I've been in a funk again. Life feels hard. I know I am so blessed and my life is really amazing and these challenges are all just part of the adventure. But when I don't sleep, I have a really hard time being positive. In the last two weeks I haven't slept. (I think it's been two weeks, but I can't really remember.) Simon's eczema has been pretty nasty. All night he squirms out of his tight swaddles and rubs his cheeks raw with his sock covered hands. All night I re-swaddle him again and again and hold his hands down.
In my sleepless state I tend to focus on all that is wrong. But I am working on being grateful!!!
So here are a few of things I'm grateful for in the midst of the challenges:
(photos not intended to correspond with text, just enjoy)
- Caring friends and family who have dealt with eczema and have offered their advice. Per their advice, I've eliminated dairy from my diet. I haven't seen a drastic improvement in Simon's skin yet (that could take almost a month to get out of both our systems), but...
- Simon is no longer stuffed up (he snorted like a piggie most of his life), he spits up very little, and he rarely has gas pain anymore. I attribute this to no dairy!
- Oliver's skin is looking fantastic. He has also suffered from eczema all winter. He is no longer eating dairy as well.
- I'm finally loosing a bit of baby fat. Thanks to not eating dairy!
- I slept a solid 4 hours last night. Midnight until 4:00am was awesome. I dozed off again and at 4:30 was pulled out of a deep dream to clean up vomit from a sick little girl.
- Hardwood floors that really needed a good mop. And bedding that really needed to be washed anyway. Those dust bunnies behind the headboard were getting out of control. Nothing like a little vomit to motivate a deep clean.
- An absolutely amazing husband. He wrangled three tired kids at 4:30am while I slowly cleaned.
- A clean kitchen every morning. I'm not a very good housekeeper. If I have a bit of free time I choose to sleep, not clean. I got into the habit of falling asleep as soon as the kids were in bed, instead of cleaning the post dinner messes in the kitchen. One morning a few weeks ago I was greeted by a cockroach. That was enough to adjust my priorities (right after calling the exterminator). It is so nice to wake up to a clean kitchen!
- A happy husband. He is really enjoying his new job. I rarely see him anymore because he's working so hard. I love the little time we spend together. He's at peace and happy. That feels so good!
- My boys are taking awesome naps. Lately, Simon naps 8:30am-11:30am. Then Oliver naps 12noon-3pm. That means we are inside until 3:30pm on these most beautiful spring days, which has been hard. But nice naps are really, really fabulous.
