Eighteen Months: The Ugly

As I think every parent would agree, we all take in the good with the bad. However, sometimes we have to deal with situations that are just, well, ugly. Thankfully these are a pretty rare occurrence in our house, but they happen. I call these situations ugly because they just become so bad that they are comical. Here are a few ugly scenarios we all somehow made it through and afterward involved mommy either crying or laughing because it was just so ridiculous:
1. Doctor's Office Mayhem: Since February, we have averaged going to the doctor every 2-3 weeks because one or both girls has had an ear infection (we go to the ear doctor next week and will most likely be getting tubes for both girls). This in itself is ugly. If you've ever dealt with an ear infection, they are no fun. Times two, and trying to keep track of what ears are infected/who's on what antibiotic that week is really no fun. I would say the peak ugliness of this issue came one week when I was taking Sophie in for a suspected ear infection and Campbell was also fighting sickness. This particular day I had no one to help me with the girls at the doctor, which when they are both having to get checked out, gets ugly in a hurry. Sophie is my brave girl at the doctor, so I thought I'd have him look at her ears first. Cue Sophie having a ginormous meltdown/thinking Dr. Leveridge was trying to kill her. Campbell starts crying because Sophie is crying. So I'm holding down Sophie on the table while Campbell is pulling my shirt down causing me to reveal some massive pregnant cleavage to our poor pediatrician and screaming like crazy, too. Awesome. And did I mention Sophie is kicking the crap out of my very pregnant belly the entire time? Me going into labor at that moment would have really been the icing on the cake. I get Sophie calmed down and give her my phone to play with before he moves onto Campbell. Now Campbell is what we would call not-so-brave when it comes to the doctor. So naturally she begins her meltdown at this point. After listening to her/examining her, it's determined she has RSV. He wants to do a breathing treatment on her before we leave which involves me sitting in the room and holding a mask up to her face for 10 minutes. Are we serious? This was a ridiculous challenge in and of itself since she was pretty convinced whatever fumes were coming out of that mask were laced with anthrax, but keep in mind I now have another cranky ear-infected toddler to keep happy, as well. Our sweet nurse, seeing me in my pregnant, profusely sweating state at this point, offers to carry Sophie around with her while I do the breathing treatment on Campbell. I could have kissed her. Somehow we stumbled out of the doctor's office that day and made it to the car, feeling as though I barely escaped a bad episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8. I felt like I had just run a marathon then had the crap beat out of me with a baseball bat. On this particular day, I cried. Cried tears of utter helplessness. Tears that both of my babies didn't feel good and there was only one me. Tears of terror at the realization that I would soon add a third child to that chaos in the doctor's office. Tears of exhaustion from lack of sleep. Ugly. Just plain ugly.
2. Post Traumatic Bath Disorder plus Vomit: About a month ago, we had what Kyle and I now refer to as "the bath incident." The girls normally looove the bath. However, on this particular night, as soon as I put Sophie in the bath, she began screaming bloody murder. I immediately scooped her out of the tub and she instantly grabbed her foot. I noticed she had a small blister from where her shoe must have rubbed her foot that day. So we skipped her bath that night and decided we would just sponge bathe her until it healed. Three or four days later it had scabbed over and we thought she would be fine to take a bath again. Wrongo congo. Apparently just the memory of her incident several nights before was enough to trigger a meltdown. And when I say meltdown, the child refused to get within ten feet of the bath. You would have thought we were trying to bathe her in acid. Awful. So, no bath for Sophie again. The next night, same scenario. I told Kyle it was getting a little gross at this point that she hadn't bathed in approximately 5 days, and maybe we should try something else. Enter Kyle, holding a massive fit-throwing Sophie in the tub in his underwear while standing and Campbell looking up at him wondering what in the heck happened to our happy, fun bath time and why Daddy was standing half naked in the tub. After recovering from laughing hysterically, we somewhat got Sophie cleaned up. For about the past month, Sophie has made a slow recovery. She now will get in the bath without having a meltdown, but for whatever reason refuses to sit down. We have tried everything. Finally the other night, I decided to take charge and make her sit. For whatever reason, again this triggered a massive fit. After Kyle took her out of the bath and got her in her PJ's, she was still screaming like crazy. I got Campbell ready for bed and we took both girls in their room to put them down for the night. Sophie at this point is just exhausted, upset, and still screaming in her crib. I go to give Campbell her medicine and it must have gone down the wrong tube because it triggers her gag reflex and UP comes her milk and dinner all over her crib and my hands. Kyle whisks her out of her crib and into the bathroom in case she wasn't finished and to take off her throw up covered PJ's. In the process of taking off her shirt, the throw up gets all in her hair. I tell him to go and calm Sophie down so I can bathe Campbell...again. Then proceed to change her crib sheet, as well. Somehow we finally get both girls clean and calm and asleep. While this was definitely ugly. It was also hilariously ridiculous, and just one of those insane moments you have to laugh at. And we did.

Life with twins is always a crazy adventure. Life with twins plus being pregnant? A very tiresome, crazy adventure. Trying my best to let 2 little ones sit on my lap with my belly in the way, hoisting 2 little ones into and out of their car seats, cribs, high chairs, swingset, etc. can be exhausting, which any mom who has been pregnant with other little ones knows all too well. Add to that at least one girl waking up at night due to painful ears, and many days it's all I can do to stay awake until Kyle walks in the door. Lately, we've probably watched a little too much Dora and Elmo, spent a lot of tired afternoons all cuddled up on the couch together, and had more than a few play sessions that involved the girls crawling over my sprawled out body on the living room floor.

So there it is. The wonderfully good, daily bad, and occasional ugly of our life with two crazy monkeys. When you throw it all together, I'm blessed to say that the good usually rises to the top. It's impossible for me to look at their sweet smiles and precious faces and not feel overwhelmed with love for these two perfect little people.

I hope all of the moms out there had a fantastic Mother's Day and felt celebrated for the marvelous women motherhood makes us!

xoxo