Footprints in the Tang

Truly, my life is still quite the musical.  Yes, when I thought of this title, the melody to "Circle in the Sand" ran through my head.  (Now on my mixpod player so you can have it running through your head.)

It's getting late so I'll try to keep the synopsis brief.  Today was much better than yesterday.

The morning started out a little scary.  The twins were up for breakfast with me around 7:30.  I remembered that another home health nurse (who will start up with us officially in December) was coming at 9:30 so I did what I could to get myself showered and dressed and all the kids dressed.  That's about as far as we made it and I got to usher Deanna into our filthy living room.  Fortunately she is the mother of seven so she didn't run out screaming.  We just went through the usual preliminaries to get her familiar with Timmy's story, what he's been through and what he's doing now.  He was very alert and smiled a lot for her too.  She was able to watch him track with his eyes.  She commented that he doesn't look very yellow to her.  He doesn't to me either.  Eager to find out where we stand with the bilirubin when Candace comes tomorrow.

Deanna weighed Timmy too.  6 lbs. 12 oz. on her scale.  Height of 19.75 inches.  And head circumference of 14.75 inches.  Neither height nor weight puts him on the scale yet (even adjusted to 2 months from his due date) but his head circumference is in the 5-10th percentile.  Yep, he has a big head just like the other kids.

I've been afraid of tummy time with Timmy because of the trach but we are working on it more.  Just have to make sure I prop up his chest.

I let the kids watch The Princess and the Frog while Deanna was here and, at one point, they all disappeared into the kitchen.  I don't remember who came out, but they had orange hands and I instantly excused myself.  Trevy, Landon and Callie were all on chairs with hands and scoops in the tang.  At least a cup's worth was spilled on the chair and the floor.

Bless Deanna.  She followed and helped wipe Tang off feet before too much got trekked through the house.  I heard the water get turned on in the bathroom while I was closing up the Tang and then lots of giggles.  Hurrying in that direction, poor Timmy just getting lugged around, Landon was seated in the sink again, washing the dirt and Tang off, Callie opposite getting ready to step in.

It was a crazy morning.

But a wonderful afternoon.  It's been taking a while to get kids down for naps so I started earlier today.  Lunch at 11:30, storytime at noon.  Callie was out by 1:00.  Landon kept getting up each time I suctioned Timmy and James finally blocked him in his room at 2:00.  He was tired and didn't argue for long.  Timmy zonked out about that time too.

While James played the Dr. Seuss memory game with Trevy, I finally got the Tang mess cleaned up in the kitchen.  Then I proceeded to install the child latch on the corner cupboard - hooray! 

Works right well, if I do say so myself.  Now getting it cleaned out so all spillables - cereal, Tang... - are off my counter is next on the list.  I also got Timmy's room vacuumed and the master bedroom mostly cleared out.  (More clothes being rearranged in there.  Also laundry to be put away in one of the laundry baskets but I can only do so much!)

Callie slept until 3:00, Timmy until 4:00 and Landon went clear through until 4:45 and then we woke him up because Melissa had her little friends over and they were wondering if our kids could come swimming.  Absolutely!  So much easier to make dinner without lots of little chefs!

We had Melissa over for dinner in return and she and James got the kids ready for bed while I took care of Timmy.  I finished getting the dishwasher loaded around 9 and then he threw up again.  (Honestly getting a little concerned.  This one didn't seem provoked and we haven't had a really good poop in a couple of days.  That would be the one perk to having someone see Timmy practically every day!  Candace can listen to him tomorrow and tell me what she thinks.  Definitely don't want to let things go if he could possibly have a bowel obstruction.  He doesn't see Dr. Cosentino again for another two weeks.)  Happy to say I got the sink cleared out and Timmy bathed and his trach ties changed by myself.  He has now been asleep for over an hour so it's definitely time for me to join him.  Normally when my house is falling apart and I have a lot to do, I'll stay up very late to do it.  But I learned one night that I can sleep through Timmy (thank goodness Mom was here!) so I can't now.  Hopefully tomorrow's naps will go as well as today's and I can get another project knocked out.