Things I've learned in the last three weeks:
- There is a mathematical formula by which you can calculate how much extra sleep you need to compensate for each time you are awakened during the night and how long you stay up. I don't know what this formula actually is, but I do know the compensation needed is about tripled if you are over forty.
- A shower is worth at least three hours sleep.
- Even if you have numerous boxes and bottles of every age and dosage of Tylenol in the house you can still run out.
- If you pray enough continuous Hail Mary's it is possible to keep praying them in your sleep, and when you wake up again in the middle of one you just automatically continue.
- My pediatrician's telephone number. (For the first time in twenty years I have it memorized.)
- Sometimes fairy tales do come true and those stories you read in books about children who cook and clean and tidy and wash dishes while you are blissfully sleeping through the night really happen. And you don't even need to pinch yourself when you wake up because you can smell the raisin biscuits for real.
(rice pudding recipe here )
Things I've known for years but have had greatly reinforced the last three weeks:
- Always keep a plastic basin in the car and under every bed, especially your own bed. Always. I learned this many years ago from a sweet Irish nurse, bless her heart. And if a child seems the slightest bit off in any way the basin comes out from under and stays on the bed for the night.
- A temporal scanning thermometer is worth every penny and then some.
- Vaporizers are fabulous.
- A med chart is a must when you have various children on various drugs.
- My pediatrician is truly wonderful. And when I call him over and over again he meets our needs and when I say thank you he replies, my pleasure.
