The good. The bad. The ugly. (Part II)

Sleeping, Sickies and Accidents

The first night away from home was spent at a Comfort Suites in Lumberton, NC. Grammy waited in the van with the girls while Rich and I scampered into the lobby to inquire about rooms. We didn't know if we would need one or two but we were hoping that because these were supposed to be suites that we could get away with one for the night. We did but it was a bit crowded and loud.

Thankfully, Anna has been extremely cooperative lately. She agreed to sleep with Grammy on the pull out sofa, which ended up not being too kind on Grammy's back. Even though it was past their bed time the girls kept saying that they were tired. Allie was coughing more too. Rich suggested that we allow them to watch television in the hopes that they would just fall asleep. Anna did but the Allie and Em, who were in a bed with me, were too focused on the programs. Finally, at 9:30, a big kid show came on and we convinced them that we had to turn the television off.

They did eventually fall asleep and then proceeded to push me out of the bed. How do you like that? I went and slept in the bed next to them with Rich. That was all fine and dandy until Allie coughed herself awake in the middle of the night and realized that I wasn't there. So back to the full bed that was supposed to be a queen I went to sleep sideways with two three year olds who like to cuddle at night.

Allie and Em are the two who end up in our bed most often. I have to say that it is kind of cute to watch them cuddle with each other at night. That night, they ended up sleeping head to toe so I kept trying to shift them so that they wouldn't kick each other in the face. They kept moving back so I gave up and they ended up cuddling with each other's feet.

The first night at our resort in Disney, we pulled out the trundle bed and asked who wanted to sleep on it. Allie announced, "Grammy and Anna are going to sleep there." I laughed and laughed. Anna was easy going again and agreed to share Grammy's room with her. By this point, Em was sick as well and had lost her voice. So I had two sick, coughing kids who insisted on sleeping in the bed with me.

Getting them to sleep at night was a bit frustrating. In their defense, they were sick and this was a new exciting environment. But just go to sleep! Every night, except for one, I would cuddle with Allie and Em in one of the beds. It went something like this. Stop wiggling. You need to close your eyes. Please. Stop. Doing. That. Okay, Mommy's going to take a walk and Daddy can get you to sleep.

After they fell asleep, we would move whoever was coughing the least to Rich's bed. One morning, Em woke up and said, "Hey. How did I get in this bed?" Because they were both coughing up lungs, they would wake me and Rich up frequently throughout the night. There was one night that Allie coughed every 10 to 15 minutes and whimpered, "Mommy. Mommy." From 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM. I was exhausted.

The night after our first day visiting DHS and Epcot, I woke up at midnight and puked a few times. I puked again a half hour later. I basically thought that our vacation was over. I envisioned us all coming down with some horrific stomach virus. Amazingly enough, I made it through the rest of the night without getting sick. The next morning, I felt queasy but not I wasn't going to vomit.

So this is what moms do. We get up, shower, get dressed and go to Animal Kingdom to carry/push/pull/walk with three three year olds. I was afraid to eat anything so that didn't help matters. But I lived through it.

I suspect being ill caused the girls to be more clingy. I thought that they wouldn't be so MommyMommyMommy on vacation because I was there with them 24 hours a day. They were so much worse than normal. Emily wouldn't let me out of her sight. If I had to go to the bathroom, she came with. If I went to take a shower, she came with. There were too many requests for me to carry someone. And you don't know how many times I was told by two or those of my munchkins that I need to push both strollers. Okay. So I would pretend to and either Grammy or Rich would take over one of them when the girls weren't looking. It was cling like I've never seen cling before.

And then there was Emily's big accident. The girls still have railings on their beds and when they end up in our bed, we put pillows next to them to keep them from rolling out of the bed. We did the pillow thing at Disney too. These beds were very high off of the ground. So on our second to last night there, Allie was in Rich's bed and Em was in mine. Allie woke up at 4:30 and insisted on coming back into my bed. With Emily there as well.

When I end up with two of them in the bed with me, I like to sleep sideways so that we have more bed and there is less chance of them rolling out. Especially at home, because we have a footboard on our bed. But this night, Em was sleeping the normal way and Allie wanted sleep normal too. I waited until Allie fell back asleep before I got up to use the bathroom. They both had pillows next to them and I had even taken the blankets and pulled them over the pillows and tucked the blankets between the mattress and the boxspring.

As I'm opening the bathroom door, I hear a loud thoud and then crying. I run out to find that Emily has fallen out of the bed. At first, she was crying hysterically. I got back into bed with her on top of me. She fell back asleep. I was FREAKING OUT. Not only had she fallen out of the bed but she must have hit the table beside the bed with her head. I could feel the bump on her forehead. Needless to say, I did not sleep much for the rest of the night. I kept track of her breathing and movements.

When we got up the next morning, I had dried blood on my shirt and there was blood on the sheets. She had a bump and bruise on her forehead and her chin was all scraped up. I asked her a few times if her teeth hurt and she said no but her lip did. All I can say is that I am so grateful that she didn't break any bones, suffer a head injury or knock any teeth out.

For our last night there, we were not taking any chances. We stuffed extra pillows around them. We gathered all the extra blankets and put those across the bedside table and then we moved the mattress from the trundle bed to the floor in between the two beds.

Our first stop on the way home was Fayetteville, NC. I ended up in a bed with Allie and Em. Of course. Allie was against the headboard and Em is in the middle. We were side sleeping. Of course. Allie kicked that stupid headboard so many times that night and everytime she did, I would jump up and grab for them because I thought someone had rolled out of the bed.

The Ride Home

We decided to stretch out the ride home to three days. One of Rich's brothers lives in Virginia, right outside of DC so we thought it would be a nice break to stop to visit them. We didn't get in as much mileage as we wanted to the first day. Things happened. Like Allie puking up a half a gallon of chocolate milk. We arrived at their house at 3:15, which gave the girls some good playing time with their cousin and on the playground, where an injured Em whacked her face against one of the slides.

The ride home was definitely more difficult. I came down with the girls' cold on the last day of the drive. When I drove, they freaked out because they wanted me in the back with them and when I was in the back with them, I had to pass around toys, get drinks and snacks, take care of the DVD player. I didn't any downtime at all. And I felt car sick from being in the back.

Driving versus Flying

In total, we paid $340 for gas and $460 for hotel rooms. The hotel room costs are so high because we wanted to stay as close to Rich's brother in Virginia. Don't forget - he lives right outside of DC. We went with a residence type of place, I can't remember the name, which was basically like an apartment. It was super awesome. But expensive.

We may have been able to get flights for $1,800 but they would have been at 7:00 AM and had 2 layovers. Our expenses for hotels and gas amounted to $800. And we didn't have to rent a van or strollers either.

Do over?

Yes, I would do it again. It wasn't hell on wheels. It was tiring and exhausting but, seriously, the look of pure joy on my little ones' faces was all the magic I needed.
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Final note: It was 49 degrees (F) when we arrived home. IN THE HOUSE!