I’ve been up for 37 hours straight already. I’ve been busy.

I have serious problems with insomnia, and as such my sleep schedule rotates so that occassionally I’m somewhat “nocturnal”. (Thankfully, I work from home and can afford to have that be the case.) Anyway, the past week has been a “nocturnal” week for me. I would wake in the afternoon, and go to sleep when most folks are getting up to go to work.

It was in the middle of this sleep pattern that I was told I would need to watch my brother’s two children (my 7-year-old niece and 5-year-old nephew) because my mother couldn’t watch them yesterday due to the fact that she was going in to have some major dental work done. (My mother doesn’t normally watch the kids, this week was just a special case that happened to coincide with some stuff she had going on.) No problemo.

I woke up at 2:30pm on Thursday afternoon, went about my usual business. Went to Hyjal Thursday night, and had every intention of going to bed after the raid because I knew I would need to be up by 9am Friday (yesterday) morning to watch the kids when my mother left for the dentist’s. Once the raid was over, I headed off to bed. I lay there for about 30 minutes, and then gave up. I wasn’t going to be able to get to sleep that “early” (it was around midnight). So, I got back up and went back about my usual routine.

9am eventually rolled around, I made my way downstairs to make sure the kids were up, had their breakfast, brushed their teeth, and saw my mother off. Copious amounts of coffee were imbibed. My morning was spent coloring and watching cartoons with the kids, teaching them some new words they didn’t know (and how to spell them) and getting some exercise outdoors.

By 11:30am, my mother had returned from the dentist–weary, sore, stitched, swelled, and bleeding. She was completely unable to speak, and I quickly made sure she had pen and paper handy to make her needs known. I looked over the “care instructions” provided by the dentist to make sure that I could make my mother’s recovery as smooth as possible, sent her off to bed, and called my father so he could pick up her prescriptions (penicillin and vicodin). I made lunch for the kids, and then went up to check to make sure my mum was settled in and as comfortable as she could be given the circumstances. (The poor dear was in tears from the pain.)

After lunch, the rest of my day (till about 10pm) was spent in a blur of supervising the kids, cleaning up the kitchen, helping make dinner and running up to check on my mum every 20 minutes or so. (As per her care instructions, she was to ice her jaw for 20 minutes, then spend 20 minutes sans ice, rinse and repeat, taking her penicillin and vicodin every 4 hours.) The kids had an afternoon snack, then we went outside for a bit of fresh air. Any downtime I had (read: any time the kids were settled inside and quiet) I spent running up and down the stairs fetching various things for mum. Ice packs needed to be changed, fresh (lukewarm) drinking water brought, pills administered, and once she was finally comfortable enough to contemplate food (7pm-ish) I ended up making two meals for her. The first was just plain chicken broth, which I figured would be tame enough to not hurt to eat, but it turned out she wasn’t able to effectively use a straw to drink the broth, had trouble drinking from cups anyway (which is what I brought the broth up in), and couldn’t use silverware because she was afraid she would accidentally hit her teeth and cause herself further pain. (All of which was completely understandable.) After hmm’ing and haw’ing over what else she could try, she suggested scrambled eggs, so I went back to the kitchen. She was able to eat the eggs (she swallowed the bits whole, using her fingers and tipping her head back), which was a relief (I was very concerned that she was taking medication on an empty stomach, and may have inadvertantly made herself sick–making things much, much worse).

The rest of my evening was spent making sure the kids were finishing up their dinner, getting into their PJs, brushing their teeth, cleaning up the kitchen from dinner stuff, and making sure the incoming adults (my father and brother) were also clear on my mum’s care needs. Checked on mum a bunch (every 20-30 minutes or so), hustled the kids off to bed, and then finally had a chance to sit and catch up on my emails and such.

Its now 3am, and I’m still up because my mum’s unable to sleep (due to discomfort) and someone needs to be available in case she needs something. I sleep like the dead (I’ve slept through earthquakes), so I know if I try to take a “cat nap”, if she comes to wake me because she needs something, she’ll never be able to wake me up, so I’ve been sitting in the living room watching tv (thankfully, Once Upon a Time in Mexico was on TBS earlier) while I go up periodically to check to see if she’s managed to get to sleep or if she needs anything. While she was able to eat the eggs, she didn’t eat a whole lot, so I’m mostly concerned that she’ll be up all night, get hungry, and end up taking her meds on an empty stomach or something.

Now I’m just biding my time until the “morning shift”, when one of the other adults can take over. That’ll likely be around 8am or so. I really hope she manages to get at least a little sleep tonight. Its been a really long and traumatic day for her.

Normally I wouldn’t bother publishing this kind of stuff, except that I kind of feel like an asshole for not posting much on THM this week, and this at least provides some explanation for that. Normally, I would’ve just brought my laptop downstairs and tried to work while watching the kids, but they’re 7 and 5. They’re way too busy for me to actually get any work done.

I did at least get somewhat caught up on my email after dinner, though, so I guess that’s something, right?