It is no fun when the kids get sick.  Since we took the baby to the ER a couple weeks ago, she has mildly gotten better.  We had to take her back to the Dr. a couple times due to shallow/yucky breathing, we bought the nebulizer and gave her a few breathing treatments that seemed to work.  My middle daughter had what may have been the beginnings of an ear infection, so she had some antibiotics just to be safe.  She's totally fine now, and my son seems to have superimmunity from the children's home in Guatemala and rarely ever gets sick.
     I had to take 2 days off work, my husband took 2 days as well and everything backed up - laundry, grocery shopping, sleep, as well as just about all other house/yard duties.  I am still trying to catch up, and the baby is a lightning fast crawler, and loves the stairs, remotes, phones, cords, outlets and any type of button (computer power, dishwasher, etc.).  So, she is at the stage in which she must be watched at all time because major disaster can happen if I decide I have to pee for 30 seconds.  I'm going slightly crazy, but at least the older two are really helpful.
     My husband discovered some possible mold in the filter in the baby's humidifier, so we got rid of that, and we are hoping that her problems may have been related to that.  The doc took a nose swab to culture, so we'll see tomorrow if she is harboring some kind of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  Thankfully she has the happiest demeanor of any baby I've ever seen - even when she's coughing, recieving a breathing treatment or has a massive double ear infection. 
     I suppose it's all in a day's work, but it sure will be nice to not be behind on laundry and all that domestic stuff.  Someday all my kids will be out of diapers and potty trained and able to dress themselves and sleep in later than 6 or 7am.  But, for now, we are just surviving (and enjoying) the chaos and hoping there are no more major illnesses because I'm pretty much out of sick days.

     The inevitable finally happened last night.  We had to take the baby to the ER.  I really dislike going to the ER for many reasons, and I couldn’t find an urgent care.  So, to the hospital we drove.  When my husband picked her up from daycare she was breathing shallow and wheezing, and I just didn’t feel comfortable seeing if it would go away.  Our middle daughter saw the doctor yesterday for ear pain, and the Dr. thought the baby might have RSV but that she would be fine waiting it out.  I figured she’d be OK, but you just can’t mess around with a baby that can’t breathe.
     We got there and checked in, and except for the trouble breathing, she was happy and making friends with everyone in the waiting room.  The good thing about bringing a baby to the ER is that they will usually see them pretty quickly, especially for the breathing problems.  They did an initial triage pretty quickly and then we waited for about a half hour before being taken back to a room.  The woman next to me (whose son was happily entertaining my Punky) commented that we were pretty lucky as they had been waiting 3 hours already and a couple had just been called back who had been waiting for EIGHT hours! 
     The room was filled with people, several of whom did not seem all that sick, but I guess if someone doesn’t have insurance or regular healthcare they have to go to the hospital when they need care.  And, for the record, most of the people were NOT minorities (I know how worked up people get about illegal immigrants using healthcare).  An older man came in doubled over and his wife said he was having heart problems, so he was brought right back.  There were also several young kids/babies.  Upon arrival, the receptionist said it would be a 2-4 hour wait at least, so I was ready to sit for many hours in a boring, germ-filled, fluorescent light filled waiting room with a very tired 11 month old.  
     They called us back to a room with 2 beds and the kid from the waiting room was placed in the other bed.  The nurse came in and immediately gave Punky a breathing treatment.  She SCREAMED and fought pretty hard – she is a very strong little girl!  Luckily the kid next to us (who, I gathered from some eavesdropping, was in for a high school sports injury) walked over, stood in front of her and made silly faces.  She calmed down and started laughing.  He was really sweet and I was so thankful!  We saw the Dr., the swabbed her nose for RSV and flu, gave a 2nd breathing treatment and then we waited an hour or so for the results, both of which were negative.  She didn't sleep of course, but she played with the breathing mask and the nasal swab wrappers.  She would have nothing to do with the toys I brought her!  Finally, the Dr. came back, gave us our prescriptions and told us to see our doc in a day or two.  They said she has bronchitis and should be fine but to keep a close eye on her breathing and bring her back if it gets bad again.
     It definitely sucks to have to make a visit to the ER, and I’m always so thankful for my insurance and regular doctors when I do.  She’s sleeping today and I took the day off to take care of her, although it couldn’t have happened on a busier day – the other 2 had a dentist appointment, I didn’t have sub plans so I headed to school at 6am to put something together, I have to appear in court for a student this afternoon and my husband has an important meeting this afternoon as well.  This is definitely one of those days when we REALLY, REALLY, REALLY miss living close to our families, but we just team up and make it work somehow.  I guess it’s just all in a day’s work as a parent.

