Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Day From You-Know-Where

When does a day begin and end? By a 24 hour clock it begins at midnight, but so often I'm still awake then. Yet I'll tell you how Wednesday went on a 24 hour clock. It was quite the day.

12:00am Still up with the baby.

1:00 I finally get to bed.

2:40 Annika wakes up screaming. Wendell goes in checks on her, soothes her and puts her back in bed. But as soon as he lays her down she is screaming.

3:15 Annika is still screaming and has finally awakened the baby.

3:38 I am only half done feeding the baby but I just can't take the screaming anymore. I go in and sing the lullaby she's screaming for (bye-o, bye-oooooo). As soon as I quit singing she's screaming again. I put her in my bed. "Baby Beck!" she yells. I scoop up Beck, my Boppy, diaper changing supplies and shut off the light. I finish feeding Beck in the living room.

4:20 I lay Beck down in his bassinet and I scoot Annika over and go to sleep.

5 something-ish I get kicked in the head two or three times and move Annika.

6:45 Annika is up and talking loudly. I kick Wendell and Annika out of bed.

7:07 I get Emma out of bed to take her shower.

7:23 I get Anson up and dressed. I feed the kids breakfast, check backpacks, brush hair, look for shoes and socks.

7:52 Emma and Anson leave for school.

8:05 Nate gets up, blah, blah, blah. I feed the baby.

9:07 Nate goes to school, I frantically get in the shower.

9:45 I leave for the OB office for my 6 week check. Because of the snow I know I'm going to be late for my 10:00 apt.

10:05 I get to the OB office.

11:20 I get home and Wendell walks out the door to volunteer in Nate's class. I feed the baby.

12:15pm Nate and Wendell get home. I'm on the phone with a friend of my from high school (we actually go back to about 5th grade) whom I haven't spoken with in a year or so.

12:45 I feed the kids lunch and Wendell leaves for work. All heck breaks loose. Annika is into everything. The highlight of her trouble was when she got a butter knife, dipped it in the butter and buttered her hair.

1:30 My mom comes over to pick up Nathan for "reading lessons." Nathan comes upstairs from playing Lego Star Wars with a suspicious wet spot in a suspicious place. Keeping in mind that I have called him upstairs twice suggesting that he go potty before Grandma get here. I send him to the bathroom and to change his pants and underwear. He looses Lego Star Wars privileges until Saturday. He's pretty mad/upset when he leaves.

1:50 I call my sis to beg her to pick my kids up from school, because I'm feeding the baby and I don't think I'll make it. Anson didn't take boots to school which was my fault. Eventually she says she'll go, but by then I think I can make it too.

2:10 Go to the school to pick up Emma and Anson.

2:15 School lets out.

2:30 Still no sign of my kids. I must have missed them some how, but there are no more kids coming out and very few cars left in the lot. They're walking home in the snow. As I pull out of the parking lot my cell phone rings. It's my sister. She came late to pick her daughter up and spotted them walking home. Anson was knee deep in a snow drift (in his new tennis shoes) just for fun.

2:35 I get home and chew the kids out for walking while I was waiting at the school for them for 15 minutes.

"Sorry, Mom," Anson says, "but we usually walk home."

"Yes," I reply snipily, "but it doesn't usually snow a foot!" (OK. I exaggerated a little. It was probably 8-9 inches. Still--that's a lot of snow in half a day.)

2:45 Mom drops Nathan off from reading lessons and picks Emma up. Thankfully my mom will take Emma to her art lessons, so that's one less thing I have to do.

The rest of the afternoon goes moderately smoothly with kids doing homework and piano and yes, Anson got his turn at reading lessons too.

4:05 Annika is down for a nap, but is screaming. I need a nap too so I hop in bed, shut the door and pile the covers up so I can't hear her.

4:20 I wake up to Annika screaming, but I feel more rested.

4:35 Mom brings Emma and Anson home. I'm feeding the baby. The phone rings. Emma gets it. It's Anson's friend Haden. He wants to play.

