Adventures in Motherhood...Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm warning you ahead of time, this is not for the faint of heart. There will probably be way more details in this post than you want to read. Then again, since I was so sick the past few months and pretty much all but neglected this poor blog, there aren't that many people following closely anyway. I am going to get it up and going again though. Because I read a friend's Valentine's blog post about how much she loves her blog and it made me really miss mine. Sad, but true. It somehow makes my day to share my life and think others care enough to read and comment about it. Even when the thought of what I'm sharing scares me a bit. So I'm on a quest to get my readers back, private blog or not. :)

So Preston caught some bug. I don't know what it is...cold related I think. The whole congested, coughing bit. He went to bed fine and woke up in the middle of the night with the worst case of croup he's ever had (and that's saying a lot). I had a steroid pill left from our last croup experience that I gave to him in a bite of ice cream and put on a movie hoping to distract him until it worked. In the meantime, we took him outside all wrapped up in the freezing cold air to help open his windpipe and then I ran hot water in the bathroom until it was slightly steamy in there. Oh man, we are good at the whole croup drill! Even with all my so-called croup expertise, I ended up spending a good couple hours at the doctor's office. He just couldn't breathe well enough. Turns out, he needed more steroids to open up his airway. He's a big boy, it was really closed off, and we only had one pill left. Middle of the night adventures with the pregnant lady are not fun. I was a complete mess the next day.

Which brings us to part 2 of this brilliant adventure. I'm guessing the steroids were the cause of the next part. Poor Preston was so constipated and I just didn't know how to help him. He was in such pain and crying for me to help him. We tried 2 suppositories that evening/night and nothing. We ended up just putting him to bed. The next day, we had another couch potato day. Can I tell you how guilty days like that make me feel? But I could feel a cold coming on as well so I was not at my best: tired from missing part of a night's sleep, completely stiff with horrible knots in my back (I don't know if I need a new pillow or what) and well, just a mess. So, I let the kid watch TV hoping he was getting over whatever he had caught a few days before. He seemed FINE! Dylan, Marcos and I were watching a movie together that didn't interest him so I put "Go Rocket Ship" (a.k.a. Little Einsteins) on for him in my bedroom. That stupid TV has been a big source of debate in our house, but I have to admit, when I have sick kids, it's nice to have a TV in there and just let them lay in there and not be completely in the way. Part way through our movie I hear him coming down the stairs, "Mommy, I pooing. I need to go uuhhh (think of a grunt-that's how he describes it) Can you change a bum?" That means he's already pooped. So good. Let's go change him. I sent Marcos since I was still feeling lazy and tired, but ended up running when I heard screams.

So here's what we think happened. (Here's the part you may want to avoid reading if you're feeling at all squeamish). The kid pooped, but the first little bit was pretty hard. A few hard marbles (again, we think probably because of the steroid pill/shot because he doesn't tend to have this problem). He was laying on the bed and they must've bothered him because he reached in his diaper and pulled them out. We found three marble/golf ball-sized poops on our bedroom floor. Okay, pick them up, get out the carpet cleaning stuff and clean it up. Marcos took Preston in the bathroom and pulled his pants off and put him in the tub, which is when he realized both hands were covered in poop. EW!! I went back to the bedroom to do some cleanup, but with my cold settling in my sinuses, I don't currently have the keen pregnant sense of smell that I have had lately. I couldn't tell what I was looking for, but soon looked up to realize the true disaster. After he pulled out the source of his discomfort and threw the "crap balls" on the ground, he was grossed out that there was poop on his hand and he wiped it all over our dry clean only bedspread. NICE! So I switched Marcos jobs and went to clean up Preston while he and Dylan took the comforter over to the dry cleaner.

I know this is super long, but these are the stories I have to remember some day. Here's the part that makes me remember why I LOVE being a mommy. Dylan rushed into the bathroom, curious as ever, to figure out what was going on. When Marcos pulled Preston's pants off and started to clean him up, Dylan grabbed his pants. Marcos quickly reacted thinking he was going to get all dirty, but Dylan was calm and sure of himself. He took the pants, put them in the sink, turned on the cold water and started rinsing off the pants. Oh my word! He replied to Marcos' slight freak-out simply by saying, "I'm just helping, Papi." I went in to take over bath duty and Dylan ran to get a black garbage sack from under the kitchen sink and helped Marcos put the bedspread inside. Then he put on his shoes and went to the dry cleaners with Marcos. Marcos said he ran in ahead of him and said, "We need some help here with our bedspread." So dang cute! When they got back, I had washed all the poop off of Preston and then ran new clean water for him to bathe and play in. I was just watching him while he splashed around just happy to be alive. When Dylan got back in, he walked into the bathroom, realized Preston wasn't washed yet (his hair wasn't wet). He stepped onto the side of the tub so he could reach the shelf with the soap, got a squirt of baby shampoo and proceeded to bathe Preston. I didn't say one word. I just watched in awe. When that kid wants to be helpful, he's a super star! He finished bathing him and rinsed him off without a word so I decided to push him a bit more. "Do you want to help get Preston ready for bed?" He replied with an enthusiastic, "Sure." He got him out of the tub, dried him off, helped put on his diaper and put his pajamas on. All with very little help from me. Hmm...this could be really good timing. His helpfulness might peak at the perfect time for a new baby to join our family. :)

Of course this story is mainly about disasters so I'll finish with the rest of what happened this week. We ended up taking him to my niece's birthday party. He had been fine for two days (minus the constipation problem) and didn't seem sick at all. No fever, no cough, nothing. So of course we were shocked when we got home that night and he came down with a fever. SERIOUSLY! I hate that so bad. When you think your kid is fine and they really aren't. Sorry to expose people at the party to whatever crap Preston just caught. Grrrr... So we ended up needing to deal with the "Sunday swap" again. Marcos had meetings in the morning and had to take care of stake releasing and sustainings in our sacrament meeting so he took Dylan to sacrament meeting and came home during Sunday School so I could go back for YW to teach my lesson. Holy cow! Sick kids just throw everything off. So the couch potato moments continue. I think he's just got a really bad cold coming on (I'm guessing that because of my sinus pressure that is quickly becoming major congestion but who knows).

So that was our week. That is why very little took place this year for Valentine's Day. We ended up letting Dylan deliver a couple of valentines in an attempt to help Preston fall asleep in the car and just drove around little neighborhoods quietly talking while he slept. But I guess that's the comforting part to me. I have a husband who tries to be helpful (it doesn't always happen, but his heart is in the right place). One who will go up to change the poopy diaper. Yes, he screams when he realizes there's a disaster, but at least he was willing to change the diaper in the first place. Now that's true love! And even though it's a lame, romantic holiday meant to get people to spend money on pointless things, I still wanted to give a shout out to my Valentine. I don't know where I'd be without you, Marcos. You really are the love of my life! I love you from here to Argentina and back again...till I die and forever more!