Mother's Day...

...everyday. I am not referring to the Hallmark inflated, shower you with homemade gifts and corsages Mother's day either. I am talking about the real mother's day. The one that only mother's know about. The day that starts the minute you're awake and never ends.
Friday, 1:30 AM
I awake to the sound of Gavin beckoning his dad, 'Da, Da, Da'. I get out of bed and make a bottle. I sludge into the boys' room and notice that Logan is sitting up in bed. "Logan," I say, "It's not time to get up baby. Time to go Nigh, Night". Logan lays back down. I gather Gavin and feed him in the other room. When Gavin is done eating, I rock him for a little while and then go to lay him back down. Logan is sitting up again.
"Logan," I said, "You need to lay down. It's not morning." Blech! Blech! Yes, that is the sound of vomitting. Thus began my week. Logan's fever was 101. I call into work because it is quite obvious that I'm not going to make it. Logan layed around all day. He wouldn't eat or drink. He wouldn't sleep. The three things my son loves more than anything in the world is to run & jump, drink water, and take naps. He did none of those things. What he did was cry, constantly. He was a mess. I was a mess. Luckily, my mom had anticipated adverse weather and stayed the night. I was glad for her help. Around 3:30 PM, Logan's temperature escalated even with Tylenol. He cannot have Ibuprofen as it is a degranulator, so I wasn't sure what else to do. I decided to take him in. So, I packed both boys up and headed to Urgent care.
We resided in urgent care for about 4 hours. They took X-Rays, drew blood, did cultures, urine dips. You name it, they did it. Both boys sat there and cried. They both wanted to be held. All the while, Logan's temperature continued to sky rocket. Eventually, they determined that Logan had two things going on. The first was that he had a "small spot on his lower left lung quadrant that could be pneumonia." Let's start antibiotics. The second, he has staph infection present in his urine. "UTI," Let's start antibiotics. Yes, four hours later, their solution was antibiotics. They sent me home with a 2 year old that wouldn't drink or eat and had a temperature of 102.9 with a prescription of antibiotics. We could have done that 3 hours ago?!
I am not one of those moms who feels like I need to throw antibiotics at my kids for every little sniffle. On the contrary, I feel like antibiotics sometimes do more harm than good. I was willing to try anything at this point though.
Finally, later that night, Logan's fever broke. Then, however, the adverse effects of the antibiotics started to take hold. Now my dehydrated little boy had the scoots. Enter probiotics. It seems a little counterproductive to give a kid antibiotics to wipe out bacteria and then give them bacteria. I try to look at it like an oil change or transmission service.
Needless to say, by the time this all got under control, I was exhausted. Praise the Lord, one week later, Logan is on the mend. He is still not my normal, active, 2 year old boy, but is slowly getting his naughty back.
I sometimes wish I could videotape days like this and replay them to every girl out there that is considering having children. It might deter a few, and rightly so. Hopefully then they would see that it is not all glorious, baby powder filled snuggle time. Motherhood has it's rewards, but it is challenging, nonetheless. I, personally, marvel in Mother's day. There is nothing more fulfilling than being the most important person in someone's life. Motherhood does that.

My husband

I have the greatest husband in the world. I am sure there are others who feel the same way, but they're wrong. I kid. Yesterday was a morning to go in the record books. After nearly no sleep I erupted into what I will call a "abstract interpretive dance". In reality, I threw a tantrum. I was mad because both of my boys kept me up nearly all night. I was irritated because I could hear my husbands "soft" snoring. I was anxious because we are in the process of a lot of change which scares me. I was overwhelmed because the household chores and everyday tasks are looming. After no sleep, I snapped. Aric responded.
At first, Aric's response was not so pleasant. Mine wouldn't have been either. I stormed through the house begrudgingly cleaning at 4:00 AM. I silently told myself that I was going to just leave. Aric could find child care. Aric could deal with the stress of the housework. I insisted to myself that I had been violently insulted. How dare he!
After a while I decided that I wasn't going to just leave without having my say. I went up to the room, but on the way there, something happened. God spoke to my heart. A calmness overcame me. I realized that I needed to let Aric know how I was feeling, but not in an offensive manner. There is not one person in this world who will respond well to being attacked.
I went into the room and told Aric that we needed to talk. I began to sob and tell him all of the things that were on my mind. I unloaded all of the stressors that were haunting me. Aric wrapped me in his warm embrace and told me he was sorry and that everything would be ok.
He was sorry? That's right. My husband apologized after I acted like a two year old. If that isn't humbling, I don't know what is. To top it off, he brought me dinner that night so that I could relax and not have to cook. Awwww! Right?!
The thing is, this is typical. My husband has been known to throw his fits too, but most of the times he acts as a defuser. I explode and he picks up the pieces. He tells me that I will be ok. He tells me that everything will be just fine. He picks up the slack that I have been tripping over. He is patient, compassionate, and understanding. I couldn't have asked for a better man.