Gotta keep that sense of humor

Brutal is how Greg described last night. We are used to our sleep being disturbed, but it was at a whole new level last night. It was so bad that at several different points I couldn't help but laugh. It was either laugh or cry, and it wasn't bad enough to cry (the flu is cry-worthy; this was not), so laugh it was. At one point in the middle of the night, every member of our household was awake, except Joel. Grant's crying woke up Kari, but Joel slept through it all! Grant wasn't even the primary perpetrator, although he was a contributor. He was only up 3 or 4 times (I lose count these days). I was up with him at 12:30am, and just as I was getting back to sleep, I heard Aubrey crying. She came down with a cold yesterday that got worse and worse throughout the day (congested, coughing a lot, normal cold stuff). Greg, who, I might add, is still recovering from jet lag, got up with her the first time, noticed she was hot, gave her some meds, and tried to put her back to bed. It didn't work. Aubrey was awake for five hours in the night with a fever, and when she gets a fever over 101, she gets loud, and she gets crazy, as in delusional. She kept saying she didn't want to be in her room because there were bugs flying around. The "bugs" kept bothering her and continued to scare her for the next several hours. We made up a little bed on the floor in our room, and she stayed there for a little while, talking, singing, making no sense at all. But then the "bugs" showed up in that bed, too, and she ended up in our bed. She saw bugs in our bed a few times (no, we do not have bed bugs!) but felt safer with us there and finally conked out at 6am. When she woke up at 8:30am, the fever was gone and she was ok, but she told me there were scary red and yellow bugs flying in her room and on her pillow last night. Her pillow case has little red and yellow flowers on it. :) The bugs were obviously very real to her. I was surprised she remembered anything from the night. She seems to be feeling better and has been fever-free all day.

A lady at the grocery store saw me with Joel, Aubrey, and Grant (we were in dire need of some groceries, and the kids were doing fine, so I ventured out for a quick trip), and she said, "You sure are in the thick of it, aren't you!" My response was simply, "Yes, we are." (My weary brain couldn't think of anything better to say at the time.) She went on to encourage me to "enjoy this time while they're young and train them now because when they grow older things get more complicated and the stakes get higher." Her comments made me wonder what she was going through with the two teenagers she said she had at home, but her words also made me feel thankful that things are so simple right now in this phase of parenthood. We may feel weary at times, especially in the sleepless baby stage, but we really do enjoy our kids and look forward to reaping the benefits of the work we're doing now.

We'll see how tonight goes and see if I can keep my sense of humor if we have another night like last night. :)

Update: Next night was a "normal" night. Aubrey slept. No "bugs."