Here I go again

[MOmomof8]

I am sleeping 36-48 hours then I'm up for the same amount of time.  I'm not getting anything done that I need to.  My dh thinks it's my medicine but I haven't changed any recently.  Medicine tends to do that to me when it is a new one not one I've been on for a while. One nice thing about sleeping alot, I don't eat as much.  I am trying to lose weight but having a really hard time. I guess my heart just isn't in it.   I slept last night & woke up at 5 am.  Then I went back to sleep at 8:30am & slept until 2:30 & that was because my dh came in to kiss me bye before going to work.  We kiss each other anytime we are going somewhere without the other.  I started that when we got married.  It's just in case something happens then atleast we had a last kiss & wasn't angry with each other.  But we are very seldom angry with each other.  We tend to get over things fast if we do get upset.  We are so much alike that it just doesn't happen much.  We get more upset with the situations we get into.  But with 6 kids one can expect to be in a situation most all the time.  There is always atleast 1 of the 6 that is upset with us & usually it is with me.  I do get upset with my dh when he repeats something I say to him that I wanted to be only between him & me.  I guess I have to remember to tell him that cause he only keeps things to himself if I say it's just between us.  Sometimes I do have to add don't be going & telling him/her what I said.  Mostly it's over the grandkids.  Some of our kids don't know how to pack & diaper bag then others don't even bring one at times.  When I had my babies, I carried everything in the diaper bag & checked it 2 or 3 times before leaving.  I always had atleast 1 change of clothes for each kid, including socks.  I always had enough food for a full day & all the usually stuff.  I always carried a large diaper bag, especially when my 2 oldest were young.  They are 25 months apart so they were both in diapers for a year together.  Even when the were 7 & 9, I had extra clothes at their grandparents houses.  Well, at some of their grandparents houses.  They had 4 sets & only spent alot of time at 2 sets.   Life is funny, isn't it?  My kids had 4 sets of grandparents & some of my grandchildren only have 1 set.  Well, I guess really only 1 has 1 set but does have another grandma she doesn't see very often & a set that she never sees or hears from.  She would have another set but since I'm married to her mom's father, we have to count as 2 sets.  I think that may be why I do more for her.  The others have more grandparents then she does & if my dh & I were married to different people she would have more sets.  So I try to make up for it.

Speaking of Rose, she was here this evening.  My dh fixed dinner & it had broccoli mixed in it.  It also had peas & carrots but I like them.  She was hungry so I fed her all the broccoli & some of the rest.  It also had pasta in it.  I liked it except for the broccoli.  My dh was saying he didn't understand it but then he won't eat peas so I don't get it.  But it works out ok cause Rose eats both of them or if she isn't here, we will exchange with each other.  We make a good team.   

Yesterday morning I had both of Vicki's kids.  I got lucky cause they both slept most of the time.  She's one of our kids that I get iratted at.  She gave JJ a chocolate cupcake & just let her walk around with it instead of putting her in the high chair.  So I had a mess to clean up when they left.  I know, I should've had her clean it up but it's so much easier to just do it myself than to hear her whinning about it & they leave sooner.  Not that I don't love them I do but she is a hard one to talk to most of the time.  She will call me & we'll be on the phone for 5 minutes but only talking for about a minute.  There is alot of silence.  I finally have to tell her that I need to hang up to do something.  Most of the time I have to make something up.  I don't want to make her mad or we won't see the grandkids at all.  It has happened before.  Skylor, our 17 year old, was asking if Brad was good to Vicki & I told him the truth as we see it.  He isn't, he really gets under our skin.  Anyway, Skylor got upset & called him.  He warned Brad what he would do if he isn't good to his sister, like a good brother.  He can beat her or whatever but nobody else better.  She gives it right back to him but it still isn't even since she is 5 foot 5 & he is 7 foot.  Brad & Vicki are alot alike in most ways but I think he is worse than she is.  He is sick all the time, I think it's mostly in his head.  She used to be like that when she was living with us but since she got married, we don't hear about her being sick as much.  We hear about him being sick but not as much as he is, he has lost jobs because of missing work due to illness.  Now he babysits which is really odd since he had to be forced to watch his oldest child.  He says he can't watch the baby cause he might drop him.  I told Vicki that all parents fear that.   Then she says that both of them has dropped him & JJ both.  But when backed into a corner she admits that they have rolled off the couch or something like that.  Their couch sits very low to the floor cause it's old & you know how old sofas sit.  I have a very hard time getting up from theirs.  If I had a dime for everytime one of my kids fell or something, I would be a rich woman.  Some kids just fall alot, then some kids aren't watched close enough.  I think that is the case with these kids, daddy is just too into his games.  JJ climbed up on her dresser via her bed & the crib then fell & got a black eye among other things.  She isn't 2 yet & she was in her room, supposedly taking a nap.  I think he was just too in to his ps2 or 3 or whatever & didn't check on her.  You know it had to take her awhile.  She is a very little thing, very dainty.  She & her 10 month old brother are about the same size.  They wear the same size diaper.  So it wasn't that easy for her to climb like that & it would have taken her some time to do.  I'm watching her right now cause the kids he watches are sick.  I had stopped watching her cause she was screaming almost nonstop & I can't/won't take that.  I correct my grandkids & even swat their bottoms but nothing would work with her.  Time out is the biggy but that did nothing for her.  You would think it was killing Rose so with her all you have to do is give her a warning. 

