Be the Change You Want to See in the World!

Last night we had a baby sleeping in our room, well actually we had 2 children staying with us, but this story is about one in particular.

In the middle of the night I woke up to hear him screaming, and I do mean screaming, this child has some lungs on him.  I quickly filled a bottle with surium, because that is all he can keep down these days, and instant silence.  I then check baby #2’s “dripper” to ensure that she is still being feed the correct dose.  The dripper is similar to an iv machine at the hospital, it automatically feeds her 45 mls of pediasure every hour via an NG tube that goes through her nose into her stomach.

As I am crawling back into bed, my lovely husband says “that was quick,” which is always a bad sign cause those things are never quick.  Promptly 30 seconds after I safely place my flashlight back into my pillow case for quick access, I hear the disgusting sound of diarrhea excreting through a child.

I grab my flashlight, crawl out of the mosquito net, stumble past playpen #1 shine my flashlight into play pen #2 (for those of you paying attention to details, yes, baby #1 is in playpen #2, but you get the idea!!), and discover diarrhea all over one of the last clean blankets in the house as he has already puked and pooped on several others throughout the day.

I take him out to the common area to change him and say Hi to a volunteer who is up with another baby (we currently have 9 kids in the house for various reasons, yikes!).  Of course as I open the poopy diaper it explodes all over the clean one I have placed beneath him.  I through them both away, wipe up the child/changing table and grab a second diaper, only to realize he has now peed all over the place.  (for those of you who thought this blog was going to be all fluffy stuff about cute Haitian babies, welcome to the reality of living with 30+ infants and toddlers!!)  I re sanitize the table, assemble diaper #2, pick child up and realize that the poop/pee combination has miraculously seeped all over the childs entire back and all over the clean diaper, which is amazing because I swear I checked to make sure I got it all.

I decide to abort mission, cause clearly this baby needed to be pressure washed and not changed, re sanitized the table for the 3rd time, and retreat to the bathroom to give the child his 4th bath for the day.  In an effort to not wake up the entire house, this boy has one volume and it’s extremely loud, I decide its best not to submerge him in a cold sink of water.  Instead I lay him upside down in one arm and sponge bathe him with the other.  

Point of interest here, husband and child sleep through entire process!!

I assemble diaper #3 (thanks to all our faithful supporters who send diapers down to us!  Next time your at the store you might want to buy double your normal amount with me around!! Just kidding), lay the baby back into his playpen, reinsert bottle, and begin scrubbing my hands.  It’s a good thing this child is one of my favorites because I am constantly covered, and I mean COVERED in his puke and poop.

I climb back into bed hoping to get a full 3 hours of sleep before the next feeding.  No such luck.  I’m kept awake by a baby down the hall who is upset and waking my husband up to turn the generator back on which also means resetting the dose on the “Dripper.”

Thanks hunny for jinxing me, maybe you can get up for the next “quick” feeding.  Scratch that, I’ll stick to explosive diapers, you stick to generator problems at 4 am and 5 o’clock airport runs, at least I can go back to sleep afterwards!

So, anyone still wanting to come volunteer?  We can find a really cute baby to keep you up all night!!