Good husband award

Although I don't think I have yet on this blog, I do tend to complain about my husband occassionally. Today, however, he reminded me why he's such a great guy.

We've all been sick for like, forever. At least it's beginning to seem that way. We have this super mega cold that we can't seem to kick. I'm probably the healthiest out of everyone, but I'm also getting the least amount of sleep, so it sort of evens out. D isn't too bad; he has a cough still, but he acts like he feels fine most of the time. G has had it the worst, and as a result, his sleep is horrible. My husband has been sick too, and I'm sure you can guess who's been the biggest baby in the house...

In any case, last night was awful. G was up more times than I could count, and many times he wouldn't go back to sleep. That's unusal for him; typically if he wakes up, even if he's sick, he goes back to sleep fairly easily. At least, I can usually count on nursing to zonk him out completely, even if he's not hungry; a good comfort nursing session almost always does the trick.

Not last night. I was up and down out of bed so many times, I have no idea how much I actually slept. And the worst part is he's getting better; he's a little stuffed up and he coughs occassionally, but overall he seems a lot better than he was a week ago.

So today I was a complete zombie. All morning I was counting on G taking a morning nap so I could at least lie on the couch and close my eyes while D watched Playhouse Disney. And, you guessed it - G wouldn't nap. Prior to having kids I never would have imagined how much stress naps, or lack of naps, would cause. Often the outcome of my day literally hinges on whether or not a nap happens. It was like that when D was still a napper, and it's like that now with G.

He did finally fall asleep, but a lot later than normal and by that time my window of opportunity for couch vegging was pretty much over. It snowed a bit today and D was clamouring to go outside; he wasn't about to sit and watch yet another TV show. I called my husband in tears, just to hear his voice and hoping he'd tell me everything would be ok; because right about then, I needed to hear it.

Later this afternoon, my husband came home for lunch. He happened to arrive in the midst of D's enormous tantrum (my Dad had been here earlier and D did NOT want him to leave). He took care of calming down the beast while I got G down for his nap. Then he did something that made my week. I wish I could express to him how much this meant to me. He said, "Why don't you go to bed. I'll work from home the rest of the day. Go ahead and go upstairs - I got this."

O. M. G.

Seriously, how many exhausted moms would absolutely die to hear those words. "I got this." You can put down your burden of responsibility for a little while and know that I will be here to take care of it for you. Go, rest, feel better. Let me help you and you do something for yourself.

I love that man.

I took myself upstairs, despite the fact that D was wailing for me, and went to bed. I turned on my fan to drown out any noise, turned off the baby monitor, closed my eyes, and slept. My husband had things under control, and I could relax. That's a pretty powerful thing when you're as sleep deprived as I am.

After a glorious two hour nap, I'm happy to say I felt better, but afraid to say I was still tired. And not in that I just slept too long in the middle of the day so now I'm groggy tired; it was more like I'm so sleep deprived there's no way one nap, even a good one, will catch me up. But still - it was nice, and helped me get through what otherwise was turning out to be a pretty rotten day.

I thanked my husband when I got up from my nap, but I think I'm going to tell him again how much that meant to me. I want him to understand that it was more than just taking the kids for a couple hours so I could rest. It was allowing me to lay aside my Mom outfit for a little while, to hand over the weight of my responsibility for just a little bit, and that means a lot.

Regardless, he's so getting some tonight.