I think Eli is going to be alot like his daddy on the time out thing.  It never worked with him.  I never did find anything that worked with him until he was old enough to understand the way money works.  And that only worked when there was something he really wanted to have.  I talked to Nick the other day, he says Eli is walking all over the place.  I knew it wouldn't be long.  Next thing is climbing.  Boy, they are in for it now.  Nick was like a monkey, climbing all over everywhere, even at the doctor's office.  One time, he climbed up on the counter & was going to jump across the room to the table.  It wasn't a very big room but still he could have broken an arm or something.  He was a holy terror.  He would even get into the doctor's pockets looking for stuff.  And when I told the doctor Nick had a problem, he told me he didn't, he was just an active kid.  That was until the school started complaining about him, then he wanted to put him on Ritalin.  I went for a 2nd opinion, & had to fight the insurance company to get one.  They wanted me to tell the doctor that I didn't trust him.  He already knew I didn't agree with him, it wasn't a matter of trust to me.  I finally won & got a second opinion.  He was a psychologist so I believed him more plus he gave us more options than just a pill.  We tried everything before we went to medicine.  We did all the behavorial motivation stuff.  They would work for a short time then they just made matters worse.  We did finally go to the medicine but not until we tried everything else.   I knew he had a problem before he was born but nobody listens to mommy.  Doctors think they know everything cause they went to college for 8 years, well, I'm here to tell you that I know my body & my kids better than those books they studied do.  No 2 humans are alike so you can't always treat them alike.  When we changed doctors, it takes me about a year to break them into listening to me first.  But I have had a doctor or two scold me for not bringing a kid in when I really should have.  Once, Nick broke his big toe & I let it go caue I've always heard that you can't do anything for a toe.  I had him in the office for something else about a month later.  He opened his mouth & told the doctor about his toe, which is when I got a scolding from him.  He exrayed his toe & told me that it may have to be rebroken & a plate put in.  Luckily, that didn't happen cause it healed correctly.  Nick has never let me forget it either.  But my oldest son had some broken bones that I didn't believe were broken.  I took him in only bc he wouldn't shut up about it.  Nick was the one that I did that the most to though.  He & a friend got this big idea to climb on our roof & jump off.  Now he was thinking alittle bit cause he pulled the baby mattress out to land on & they did go to the lowest point to jump.  Nick was the first to jump & I saw him as he was coming down.  I ran out & he had landed on the mattress but he bounced off of it.  I made his friend get down the way he got up.  Nick was yelling that his foot was broke but I said it was just a sprain.  Well, we had plans with Travis that night so I didn't take NIck to the hospital, it was a Sunday so no doctor office.  We were with Travis for about an hour.  Nick complained the whole time & hopped everywhere he went.  He wouldn't put any weight on that foot.  After an hour, I decided it would be worth a trip to the er.  Well, his ankle was broke but it was just a hairline & in a place that the doctor said would be fine with just a wrap.  So he was alittle upset with me for making him wait.  But I used it to my advantage but telling him when he did stupid things like that to be prepared to suffer cause I wasn't going to jump at taking him to the er.  No, this didn't really slow him down any.  My older 2 boys were pretty at listening to me & not doing whatever I said no to, but Nick made up for it.  He always had to find out for himself, he always did things before he put any thought to it.  There was 1 summer that between the 3 boys, we were at the er every weekend for 6 or 7 weeks.  