Dealing with multiple kids during a stomach flu

This past week has been pretty awful around here as everyone (except me *knock on wood*) developed some kind of nasty stomach flu. All 3 kids got it a varying times and had some of the same symptoms and some different. Colin did not have the stomach problems that Nathan and Emily had but had a high fever for quite some time (over 40 for more than 12 hours). Two times in the last week I was so scared for one of our children: the first time was when Emily woke up and was white with grey lips on Saturday morning with no energy to even cry, and the second was Nathan screaming in pain for more than 4 hours on and off on Monday night due to gas pain in his stomach. I actually took him to the hospital because I was worried that perhaps he had appendicitis. I learned quite a bit from this relentless stomach beast - these tips are for all of you moms and dads out there that have not had to deal with more than one puker/pooper at a time yet:

• Throw down blankets/towels all over the carpet/couches. This will save your own gag reflex during clean-up and will prevent the need to carpet clean.
• Put a towel down on the bed covering not just where their head is but under their bottom as well. I don't think I should go into why this is advisable but it helps with clean-up as well.
• Don't give milk. For the love of God, do NOT give milk. They will whine and cry for it but it will only make them feel worse and is NOT fun to clean-up *gag*.
• Even if your child is toilet trained, use a pull-up anyway. Maybe two.
• Have a bucket near your kids at all times. Do not attempt to get them to the bathroom to throw up as this will just give you more things to clean.
• Wash your hands. Wash your hands until they crack and bleed. Seriously. It seems to have worked so far for me.
• Use latex gloves when cleaning up messes. Then wash your hands multiple times anyway.
• Make a pact with your partner. In our house when we are both home I clean up yucky bums and Clint cleans up regurg. 
• Make another pact with your partner that if either or both of you get sick that you agree to continue to help each other as much as you can. It sucks to take care of 3 sick kids when you are well and I can't imagine trying to do all of that when you are sick and by yourself.
• Do ridiculous amounts of laundry. Use hot water on every cycle. Some things may require multiple washings. 
• Use receiving blankets (those little ones that are useless if your baby weighs more than 7 lbs at birth) and just throw them out as they are "used". Put your kids in clothing you don't care about and if it is particularly nasty you can just chuck those too.
• Put your kids (and particularly babies) in clothing that opens at the front. There is nothing worse than trying to pull a nasty shirt off over their head.
• If they have a pretty bad "episode" just take them to the tub/shower and clean them off really well with soap and water. You will never get it all unless you do this.
• Make sure that extra sheets and changes of clothes are laid out before they go to bed at night. That way you may not need to turn on all the lights to search for a clean crib sheet and new PJs if there is an incident.
• When it seems to be over, sanitize the crap (literally?) out of your house.

I hope that this is the last time I will experience such an sickness in our home..... I seriously doubt that is possible since we have three young children that are building immunities to the viruses of the world. Good luck to all of you if you ever encounter such a beast!!

Time flies when you're busy raising 3 kids!!

I just can't believe that it has been nearly 4 months since my last post! I guess it should be obvious to everyone that I am a ridiculously busy Mum!

Colin and Emily turned 1 on July 27th and their birthday had me thinking back to where we were 1 year ago. So many things have changed and our lives have become far more predictable and routine. When I think back to those early days all I can remember is trying to nurse two babies out of their state of jaundice, recovering from my c-section and trying to give Nathan as "normal" of a summer as we possibly could. It was a good night if Clinton and I both got 2 hour stretches of sleep at a time and a total of 5-7 hours total (broken in chunks) was pretty common for the first 2-6 weeks. The sleep deprivation was brutal but we knew that it would be a relatively short time in our lives that we would have to push through. Around 5 weeks of age I started feeding them 100% on my own through the night since I was healing well and Clint was able to get some pretty good nights of sleep. The compromise was that I would try to nap each afternoon when the babies were asleep and Clint would play with Nathan (usually outside) so I could get some rest. We were also pretty lucky to have both of our moms nearby to help out with everything in the first month and that took a lot of pressure off of Clint to do everything else around the house.

As we approach the anniversary of their due date (August 21st) it is amazing to think of all that they have learned in the last year. It just a few more days or weeks I'm sure they will be walking. If I am being 100% honest, I'm not doing a whole lot to encourage it! The longer they are crawling around the longer I can keep what little sanity I have left. It is amazing though to see their little faces when one of them stands on their own, takes a step or two, signs a word to me or even attempts to actually communicate with words. Pretty soon they will be chatting up a storm and running around like crazy animals. Christmas is going to be really interesting this year!

Since my last post our family of 5 (plus my mom) travelled to Ottawa and area to visit family. It was a quick 4 night trip over May long weekend but was so worth all of the effort to get there and back. My grandparents (who also had boy/girl twins) were able to meet Colin and Emily and visit with Nathan for the first time since he was 6 months old. Family showed up from hours away just to see our "litter" :-) It was an excellent excuse for us to all get together again. It took me well over a week to pack for the 4 nights we were gone and another week or more to recover from it all! A girlfriend of mine asked me if I would do it again and I said "I'd do it again so that my grandparents could meet them but I won't be doing it again until they are MUCH older". It all went quite well considering we were travelling with an almost 3.5 year old and almost 10 month old twins but it really was a lot of work. And I realized on this trip why they tell you to get to the airport so early - in case you have 3 kids under 4 you will absolutely need every moment to get to your flight on time. We literally just got to the gate and it was preboarding time!

Once I recovered from that adventure it was time to get super busy leading up to Stampede. Since I volunteer with the Talent Search Committee there were many things to organize and prepare for the Show during Stampede. This year I took on more than I had in the past and was more than happy to do so. It's not that I don't love being a wife and mother but I love the feeling I get from being a part of something that has nothing to do with that other part of my life. It gives me an opportunity to have adult conversations about non-childrearing things and allows me to use my brain as well. I often tell people that there is never a shortage of things to do when you are a full time mum but the work is so not glamorous. It is nice to have somewhere to be that gives me the motivation to wear make-up, do my hair and wear regular clothes! I hope to have even greater responsibilities next year and look forward to the challenges that committment will present to me.

I was supposed to attend a workshop to train as a Childbirth Educator at the end of June but that fell through and should (hopefully) be rescheduled to this fall. I took on 3 clients as their doula and have attended one birth so far. The next one should be any day now and the one after thant about a month later. It is an extremely gratifying experience for me to be there for a woman as she labours and then births her baby. There aren't too many jobs out there that allow you to witness a miracle at the end of a very long day! I have decided to not make huge attempts to market myself for the next couple of months as I am finding that being on-call is quite a challenge when you have 3 small children. I hope to use these first 3 births towards my DONA certification and will likely only take on about another 4-7 mamas within the next year. I just want to ensure that any clients I do take I can give them the support that they need and deserve :-)

We have camped 3 times so far this year and hope to get out once more. Camping with 3 under 4 deserves a post all on it's own so I will have to get on that someday soon.....

So, what's next? Nathan starts school in less than two weeks and will be taking his first unparented swim classes this fall. He was in an outdoor soccer program this summer and seems to really like it. I took him yesterday for the first time (it is Clint's thing) and he did a great job so I think we will maybe look into doing soccer again soon too. He will be taking a music class in November/December as well and will get to make his own musical instrument. I so look forward to seeing what he creates :-)

More to come soon - if I can find the time!!!