"Do you want to come over Friday?" I ask.

"No," he insists, "when my mom comes home."

"OK." I say. "You can come over for a bit tonight." (I'm picturing after dinner. But I'm also SURE that Haden's mom will call "when she gets back" and we'll work out the details.)

5:20 We're having leftovers. I have 3 kinds of leftover soups from the last couple of days. I have the choices laid out on the counter. Each child has told me what s/he wants and I have the bowls cued up for microwaving.

5:25 Haden shows up. Cindy and I talk about the confusion. Cindy is hoping to take Anson to her house, but Anson hasn't eaten or practiced his piano yet. I agree to keep Haden for a few minutes so the boys won't feel so bad. We set up a Friday play date.

Then Cindy and I promptly visit for the next 25 minutes. "Gosh," she says at the end, "it's about time for me to take Haden home." I am secretly hoping she will do this.

5:50 Cindy leaves promising to be back in 15 minutes.

5:55 I put Annika in her high chair and feed her soup. I heat mine up and in a few minutes Emma comes in. We say a quiet prayer together while the boys play.

6:25 Emma, Annika and I are completely done eating and I'm cleaning up the kitchen.

6:35 Nathan comes into the kitchen asking about dinner and I reheat his soup.

6:45 Cindy finally comes back admitting she'd forgotten about Haden.

I eventually got Anson fed and have him play his piano. I forget to have Emma do spelling or have Nathan do his home reader.

7:30 I get the kids ready for bed.


7:55 I call Wendell who is just leaving work. Halleluia. This awful day is almost over. Wendell doesn't want to eat leftover soup and stops by a Mexican restaurant to pick up dinner he would like.

8:00 I call the kids in for scriptures and prayer, which is, thankfully uneventful.

8:20 I send the kids to bed.

8:22 Wendell walks in the door. All the kids get out of bed to kiss Wendell. After that I tell Wendell about my frustrating day and we watch TV while I feed the baby again. Blog.

At 12:00am I am still up, but not for long.

Thus ends the most brutal day I've had for in a while.

9 comments:

Holly (2 Kids and Tired) said...

Ok, big hug and a huge pat on the back. You are superwoman. I hope today was better. You definitely need some "me time"!

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

Oh man! I hate days like that. Try to get some sleep, because in just an hour or so the baby is going to be hungry...

*hugs*

Celia Fae said...

Six weeks is always the worst. Everyone stops helping and all of the naughtiness starts. I hope you can hang on another six until the baby Beck starts sleeping. Maybe have your husband quit his job.

Unknown said...

First and foremost: Congratulations on surviving such a day!
Secondly: I noticed that your baby will go 3 hours without eating! I am jealous.
Third: I am glad I am not the only ones who husband doesn't get home until after 8, when the kids are already in bed. Misery loves company!

Celia Fae said...

Chicken, bock bock bock. We won't eat you. Probably.

D-dawg said...

Jenna, I am so tired reading. What a nightmare of a day. I hope it only gets better. Remember your baby is only 6 weeks. You're still in the really hard time!!!

And by the way, Ang is coming to the blog party so now you can come too! YAY!

D-dawg said...

Jenna, by the way, email me your email address and I'll add you to the email group we started about blogapalooza!

Laurie said...

Hey, I think our kids have the same schedule. AAHHH! I am so tired this week. You are a lot stronger than I am though. I just ignore it all and hope tomorrow is a better day (which it isn't). I think you're doing super for being only 6 weeks out so give yourself some huge credit. And I hope you get some sleep tonight!

Jeanie said...

Hey Jenna!! I'm glad my mom ran into you today, too!

Sounds like you had quite the day from this post! It really makes you appreciate the other days that aren't so "eventful", right? We need to get together for the kids to play! I would love to see you again, and see how big Emma and Anson are! And of course, meet the rest of the little ones :). Let me know!

Jeanie