Exhausted

I know all parents are tired, but I am wiped these days! Violet is finally sleeping a little better at night and is not so gassy, but my body is still getting adjusted to waking up every 1.5-2 hours with her. Then we usually have both Clare and Simon up by 6am every morning, and it's go go go until bedtime.

The kids are all still up and down with illnesses. Just when we thought everyone was getting better, Clare came down with conjunctivitis and quickly passed it on to Simon. After another round of antibiotics, Clare's eyes cleared up, but Simon is still fighting his.

Jamie is under attack from his allergies again, and we haven't even really hit spring yet. We have an appointment with the allergist at the end of this month to discuss changing his treatment. I am praying we are not at the point already where he needs allergy shots, but I am not sure where else the doctor can go at this point. Jamie is already on three allergy medications (two different oral antihistamines and a nose spray), yet he continues to be congested with red eyes, sports the huge allergy shiners, and has a lingering cough. He spent the last two days in RI with my family, which equates to loads of fun and late nights. We get to endure the effects of his withdrawal today! Needless to say, he is one tired kid. And now Simon has spiked a high fever and developed a rash on one of his cheeks. After dosing him with Tylenol and Benadryl, per the pediatrician's orders, we put him to bed at 5:30pm. The pedi's office wanted to see him, but I am too wiped to even think about bringing someone to the doctor's, so we opted for the put-to-bed-immediately option and see how he is doing come morning.

Then there's Miss Clare. She seems to finally be feeling somewhat better cold-wise (still has a slight cough and runny nose, though), but Mondays are a tough day between school and speech therapy. She was so distracted at speech this afternoon. She kept flitting around like a little butterfly - just could not settle down and focus on a task. Judy is AMAZINGLY patient (I need some of that!) and kept reminding Clare about "quiet hands" and finishing the game before starting something else. Judy uses a schedule board with Clare to keep her focused on what they are doing at the present moment. This allows Clare to know what's coming up next (such as today went game, snack, coloring) so she's not preoccupied wondering about that. Usually the schedule board works great, but Clare was so unfocused today that that didn't even do it. She did not have any meltdowns at speech, but once we got home, she was so tired. All she could do was cry and scream at us. She literally could not function. Clare's oral motor skills go down the drain when she's tired, so she was slurring her words. We cannot understand her then, and she becomes even more frustrated. It breaks my heart (and it takes every ounce of patience and tolerance I have to not start screaming back). We see such great progress with Clare with her speech therapy, but if she is exhausted to the point of not being able to function every Monday afternoon, then I am not sure how long it can continue. Clare is having her surgery in a couple weeks, so we want to see what happens after that. For now, we are just going to keep at it and hope for the best.

And the queen of the castle is finally getting her crown. Unfortunately, it's on the bottom left side of my mouth. On the positive side, Shawn found me these delicious fruit "popsicles" by Edy's. I am a sugar junkie and have cut out heavy sweets from my diet (like chocolate, cookies, cake, brownies, ice cream, all the stuff I crave) - partly as a Lenten sacrifice and partly to lose my baby weight. I admit I definitely eat when I am stressed. These fruit bars are delicious, made out of real fruit, and only have 30 calories per bar. Eat up, baby!