When Hard Days Come

Most of the time, the twins sleep through the night. Usually 11-12 hours. Sometimes though, they wake up once. Or twice. Or three times. When that happens, it takes me back instantly to when they were just a few weeks old and waking up every 2-3 hours. At least now it only take 10 minutes to feed them and get them back in bed, where it used to take nearly an hour. But still.. When they have a rough night, I know that means the next day will be less than perfect. They're usually cranky in those days because they didn't sleep well, and so am I. 

So let's say one of those nights comes along, maybe it was last week. I wake up in the morning after a very short night and go in to begin the morning routine. As I'm changing diapers, I find hard little pebbles in Charlie's diaper :(. Boo constipation! So I'm massaging his tummy, trying to help him out a little. You'd think I'd put the diaper back on first, right? But I didn't. Chalk it up to the restless night. As I'm massaging, he probably pees on me first. That's a pretty common occurrence in this household. So I wipe it off as I continue to massage. And then it happens. The massage finally works.. Maybe a little too well. I suddenly find myself covered. And I mean covered. In Charlie's poop. Some people say little baby poop doesn't stink.. Well, try to remember that next time you're covered in warm runny poop that you just massaged out of your baby's bottom! I seriously just stare at him for a minute in disbelief. And then I start to laugh, because I honestly don't know what else to do. And it's a good thing I was laughing, too, because of course Caroline is laying right next to him, and given her knack for finding trouble, she rolls right into the big brown mess. I decide to take a picture and send it to my family so they can laugh - or groan - right along with me. You just have to love times like this :). 

A little later in the day comes one of those sweet moments when my sad, crying baby falls asleep in my arms from sheer exhaustion. Then as I go to put that beautiful sleeping child down for a nap, they let out a giant burp that is almost certainly accompanied by an incredible amount of spit up. And it's all down my front. So I laugh some more, because I don't know what else to do. And they I get cleaned up and remind myself not to bother getting dressed the next day, because it's just safer for my clothes to stay in the closet. 

By bedtime I think we have made it through the worst and it can only go up from here. So I get them in the tub, and get them washed and let them play in the water for a few extra minutes. Just before I take them out, the inevitable "poop in the bathtub" moment arrives. This time it was Caroline. And of course it's not even remotely solid, so it permeates the whole tub and both babies. So I take them out, one at a time, trying to get them quickly before they try to drink the water. I drain our slowest-draining-in-the-entire-world tub and then clean out the mess. Then I fill it up again, and go through the whole process of rewashing the littles.

By the time I get them both in bed and finally sink down into the couch, I probably feel completely exhausted. But as I reflect on the day and all the craziness that came along with it, I try my best to smile and to remember that these moments won't last forever. Before I know it my children will be all grown up and I know I will long to have another day with them as infants. Even if it was another day exactly like this. And so I laugh. And I smile. At least, I try to. And I remember how blessed I am.