Old Faithful Saves the Night

I spent today a bit like a zombie, which is not altogether different from much of the past 8 years, I know, but spending 2 1/2 - 3 hours up with Adrian last night was a reminder of how far we have actually come in being fairly confident in getting a full night’s sleep. After all, we haven’t had a night like that in quite awhile, and it use to be the norm since we somehow gave birth to a bunch of kids that didn’t sleep through the night until they were 3 years old.  What am I saying? At 4 years of age, Santi STILL wakes up every night, but he is polite enough to just slide into bed with us instead of scaring the life out of us the way Adrian did every night, announcing his presence a mere 3 millimeters from our faces with his creepy middle-of-the-night raspy voice and flashlight lighting up his face from under his chin. 

Anyway, a day after Adrian had the appendix scare, he added an ear infection to his list of ailments. All of our kids have had ear infections at one time or another, and this is especially true in the summer time since they spend so much time swimming. This one has been particularly painful for him, though, causing him to writhe in pain for up to 2 hours at a time in between when his pain med is wearing off and when they actually kick in after being administered. It’s actually heart wrenching, because Jose and I were both doing whatever we could to make him comfortable, but there are times when you just can’t do anything to make the hurt go away, so you just hold their hand, rub their back, and acknowledge their pain each and every time they remind you. We reached a point with him at around 3:30 or 4am where a combination of pain and delirium seemed to kick in, and he was just plain emotional. It was reminiscent of the good ol’ days of late nights with girlfriends when the party is over and you’ve all spent many hours overindulging, and there’s always one that either gets philosophical about life or just gets weepy about random, silly things that seem so very important in the moment. Such was the case when, in between sobs of pain and - something new - hurt feelings?… Adrian asked me, “Mommy…(sob) where are (hiccup)… the kittens? And why (hiccup)… don’t they (sniff)… want… (sniff) to come (hiccup)… check on me? (SOB)  Because (sniff)…  (cue high pitched voice) I’m feeling… (throaty sounds) so so so (sniff)… BAD (sob)… and I need (hiccup)… some kittens (sniff)… to pet (sob)… (cue high pitched voice) WHY????” I mean, the mother hen in me wanted to go on a cat finding mission and come back with an armload of cats to be his hero, to distract him from his misery, to make him feel better… BUT… it was fricken 3:30 in the morning, and this had been going on for a good hour. I really just didn’t have the cat finding energy in me. I’ll say this - Tobey, our nearly 14 year old ginger cat, Old Faithful is what he is. Almost on cue, he came in and was right there. He was lying in between Adrian and me looking for any and every opportunity to rub his toothless mouth across our faces, leaving a snail trail of slobber… it’s not my favorite thing, but he came to the rescue and cuddled my boy, purring loudly, so I’ll cut him some slack. I thought he had soothed Adrian right to sleep when suddenly Adrian called my name through a yawn. When I answered he asked, “How do vampires run so fast?” If I didn’t feel like going on a scavenger hunt for cats, I definitely didn’t feel like thinking hard enough to discuss vampire skills. Luckily I didn’t have to… moments later I heard his sweet little snores alternating with Tobey’s purrs. 

So in between all my yawns and busy work schedule today, I reminded myself that I’m pretty lucky these days to get more sleep than I have in many years, and I felt satisfied having had some one-on-one time with our 6 year old when he really needed it - even if it was not an ideal time of day. And, let’s face it, one-on-one time with 4 little kids is an ongoing life goal. It makes you really think (ok obsess) about how you’ve spent your time and what one-on-one opportunities you squeezed in, and how you can squeeze in more. I’ve even caught myself missing the days of finding Adrian right in my face, in the middle of the night, scratchily whispering, “Mommmmmyyyyy”, because I know from his perspective, he woke up in the dark and made his way to his Mommy’s side of the bed, anticipating his arrival with every step illuminated by his little Lightning McQueen flashlight, and he was experiencing what it must feel like to get to your destination and have your Mommy pick you up and roll you over with her so that you’re in the middle of your parents, your safest space, and to fall back asleep in that cozy zone, its own little one-on-one time. He doesn’t do that anymore, so last night felt sort of like a privilege. If there’s any positive aspect to your kids being sick, it’s this. And I’ll file last night under another cherished experience… with some entertaining, drunk-like conversation. Tonight… hopefully we sleep.
​

---