Friday, January 14, 2011

Can I admit myself to the hospital for exhaustion?

You may or may not know this but I have an odd fascination with celebrities who end up in the hospital due to exhaustion. And no, I haven't seen any articles lately (I promise you'll understand why I am bringing this up in a minute) but this is what runs through my mind when I do read about these poor, exhausted celebrities:
  1. Are they just sick? Can you say that they are just sick instead of exhausted?
  2. Is exhausted a cover-up for addiction?
  3. Puh-leeze.
  4. What about us common folk? Come spend a week in my shoes.
I believe a virus has invaded my body and I'm fighting it off. Fighting with all I have left, which isn't much. I felt a little off last week and now I actually feel sick. No rest for the weary though. This is my busiest time at work and for a tax job, I'm not going to complain. I basically cannot take a sick day unless I can't get out of bed though.

We had another blizzard here on Wednesday and would you believe that Rich and I actually made it to work. Our street had been plowed once sometime overnight and we managed to drive through it. We laugh at 10 inches of unplowed snow. I've been working late and I even worked last Saturday. Although my sleeping situation has greatly improved, I am still exhausted.

Here's a quick rundown on where we stand in terms of sleep. I think I screwed up my night count in my earlier post.

Night #1 was Sunday night when I went psycho after being awake with the girls for 2 hours. They stayed in their beds after The Incident.

Night #2 - The girls stayed in their beds all night. Incident report is empty.

Night #3 - Anna woke up and got up but remained in her bed after I brought her back.

Night #4 - The girls stayed in their beds all night. Incident report is empty.

Night #5 - Last night (Thursday night) - I lost some time at work due to the blizzard so I didn't arrive home until 9:00 PM. I didn't feel well. I thought I was going to throw up, didn't want to eat anything, felt dizzy and was basically just exhausted. I was convinced that by morning, I would be in the middle of the girls' stomach virus.

Emily woke up at 11:15 and came into our room. I brought her back to her room and told her how proud I was of her sleeping in her own bed. I could see that she was quickly reverting back to her old ways. She wanted me to stay there. I stood next to her bed for five minutes but she wasn't falling back asleep. I told her that I needed to go to the bathroom and that I would come back to check on her in a few minutes. I then went and collapsed on my bed.

She lasted for five minutes before she started whimpering again. Rich ended up going to her room and calming her down. She did stay in her bed for the rest of the night though. So this sticker chart thing seems to be working. I was surprised tonight at how well they went to sleep without us sitting in their rooms. Allie whined for a bit and kept asking me to sit with her. I ignored the question, asked her if she wanted the light on, door open, blanket, etc. It worked.

And so now, I must go to bed. I just hope that after the girls pick out their "surprises" this weekend at Tar-jay they'll continue with the good sleep stuff. My plan was to allow them to pick something from the $1 section and because they will have more than 5 stickers at that point, I was going to give them each a little bag of M&Ms. Emily told me tonight that she wants a Belle set, complete with the Beast and everything. Ack! Do you think they have those in the $1 section?


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9 comments:

Kristen said...

Stay strong! Keep up the good work! You will get there (and feel better too)!

Colleen said...

I don't know how you do it. I only have two and I'm exhausted all.the.time!! Hope you can get a little rest this weekend. Good luck with the prizes

Helen said...

I hope you feel better by the end of the weekend! I'm so glad the girls are letting you sleep more now and hopefully these night wakings will be a distant memory.

As far as the reward goes, you could buy a set like that but divide it up and she could earn a new piece of it every so many stars!

Julia said...

I had those going-to-hospital-for-just-about-whatever fantasies in the first year, hahaha!

What I think is that all that sleep made your body go into "recovery mode." In my view, it is a relatively common pattern - if you are too busy with something, you keep going and going because your body knows you just have to. But once there is a break, it can be more like a collapse. My mom had the worst "flu" ever when my aunt died, after being in bed at home with a broken femur for 3 months with my mother taking care of her (plus work and other stuff, of course).

Mama Bear said...

I HATE that feeling of sheer and utter exhaustion. It's so tough and when you need to tend to the kids in the middle of the night, it makes me want to cry. (sometimes it does actually make me cry!) stay sting with the stickers! Sounds like it's working.

Marcia (123 blog) said...

Julia's right - it's like how you go, go, go and the minute you're on holiday (vacation, you guys call it) you get sick and you're out...

Get well soon. Read lots of books? :)

Kayla said...

I hear you on this front. One of my2 y/os has decided to be afraid of everything that has to do with sleep...the wind, the noise, the room. She cries at ear piercing levels keeping her 2 sisters awake. So I told her one night that I had to go to the bathroom, now everynight, both little ones sing "mommy goes poop then comes to check on us". Ah, children.

Anonymous said...

As for celebrities, a few years ago I read a book that had "insight" into the secret lives of celebrities. The main character was on a big TV show, and because of operating costs, the cast would have to be REALLY sick in order to miss a day....so celebs become hospitalized for "exhaustion". Whatever that means....do they just lay in bed all day? I think you qualify for a day-in-bed-day!

Anonymous said...

I get exhausted just reading your blog. I'm glad the girls are sleeping better and really hope it continues for you.