They love being in bed with us. I finally got Sammy out of bed and let him crawl around, and got the girl who joined us in bed and loved it. Nobody - that is with an age of one digit - was tired or sleepy, so at 7 am we got up. That's an hour earlier than usual.

I made breakfast, but Tammy and Emmy ate very little all day long today. Tammy still had elevated temperature, and it was visible that she was not yet completely well. Emmy's temperature was higher, but never as high as Tammy's had been. He's more cranky than her, though. After breakfast, I went downstairs with them, where I turned worship music on and started to worship and pray. Emmy likes the swing the most and likes going in there as it calms him down and relaxes him, especially when he's tired. Once Sammy came, we sat down to read the Bible together. Randy had to tun to the store to hand in his Covid test, so I stayed with them longer than usual. Emmy wanted chairs, and then pointed at the paper and crayons, so I got the table down as well and we sat down to draw. They all had a great time. Emmy is the one who is best at drawing.

When Randy returned, he came downstairs with his breakfast, and I went upstairs to clean up and work. I was extremely tired and could barely even finish cleaning up. I knew I had to lie down to sleep instead of work, and I'm glad I did.

I'm also glad I woke up at 11:20 by myself, just in time to get lunch ready. I cooked the pork and warmed up the potatoes and dumplings, and that way it was ready by about 11:30, and they all came upstairs to eat. Or not. Tammy and Emmy did not like the (expensive quality) pork (that had been on sale), and only had a few bites of potatoes and dumpling. Their plates looked untouched, when they refused to eat anything else. I got a bit of pudding, cookies and watermelon into them. And Emmy took full advantage of his being sick, making it clear he wanted to sit on Mommy's lap like his sister had done while sick.

After lunch and cleaning and dressing them, I went downstairs with them, where I waited for Randy to take my place after having finished with Sammy. Then I went upstairs to clean up and eat, and at 12:40 I put Emmy to bed, who fell asleep fast, even though he had spent a big part of the morning sleeping on Randy's chest. Once asleep, I put Tammy to bed.

I finally got to do some office work, even though I was still tired. Surprisingly it was Emmy again who woke up first, after only 50 minutes. He wouldn't go back to sleep on me, so finally Randy went downstairs with him. Sammy slept long again, over 2 hours, which he never used to do, but I'm glad he does now, and I took him downstairs as well. After a while Tammy started stirring, so I called the boys upstairs for the afternoon meal. I put Emmy into his chair, and he was eating, but he got more and more concerned that his sister was missing at the table. Tammy was still lying on her belly, even when I'd come to her bed, so I let her stay there. I finally had to get Emmy out of the chair, and he ran to his sister's side. Tammy stayed in bed for a long time before I got her out. And then she refused to eat, which is not that unusual, as it takes her a while before she's willing to eat after her nap. Just before I was ready to take them downstairs, she finally ate a few bites.

All day long we had been debating whether to take them to the doctor or not. When Randy played some songs, and Emmy got upset, he thought that maybe he had an ear infection. That's when we finally decided to go. We had nothing to lose after all. And so we dressed them and left the house to cross town to get to the pediatrician's.

We took a subway and a tram and then had to walk a bit. At 4:30 pm we walked into the pediatrician's office for sick kids, which is separate from where healthy kids go. Still, Emmy reacted immediately with dislike and fear. As soon as we stepped in, the guy at the reception told us that they close at 4 pm. We had no choice but to leave again, even after our long trip. I guess it wasn't meant to be. We stopped at the pharmacy to get some fever-lowering medication, and stopped at the icecream shop I grew up with that has some of the best icecream in town, and bought some to take home. They also all got a taste again, and this time of my favorite flavor, and even Emmy ate it.

We stopped at one more store right there and then got on the tram to go back home. We got on the subway, where Tammy and Sammy had fun with Daddy's hat, which went back and forth between them. A blind lady got off the same stop we did and we helped her get on the elevator with us. She asked us if they were the happy babies she'd heard on the subway train.

When we walked into our building, our neighbors on the other side that we don't hardly know, were just leaving, i.e. the Mom and her little boy and the dog our kids have met before. Emmy kept his distance, but Tammy was happy about the opportunity to pet the dog.

Once inside the apartment, we took their travel clothes off, and before we could get Sammy out of the stroller, Emmy went to him and hugged and kissed him. It was so cute!

We took them downstairs, where Randy played with them, while I was getting their dinner ready. It was 5:45 at that point, and half an hour later I called them upstairs to eat. Once again they ate little, and did not finish their food in the bathtub. Except for Sammy. Right now he's become our best eater!

While in the bathtub, they were having fun, though Emmy was also pretty cranky. When Tammy took his bucket away where he was stirring the water, he started crying. When I tried to return it to him, she started crying. Randy finally went to get another bucket, and they were each happily stirring their bucket. Sammy tried to get Emmy's bucket, which he did not like. Finally Emmy was just crying and upset, so that Randy got him out first, while I finished up with the other two. He was dressed and ready for bed before his siblings had even left the water. Sammy has been drinking some special high calorie drinks to help him gain weight, and thankfully he's starting to like them more. I forgot to weigh him tonight.

With Emmy ready, I put him to bed first, and then we got the other two ready. At first he wasn't happy to be in bed all by himself, but by the time I put the third baby to bed, Emmy was already sleeping. He must have been really tired.

I walked away, and Tammy did not like that at all, so I returned for a little bit, but left before she was asleep. After some protest she got quiet, and finally they were all asleep. I made my food, ate, and got to work. Now it's 1 am, and for the past few hours, I've heard Sammy for much of the time. I hope that doesn't mean that he's getting the fever next. At least he hasn't really cried where I had to go comfort him, and I sure hope I get some sleep tonight, and that he can go to his physiotherapy session in the morning.