Going on 29 hours...

...without sleep. That's right, I haven't slept since 5 a.m. yesterday.

At around 4 p.m. yesterday I finished all my work for the week. I was finishing e-mail negotiations about next week's projects and was itching to get out of the house. Ron was off and we had had a good day together, even though I was working and Caleb was sick. The poor child has not been sick very much in his three years of life and he does not take kindly to not feeling well. Runny nose, cough, they are not friends of his. Not even acquaintances. But Daddy's presence brought him joy and it was a good day. I had fancied going out in the afternoon; I had been locked in the house all week.

So when I finally finished the last project, we packed up the kids and headed out. Best Buy, Pier 1, and Barnes & Noble - one store for each (talking) person of the family. Ariana was happy as a clam in the sling, napping a little and curiously looking around a little. We even had dinner out, then headed home.

I decided to take the evening off for some much needed rest, and to catch up on Monday's work over the weekend. Caleb went down to bed. It was time for Ariana to settle down too and for my evening to begin. She promptly fell asleep and I put her in bed.

15 minutes later, she's up, sputtering. What's this? I nurse her to sleep again. Put her down. Up 5 minutes later, sputtering and coughing. A few more of these and I give up on my fun night; now I'm just tired. Time for bed. Every time I put her down she wakes up sputtering, coughing, choking, screaming from not being able to catch her breath... she needs to be held upright, but she does not like it when I sit down, so I am walking her around the house... I realize that it's going to be a LONG NIGHT.

Not a wink of sleep did I get. Not one wink. A couple of times I thought I might get a little sleep, only to have something happen. Like Caleb awakening and calling for me at 4:30 a.m. just as Ariana fell asleep nursing in my lap and just as I laid my head back in the armchair. I get Caleb from upstairs and we lie down on the couch - "Sleep, it's still night." Not even five minutes pass when Ariana stirs and starts squealing...

Caleb finally falls asleep in his chair, but I am not so lucky. Ron wakes up and goes to work at 7:00 a.m. Now it is just the three of us... with a very sleepy Mommy. (A couple of days ago, she was teething and I got just 3 hours of sleep. I'm really racking up the awake hours here.)

Ariana seems to be feeling a lot better after her rough night. The bulb syringe was more effective in the morning. So was the shower I took her into to clear her passages. She is sleeping, finally. I wish I could say the same about me.

The funny thing is, I took her to the pediatrician Thursday morning, completely healthy, for her "well-baby" visit, then joked about it on Facebook... how the trick is to see whether your healthy baby remains well after visiting the doctor, where all germs reside. Within 36 hours she is sick. Though I don't think she got it there... I think she got it from Caleb, just like 2 months ago. That boy loves to kiss his baby sister.

Anyway, no worries, just probably another 3-4 day respiratory illness. They get over it quite quickly. I hope I can say the same for my sleep deprivation.