sunshine on a cloudy day.

monday morning i brought oliver into the doctor & we came home with a round of antibiotics & children's mucinex for chest congestion & onset of an ear infection. i was crossing my fingers that after a mega-disinfecting spree that gus would be okay. but through the afternoon & evening he started sneezing, coughing & we could tell that he probably wasn't going to be in the clear. tuesday morning he was running a fever, so i didn't hesitate to get him his own doctor's visit. during gus's 15th doctor visit...we agreed to another xray & we determined that a round of antibiotics & nebulizer treatments 4 to 6 times a day would be our best defense. his oxygen levels were up, so i seriously think that was the only thing that saved us another admit into the hospital! yesterday was a less than graceful day with two sick boys at home. and now that i'm on my fourth day handling this...my body is physically wanting to shut down, but my mind is a lot better =) and a typical day looks like this:

3 aM mike clocks out & i clock in for gus duty. warm up the bottle. change his diaper. suction out his clogged nose. soothe him because that makes him extremely mad. grab the bottle & feed. burpies. spit up clean up. nebulizer treatment. soothe him back to sleep hopefully by 5aM. sneak back into bed. smell the coffee brewing by mike & think i should get up & join him but don't want to make a move to wake gus. doze back off to sleep. 7aM gus is stirring again. try to be quiet warming up another bottle to not wake oliver. diaper change. re-swaddle. grab the bottle, my coffee & feed. give him his first dose of medicine after he burps. oliver creeps out of his room. i pray he's having a good morning & doesn't go into meltdown mode after he finds out that dad is at work. whew...he accepts it this morning. run around with gus to get oliver breakfast & throw in a movie. sit back to rock gus. "oh-jay mommy! juice!" dang forgot the juice oliver asked for. get back up & sneak his mucinex into his "oh-jay". prays he doesn't suspect anything. yes! he drinks it. sit gus down to change oliver. fight him to get his pants back on. remind him for the millionth time to not kiss gus. "hey baby...hey baby gus" ...& he settles for a hug. my coffee is cold, warm it back up. nebulizer treatment for gus. pants change for gus. attempt to get oliver's "good stuff" down him...1/2 tsp goes down good...then, he starts playing his game of not liking it anymore. i will attempt again later. "cookies mommy" "no oliver no cookies in the morning" "chocolate mommy" "no buddy no stinking chocolate either" "you want some kix" "yeeeeeeeeeeaaaah" okay i won that battle. oliver changes the movies out & jumps off some furniture for a while. gus is hungry again...warm up another bottle. his eating is so off when he's sick & he's been spitting up more...i change clothes at least 3 times. "where's the dang burp rag?!" finish bottle & burp. i smell poop. it's oliver. put gus in the swing. i change oliver. i fight him to get his pants back on. realize i just used oliver's last diaper in the entire house & diaper bags...crap! i forgot to remind mike to grab some before he got home yesterday. gus is fussing again. i smell poop. i lay gus down to change him. he has an explosion not worth describing...you get it...& that led to bathtime. "baff" "baff" screams oliver. my mom brings by an emergency stash of #4 diapers for oliver. i longed to get him potty trained. i run gus a bath...he's not happy about the no clothes on situation. mom changes oliver...he pooped again. seriously...really. oliver tears into the bathroom & tries to jump into the tub. "wait for gus to finish up please"...okay gus was finished. wrap up little man & hand him off to mom to dress. run a bath for oliver as he jumps into the tub with his pj shirt still on. pull off his shirt. notice he's peeing into his bath water. drain the water. start over. warm water w/ bubbles...he's set. mom leaves. gus relaxes & i put him in the bouncer seat w/ me in the kitchen. oliver refuses to get out of the tub. i make lunch for him. throw in a load of laundry. he drains his water & screams at me to get him out. get oliver dried off. clothes on. in the highchair. gus fell asleep. i load the rest of oliver's medicine into his juice. oliver eats & i wash dishes & bottles. mike texts "how's it going today". oliver is on to my prank with his juice & refuses to drink it, but finishes his lunch for once. okay i'll try the medicine again later...i must dig for some new mama trickery. gus wakes up. oliver is warned it's almost naptime & he replies his usual "no". swaddle gus & rock. oliver is jumping off of furniture again but poses no big threat this time as he made an appropriate pillow landing to fall into. gus calms down & goes into the swing. countdown to naptime for oliver expires & we grab "kee kee" {blanket} & "pup pup" {his stuffed puppy} & he jumps into our bed on daddy's side of course {his usual spot}. kiss. hug. "have a good nap buddy love you". it's 1 pM. both boys are napping. and that, my friends, is success! but i could use a stiff drink ;)

oliver's window art today...i call it

"sunshine on a cloudy day"