Trying times

These first 3 weeks of school have been the most challenging we've experienced in a while.  Ever since Josh got his new job, I have been anxious/nervous to get the year going, so that I could see exactly what the new routine would be.  We both have new and more responsibilities with our jobs, but as far as the girls, that's all on me now.

Last year, Josh would take CeCe to school, and Vivi was home with my mom.  So, all I had to worry about was getting myself ready.  This year, it's completely the opposite.  It has been difficult figuring out the best strategy for getting both girls up and ready, myself up and ready, making my lunch, getting breakfast and milks ready, and out the door on time (without forgetting anything!).  It has taken me all this time and even though I prepare as much as I can the night before, things still happen

It never fails that we'll be walking out the door, and CeCe says, "I have to go tee tee." This is when I remember back to when she was in diapers and begin to curse myself for giving in to this whole potty training thing.  There are times when I feel like I'm still not ready for it (but who asked me?!).  Other mornings, I'll be walking to the door with Vivi in my arms, purse on my shoulder, lunch in one hand, milk and breakfast in another (yes, we eat on the go), and CeCe HAS to change her shoes.  She no longer likes the pair that she has on (the ones she HAD to pick out herself the night before) and has to change to a different pair.  And if that battle is not bad enough, the new pair she wants to wear are sandals, which are not allowed at school (can't wear open toed shoes).  That's when I start dropping teacher's names and the director's name and blame them for not allowing it.  I just pray that she never repeats any of that to them!

CeCe's not the only one though.  Poor Vivi.  When I'm getting ready in the morning, I just leave her in her bed (only good thing about her still...yes still..sleeping in our closet, that is in our bathroom) and she has to watch me as I get ready.  If I let her out to roam, she would be all over the house trying to get in toilets or stand up in the rocking chair, and what would normally take me about 5 minutes to put makeup on and dry my hair, now takes me about 15.  Can't have that because I've already planned down to the minute when I can start getting ready and how long it should take me (so that I can sleep until the last possible second).  I never leave any wiggle room.  I've found that when there is too much time, things get really bad.  So, now that Vivi has been all in a hizzy waiting for me to get her out of bed, which makes my blood pressure rise a tad, I get her fresh diaper on and all dressed.  I put her down while I gather everything to put in the car.  And here we go....as I walk over to pick her up, I see her get into that squat position and it happens.  Cue slow motion, picture me reaching out my hands, realizing what she's about to do, and yelling "Noooooooo...not now."  Yep, we got poop.  (This is when I wish she was potty trained or at least old enough to tell me when she's about to go poop, so that I don't waste a fresh diaper.  I know, always want what I don't have)  For a second I think, she'll be able to make it to the babysitter's and she can change her, and I'll just pretend it happened in the car on the way over.  And then I come to my senses.  Put everything down and quickly change her, praying that she doesn't turn over a million times while laughing at me.

And I now have it down that, after losing/forgetting them more times than I'd like to mention, Vivi's paci, paci holder, and her minnie lovey all come out when I get her out of bed and go right in my purse.  The babysitter has begged me before not to forget those, because without them, we have one unhappy camper on our hands.

With all of that said, that's not even the whole reason why its been such a hectic few weeks.  The first day of school, I get a call from Vivi's babysitter telling me that she has a slight fever and wants to make sure she can give her some tylenol.  I hate that she's not feeling well, but thankful I don't have to pick her up.  That night and the next morning, she was ok.  Not 100% but she doesn't have anything to take her to the doctor for.  The second day, I get a call that Vivi has diarrhea, a slight fever, and has to be picked up.  So I miss half a day of work.  That night, we 'force' pedialyte down her, load her up on bananas and toast, and she's fine.  We skate by the rest of the week, keeping her on a liquid and BRAT diet.  She seems to kick the stomach virus pretty well.

That Saturday, I went to a movie by myself while Josh stayed home with the girls.  I got a text during it that CeCe didn't make it to the toilet in time, and there was diarrhea all over her and the bathroom floor.  Not really sure at this point what was going on with her.  Was this a one time thing?  24 hr stomach bug?  The rest of the weekend, she was fine.  No appetite change and looking/feeling normal.'