     Expensive candy, overpriced flowers and dinner menus, and ads proclaiming the only way to express your love is with an expensive jewelry.  This is what Valentine's day has come to, it seems, or it's just that I've been married for almost 8 years and I don't feel I need to pay extra to exclaim my feelings towards my husband and loved ones.  My husband and I have long decided to ignore Valentine's Day because it's overpriced and we don't like going to restaurants with a not-so-great fixed menu.  We usually get a babysitter some other night and just go out to a nice dinner or movie.  Just getting out of the house to have some time together is a huge privelage these days, and so we want to enjoy it on our terms.  We like to call it 'Anti-Valentine's Day'.  Again, it's not that V-Day is bad or that we dislike the idea, but we really don't like how it's become such a huge commercial money making day.  And, I must say the advertisers are good because those commercials sure are convincing - you don't love your wife if you don't send her flowers (that will be way cheaper in a week) and buy her a beautiful diamond necklace.  Diamonds are even marked up during the Valentine season!  Sometimes it's the small, thoughtful things that are so much more meaningful than anything else.  
     Valentine's day is fun for kids - they get to exchange cards and candies with kids and it's a great excuse to have a party (for those places who still celebrate fun holidays without putting some strange PC-twist on it), and as a parent I enjoy the innocent fun of it all with my kids the best.  My kids had a valentine exchange at school, and they had a great time putting together their Valentines and picking ones out to send to their cousins.  I even bought the two older ones Pillow Pets because they had been wanting them for naptime at school.  I love an acceptable excuse to spoil my kids a little bit!  And, there's nothing sweeter than getting a little valentine from your kids with a Happy Valentine's Day rocket ship drawing or little scribbles that are an attempt at writing actual letters!  I even got suckered by the people at the grocery store selling chocolate covered strawberries, but it was worth it when the four of us (baby can 't eat them yet) enjoyed such a pretty treat.
     This year I didn't have time to prepare a special meal or anything and so our strawberry dessert and pillow pet exchange will have to do, along with a few Happy Valentine's Day greetings. We will most likely enjoy some good wine while catching up on Glee after the kids go to bed, but I can't think of anywhere I"d rather be on V-Day than with my family (hey, it still counts as being 'together' when most of them are sleeping)!  I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day, but didn't break the bank doing so! 

p.s. - find Mom of Three on facebook!

            You can do anything with one baby.  Anything.  Travel, have a party, shop, clean house, do laundry, you name it.  And, with a fair amount of ease.  Now, if you currently have one child, you probably think I’m completely crazy, and I wouldn’t have believed it when I just had one either.  But, it’s true.  When we only had 1 kid we could do almost anything.  We shopped, went out to dinner with ease, we took naps.  We could even hold an adult conversation without interruption!  It was pretty easy for each of us to take some needed alone time, whether it was meeting friends or running errands.  We did have some initial blues realizing we had a loss of the complete and total freedom we desperately craved the first 20 years of our lives.  So, we took our son in a stroller out to a busy electronics store on Black Friday (without incident!!) and got an amazing deal on a much needed laptop.  New electronics always make us feel warm, fuzzy and young.  
            Baby #2 arrived and certainly added some spice to our lives.  She was a pretty easy baby – she slept well, ate well, wasn’t fussy and went with the flow pretty well.  We could still go shopping and out to dinner but as she got older it got a bit harder.  Two toddlers require quite a bit of baggage just to go anywhere: diapers, toys, food, bibs, wipes.  But, it was manageable and pretty easy to leave the kids with one of us while the other took that still much needed alone time to do errands or interact with adults.  That happened less, of course, but it was still relatively easy.  More things would have to wait until after the kids went to bed, like laundry, cleaning, or other chores, but we weren’t too tired so it wasn’t a big deal.  That’s about when we decided that we should go for #3 since we weren’t getting any younger.  During the 9 months of waiting for #3, the two older ones got pretty independent, potty trained, were sleeping well and required much less intense attention.
            And then BOOM!  Baby #3 arrived!  She knocked us on our butts!!!  She wasn’t as good a sleeper as #2, but she was pretty good natured.  She liked to stay next to me in the sling all day for several months until she was too big, and that was a bonus.  She was happy and I could easily do just about anything while simultaneously feeding her.  In fact, one time I gave a bath to both the older ones (including hair washing) AND fed the baby a bottle all at the same time.  Thank God for the sling.  Seriously.
            The biggest change from two to three is that we are outnumbered.  Someone always needs something.  It never fails that I might sit down for 3 seconds and someone needs help in the potty, a face cleaned, a toy fixed, a bottle, an argument mediated, a diaper changed or help putting their clothes on.  And, if it’s not a kid needing something, it’s something for the kids that can’t wait like making bottles, preparing food, or washing clothes/bedding (for them, not us).  The kids and their needs take up every second of our time that they are awake.  So, once they are in bed we have to do everything else like our laundry, cleaning, making our lunches, bills, phone calls, etc.  We also like to squeeze in watching our favorite shows (Yay DVR!), which have significantly lowered in numbers since #3.  We are just out of time because we do actually need to sleep at some point.
            The transition from two to three was definitely the hardest, especially since we have no relatives here to help us which means we don’t get a break unless they are visiting.  We have to pay at least $10/hr for a babysitter, and that gets pricey.  It’s hard to leave all three kids with one of us, so we usually do a 2/1split or sometimes leave all 3 with the other.  We make it work and do our best, but we are significantly more tired than with just 2.  The baby is just 11 months old so it will get better in about 2 years when she can talk and follow directions!  I am certainly thankful for take-out and microwaveable food!
            I wouldn’t change a thing though.  The kids are so much fun (when they aren’t arguing) and so, so cute together.  And, we do lots of fun stuff as a family that we never did before like going to pumpkin patches, Christmas tree farms and day trips to experience Texas BBQ.  I’m really looking forward to the time when they are old enough that we can do more stuff together, but I enjoy watching them take care of each other (again, when not arguing or beating each other up), play together and grow into little people.  Someday I will look back on the time when we had three kids under the age of 4 and wish I could go back.  I’m sure, though, that I’ll be looking through rose-colored glasses with very well rested eyes.