Finally

I wish I could say that I finally got a good night's sleep last night. Alas, even though I went to bed at 8:15pm and got up at 6:00am, I still only got about 5.5 hours of sleep. If I had gone to bed at 7:45pm and Nadia didn't keep me up for awhile due to a coughing fit that lead to her throwing up, I would have been able to sleep for 7 hours. Oliver's stretches of sleep in the night used to be 2-3 hours long. They were as short as 45 minutes last night. Motherhood can certainly be very exhausting at times! Today I was finally able to tackle the basement. It has been on my mental to do list since we came home on September 2, but other things kept taking priority. Let me tell you the basement was an utter disaster. It really, really, really bothered me every time I had to go down there and get something. During one of Oliver's naps, I took Nadia and Ian down with me. They were happy to come because there are toys stored down there (some that are geared for under the age of 2 and others just because we don't have room for them upstairs).  Even though they were making a mess (pulling toys off the shelves), I was able to accomplish quite a bit. I am not saying everything is perfectly organized down there now, but I will say it's 1,000 times better than it was yesterday. When the boys had their afternoon nap and Nadia was having her quiet time, I went down and put away the toys they had strewn over the floor. I am so relieved that I won't feel like screaming the next time I go down to retrieve something like say a jar of applesauce. It takes time to get the house back in shape after 14 weeks of bed rest and hospitalizations, especially when you're caring for 3 little ones and not getting much sleep.

It does crack me up at times as to how Paul and I view things so differently. A few weeks ago on the way home from Ian's feeding appointment, I stopped at Sears and picked up a gas powered hedge trimmer Paul had ordered while Oliver was in the NICU. It stayed in the back of the van for a few days, and then Paul brought it in and put it *drumroll, please* on the dining room table. I realize it was still in its box, and we rarely eat in that room, but in my opinion a hedge trimmer has no business being in a formal dining room. As soon as I saw where it had been placed, I moved it to the garage, and then a few days later I moved it to our shed in the backyard with our other lawn equipment. One other example would be where to put his hoodie. He used to put in on the back of a kitchen chair when he came home at night. I'd then hang it in the coat closet. So he started hanging on a dining room chair instead. I continued to then hang it in the coat closet until he expressed annoyance that I was doing this. I guess Paul doesn't like coat closets. Well the other four members of the family won;t be using a chair for our outerwear.