Monday morning comes, start week #2 of school, she has diarrhea again and isn't feeling completely herself.  But she insisted that she wanted to go to school.  I fully expected to get a call that day to pick her up.  I did get a call but it wasn't until 4pm, that she had diarrhea 3 times and school policy says that she can't come back for at least 24 hrs.  So I stay home with her on Tuesday.

I couldn't miss work on Wednesday because my co-worker was going to be out, so Josh got everything ready at school to be out just in case.  She had gotten her appetite back and didn't have any diarrhea since early Tuesday, but Josh went ahead and stayed home with her to give her another day.  Thursday, my co-worker was still out so I had to be at work again.  Josh went on to work.  Sure enough, CeCe had diarrhea before we left that morning.  At this point, I have already missed 1 1/2 days, Josh, 1.  He's at a new school trying to get things going, I can't miss work because my backup is out.  So, we get in the car and I just hope that she'll make it through the day.

We've been in the car about 5 minutes and CeCe says she has to go to the bathroom.  I begin to panic because when she has to go, she has to go.  I'm scrambling to find a place to stop at.  I pull over at a gas station, get CeCe out of the car, get Vivi out, walk in and head to the restroom.  The cashier stops us and says the bathroom is out of order.  OMG!  This can't be happening.  I look around to see if there is another business close by that is open.  I see nothing.  We all get back in the car, and I head to Vivi's babysitter hoping I see a place to stop on the way.  There is a CVS right down the road from the babysitter's house, but instead of having to get both girls out again, I decide to just go ahead and drop Vivi off.  I'm praying that CeCe can last that long.  I can hear it in her voice that she really needs to go, but she also hears it in my voice that she's going to need to try to hold it for a little longer.  I drop Vivi off, head over to the CVS and CeCe has diarrhea again.

Here's the fun part.  We get to CeCe's school, walk in and about 5 steps inside, one of her classmates had just thrown up on the floor.  All of the kids are sitting at the tables because it's time for their morning snack (pancakes!).  One teacher is getting that organized, one teacher is tending to the kid that threw up, and the director is in there cleaning up the throw up.  While they're all doing that, I sit CeCe down, get her some water (relieved that they are all too busy to realize that CeCe isn't 100%) and I have to run.  I was really late at this point.  Meanwhile, I'm texting Josh telling him everything that is going on and to get prepared to leave if she doesn't make it.

No more than 10 minutes goes by and I get a call from CeCe's teacher.  CeCe has just thrown up and had diarrhea and she needs to be picked up.  Immediately I text Josh and tell him he has to leave now.  He's 45 minutes away.  I'm about 5 minutes away but I can't leave and my student is waiting on me.  I'm stuck and fighting back tears and thinking I can't do this anymore.  Why is this happening?  Why did Josh have to move to another district?  Something has to change.  Josh stayed home with her Thursday.  I took off again Friday.  Luckily it was a 3 day weekend and we were thankful to have that extra day to get her better.  And for me to get to relax.

I know this post is long enough, and I wish I could say that all was well at this point.  But there's more.

Friday night, Josh starts feeling bad.  He gets a bad headache and goes to sleep early.  All day Saturday he is in bed.  Doesn't appear to have any other symptoms.  Selfishly, I get frustrated because I feel like I've been dealing with this mess all week, and not only do I not get to relax after a terrible week, here I am having to take care of him too, for just being tired and having a headache.  Terrible, I know.  I was ready to run away if this crud did not go away and I mean fast.  He ended up having the virus too.  He stayed home from work on Sunday, feeling slightly better but not much.  By Monday, Labor Day, Josh got some strength back and CeCe and Vivi were fine.

Until Monday morning when Vivi threw up her milk. She was having a little drainage so I thought she might have gagged and then everything just came up.   Josh and I went back to work and both girls at school.  I got a call about 1pm, that Vivi had thrown up 3 times already and needed to be picked up.  Is this really happening?  Here we go again.  We took her off milk and dairy for the night and were back to pedialyte and bananas.  She did fine that night.  No throwing up at all.  The next morning, I switched her back to some formula, and she was able to hold it in longer, but did end up throwing up a little of it before we left.  She was going to be home with my mom Thursday and Friday already so I was just hoping I could get her well enough to make it through school on Wednesday.

She was ok and slowly got better by the end of the week.  We made it through it and I'm fortunate that it never got a hold of me.

3 weeks into school and already CeCe has missed 4 days, I've missed 3, Josh has missed 2, and Vivi, 1.  Please be over.