The Transition Begins

…with an overtired almost-4-year-old, a sick 2-year-old, and the new baby.

 

(Warning! The following story contains excrement!)

 

Yesterday afternoon Christian took Alex to the video store to rent Dumbo at the halftime of the basketball game, leaving me with the younger two. Julianna had diarrhea, but she’d been changed twice and Nicholas was asleep in the crib upstairs, so I figured we ought to be okay for fifteen or twenty minutes. I sat down at the computer for a minute to work on pictures, and then heard Julianna whining in the kitchen. When I got up and turned around, I saw a two-year old not wearing a diaper and sitting in a puddle of…well, you get the idea.

 

Of course I couldn’t carry her upstairs, so I used the (clean, of course) diaper to clean up her and the mess. By now Nicholas was upstairs hollering in the crib. I took Julianna by the hand, helped her up, and walked her up the stairs. Probably still too much weight bearing, especially at surgery + 3 days, but it had to be done. I laid her down and cleaned her up. I was in the middle of that when the pizza delivery guy rang the doorbell. I hurried (as much as I could, which approximates a snail, actually) down the stairs to pay him, and headed back through the living room with two boxes of pizza, only to discover, to my deep chagrin, a big brown spot in the middle of the living room carpet. Ugh! I went upstairs, got Nicholas, changed him (he was also dirty) and called Julianna to come downstairs, b/c of course I couldn’t possibly carry Nicholas and walk Julianna.

 

But Julianna chose to stay in her room (now also Nicholas’s). Whatever. I had two floors to clean, and the house was starting to smell like we had a dog. So I went to work…gently, of course.

 

The phone rang. Christian, at Movie Gallery. “Hey, I can’t find…”

 

“Look, I can’t deal with this right now. You have no idea what you left me with.”

 

He got that little irritated tone of voice. “Fine, whatever, I’ll see you at home.”

 

Back to work.

 

Julianna began wailing. The same whine that began this whole mess twenty minutes ago. “Julianna, you had BETTER not have taken your diaper off!” I yelled, and started, painfully, back up the stairs.

 

The phone rang.

 

Forget it.

 

Julianna was bent double on the floor of her room, thankfully with diaper on, but yes, yet another mess to clean.

 

Christian and I had to have conciliatory words when he got home.

 

Julianna went to bed at 7:30. Nicholas screamed and wailed through bath, followed by Alex, who screamed and wailed through bath and bedtime routine. At last I just closed his door without even tucking him in. I’ve been trying to be as nice a mommy as I can in this time which is so tough for him, but enough is enough.

 

8:20p.m., all kids in bed.

 

Nicholas did not want to sleep alone. He began crying profusely. This woke Julianna, who began shrieking. We calmed them both down and retreated. Ten minutes later the drama repeated. We brought Nicholas downstairs till we went to bed, and tried again. Same scenario. We brought Nicholas to bed. Christian conked out. I was in pain on top and bottom, and freaking out about sleeping with a baby, which I haven’t done since Alex was six months old. We’re four years older and tireder now. So about 10:45 I got up and put him in bed.

 

At 11:45 he woke up to nurse, and woke up Julianna, who now had a fever. Christian and I split duty. Good for him, he got her on the toilet in time for the next round of nastiness. Once they were back in bed, Christian went to bed; I went downstairs to pump.

 

Repeat scenario at 3, except replace the toilet drama with Alex waking up and totally losing it because he wanted a drink of water. This time, when we got done, Christian laid down with Julianna for the rest of the night.

Repeat scenario at 6. This time Nicholas didn’t want to go back in his crib. Christian brought him in to me in bed.

 

At 8 a.m., Alex got up.

 

I figure, you pile worn out parents upon engorgement, upon fresh, painful incision, upon sick middle child, upon overtired oldest child, upon baby adjusting to a new world…and pretty soon, you just go into survival mode. And one at a time, each issue resolves, until life has achieved a new normal, and Transition is over.

 

And those more experienced parents out there, if I’m deluding myself…please don’t enlighten me. 😉