One time the nurse grabbed me, put me in a wheelchair & asked me what was wrong.  When I said it was my son, she said I looked worse off then he did.  I'm sure I did, it was really hard on me to take my kids to the er.  If I was taking them then it was bad.  I avoid the er as much as possible.  Nick & Travis was my kids with the broken bones, Nathan was my kid with stitches.  When Nathan was 7 1/2 he was learning to ride his bike.  I had Nick on the patio & Nathan was in the front yard.  I had told him to stay away from the retaining wall cause it was about a 5 foot drop.  Well, he couldn't remember how to stop & went off the retaining wall.  That was the first & only time I truely lost it.  I did not know about how much head injuries bleed.  So when I saw all the blood, I paniced.  I totally lost it.  I didn't know what to do & I was telling him to do one thing then I would change it to another, then another.  Finally I decided to put Nick in the house & carry Nathan in the house.  I had him lay down & I put a cold cloth on his head.  I have no idea where Travis was, I don't remember.  I tried to call my mom at first to take us to the er bc I knew I was in no shape to drive.  Since she wasn't home, I called 911.  They asked me my name & address which I could not give them.  I yelled at them to check their display cause I thought all that info came up when you called in.  We had caller ID so I thought they would too.  Nathan told me the answers to their questions.  They did tell me to take a deep breath & let it out slowly.  I told them what I had done already & they told me it was good that I remembered to do that much.  After hanging up from them, I called my mom again.  She was home this time & I told her I needed her at my house as fast as she could get there, I did tell her what had happened.  When the care unit got there, Nathan answered all their questions but the one about insurance.  I answered that one.  On the way to the hospital the driver told me I should be very proud of Nathan for knowing all those answers.  I told him he better know them cause I drilled it into my kids heads.  I had this big fear of them being kidnapped so I wanted them to be able to call me or atleast tell someone where they belonged.    I started this drill when they started talking.  Mom's name, address, phone #, grandma's info, they had to know all of it.  Nathan got 25 stitches in his forehead & still has the scare to show for it.  I could see his skull, it was bad.  They put some stitches inside which I had never heard of them doing before.  He went to the er alot too.  Travis has asthma so he had to go alot, Nick did stupid stunts so he had to go alot.  I told the er that they should just give me my own parking space since I was there so much. 

My kids will ask me if they should take their child to the er.  I kinda laugh & say you're asking me.  Travis says if you think it's broke, don't ask mom.  He's right, I can't tell the difference.  When the grandkids get hurt at my house, I ask them if it's bleeding.  If they say no, I tell them to just shake it off.  That stops the crying.  They know they have nothing to cry about if there is no blood.  I guess at some point I'll have to change that bc you don't always bleed when you have a broken bone.  I sure am glad my dh was an EMT.  I send the grandkids to him to check.  He keeps a toolbox with all the medical stuff you would need.  The kids call him when they are injuried too.  Even Nick has come in yelling for my dh.  I guess he doesn't really trust me for the big stuff, can you blame him?  But that's fine with me bc I then can be the one to panic which I am really super at doing. 

Well, I guess that's enough for now.  I just love how these memories just pop back in my mind.  I would make a rotten nurse.  I can give shots though.  I had to give myself shots when I was going through chem.  For some reason, Travis still wanted to get his allergy shot at the doctor's office, I told him I could do it now but he said no way.  Go figure?  He must have thought I would use it to get even with him on things.  Now would I do that?  Well, maybe.