Race Day Mayhem
My wife signed up for a race and started training for it a few months back. Race day quickly approached and the perfect storm happened - all three kids were varying degrees of sick. I was lucky enough to watch them all by myself the morning of the race and my wife was lucky enough to deal with a sick baby L the whole night before her race.
It didn’t help that the night before, I accidentally fell asleep while comforting L when he was falling asleep. It took about an hour to calm him down and make sure he finally fell asleep because he can’t breath normally through his nose. His little nose was always getting stuffed and he would snore and wake himself up. It was exhausting after a day of working out and walking around outside for 3 hours in the cold. If I fall asleep, it’s hard for me to sleep at a normal time at night. Couple that with my 4 year old son waking up from nightmares at night and it was a recipe for disaster.
I had to wake up early and swap places with my wife to watch baby L when she was getting ready to leave. Of course baby L stirred the whole time and I got no sleep. Then it was time to get up for the day once C burst into the room thinking it was his daily playtime with L in the early morning. I somehow got breakfast ready for the kids and then was aggressively fighting the stream of snot coming from L the whole time.
My 6 year old daughter E saw the sunshine later in the morning and wanted to go outside. I didn’t want to go, but I hate saying no to outdoor time with the kids, so I ended up getting them all ready (including putting on C’s boot for his foot fracture). L was in the stroller, E was on her bike, and C was riding his tricycle around. I even brought out our huge bernadoodle in hopes that he would potty (he did not). It was me, 3 kids, and a wild dog outside.
Eventually, I needed to put L to sleep so we all went back inside. My wife finished her race and since she was already out with her friend, I encouraged her to grab coffee or brunch after the race. Even though it was tough on me to juggle everything, it’s good for her to get away to recharge. She was exhausted when she got back, but at least help finally arrived. The toughest part of the weekend was over and I’m glad we are over the race day mayhem.
