Care Jam

by Goldie

All the paths converged yesterday, bringing all my caregiving tasks together in one needy and very untidy household.

5:30 am – got up. Emma had had the night shift with the puppies. My “mom” radar had been overactive all night and I finally decided to get up and help with the early morning feeding, already in progress. Puppies have been constipated from the formula so we had tried adding corn syrup and olive oil, then some goat’s milk. Fingers crossed.

6:30 am – Cleaned all the feeding syringes and nipples.

7:00 am – Chris got up. The grandkids are due to arrive at 9:00 or 9:30. It’s our usual Friday.

7:45 am – Another feeding already? Three hours goes by quickly. Rubbing tummies to stimulate them to pee and poop.

8:00 am – