it's not all sunshine and roses

Things seemed to really be rolling along smoothly for awhile there. We got in a consistent eat and sleep schedule that everyone was happy with. Kids love the nanny and weren't too sad when we left in the morning, but appropriately excited about our homecomings at night. Fun weekends together. Life was good.

And then, the vomit began again. Oh yeah, stop reading if you're on your lunch break. This post is not about sunshine and roses.

I guess we needed a reminder that this parenting thing isn't just a walk in the park. Lest we begin to judge other parents going through a more difficult stage.

Little miss Sylvia decided to bring us back to reality. Poor thing could not keep food down. So, we had to start her little tummy easy. A sip of pedialyte every 5 minutes and if she successfully kept it down for an hour, 2 oz every 10 minutes for an hour. She was NOT happy with Dr. Sari about that. She was so hungry that taking away the cup or it being empty over and over again gave her fits! But, as the nanny learned, if you give in to her desires, she's worse off because then she throws up again and is now more dehydrated and you have more disgusting cleaning to do.

Once she mastered the pedialyte, we moved her on to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apples, and toast). Food, finally!! 24 hours on BRAT, then a slow transition to regular food.

While this craziness was going on with Sylvia, Rafa decided to go on a hunger strike. I don't know if it was an empathetic move, teething, just striving for independence, protesting our food offerings, trying to get attention or what. The main problem wasn't his starving. His chubs thighs have plenty of stores. But, he started waking up in the middle of the night and really early in the morning (5am) because he was hungry!! Not cool, dude.

The comical-if-it-didn't-drive-me-insane part was that Sylvia was hungry and wanted food and would cry when we put it on Rafa's plate and he didn't want to eat, so he would cry when we put food on his plate.

Sylvia went 24 hours on a regular diet, but then lost it again. So, back the beginning again. She never got a fever, nor any other symptoms. Just couldn't keep her food down. I've given up on trying to figure out the cause. Maybe if it happens again, I'll get curious, but for now, I'm okay living with the mystery.

We figured out Rafa will eat purées, fruit and bread. We're trying not to just spoil him so that he thinks he can just eat what he wants. (Trying to avoid the 3-year old who only eats lean cuisine pizza we were told about.). But, we also selfishly want some sleep and can only send him to be without dinner so often in a week. And, if we let him just cry until it's time to get up, then we have two crying babies and the other is sick and really needs her sleep. So many curveballs (excuses?) derailing the "plan."

To top it all off, somewhere in the middle of all that was their late 12-month appointment and since they're fighting 2 live viruses, we're being a little more lenient until that period is over. Unless of course, we then have another reason to be softies....