Dale was out of town last night. Going into the bedtime routine, I was cautiously optimistic, since the girls and I have had a bit of practice with this over the past few months (man, orthodontic salesmen sure do have a lot of conferences!).
My optimism waned, however, when Ivie balked at watching Chicken Run in her room (on the portable DVD player) while I put Macie to bed. Instead, she decided that she would go back and forth from her room to Mac's, dragging books and toys and wanting to play with/read to Macie. Who, at this time of night, was much more interested in nursing and falling asleep.
But, we survived, and after only 30 minutes (ONLY!?!) in Ivie's room trying to convince her to lay down and go to sleep, I finally made it downstairs to clean bottles at 9p. Given the rough way that bedtime started, I was understandably worried about what overnight had in store...
My luck turned, though, and both girls slept through the night. If you call 5a "sleeping through", that is. Ivie cried out first, but went right back to sleep. Then Macie was in and out of sleep for the next 30 minutes, until finally deciding at 5:45a that enough was enough and she was ready to eat.
Around 6:30a, Ivie was soundly back to sleep and Macie and I went downstairs. Mac sat happily on her padded mouse mat in the kitchen, playing with a few toys, while I started the pumping process (so I could hopefully finish and wash dishes before waking Ivie up to get her ready). So far, I thought to myself, the morning was going smoothly (aside from the fact that it started an hour and 15 minutes before I'd wanted it to...).
I should have knocked on wood...
Approximately 3 minutes into my 10-minute pumping session, Ivie started whining/crying out. She does this sometimes in her sleep, so I wasn't too concerned at first. Then, just seconds later, my attention turned quickly to Macie, as a very large amount of spit-up (to put it mildly) came gushing out of her mouth. Though this is not odd after a morning nursing session, it usually comes when we're still in her room. So this particular episode, 30 minutes after eating, caught me off-guard.
So, picture this. Here I am, standing in the kitchen, pumping (you don't have to picture that part if you don't want to!), listening to Ivie begin to cry harder through her monitor (yes, she's 3 and we still have a monitor), and watching helplessly as Macie begins to "play" in the literally-2-foot-in-diameter puddle of spit-up on the wood floor (by dragging both hands through the spit-up, smearing it even further around).
What's a mom to do?!?
I know it's hard to believe, but it gets better. At this point, I decide that I probably should take a break from pumping to clean up Macie's spitting mess and save Ivie from the despair of not being able to get out of her room (we keep her door shut overnight, with a child-proof handle cover on her side of it, since we don't have a gate and her room is right at the top of the stairs).
Just as I start to turn off the pump, Macie decides to reach for a toy that she launched to the other side of the puke puddle. Since the floor is wet (obviously), and she's not too stable when she leans forward, anyway, she slips and falls. Face-first, directly into the puddle of spit. Great. So now Ivie and Macie are BOTH wailing (for entirely different reasons), the entire front of Macie's sleeper, not to mention her face, is drenched with spit, and I'm still trying to get to the point where I can physically do something about it.
Guess I should look at the bright side... At least Mac didn't crack a tooth during the fall. And at least the spit-up landed mostly on the floor, and only a teeny bit on the cute mouse mat. And at least Macie was still in her sleeper that needed to be washed anyway, as opposed to the really cute jumper I intended to dress her in for the day. And at least Ivie didn't pick this morning to learn how to open her door (despite the child-proof handle) and come tumbling down the stairs.
Ahhhh, I feel better already.
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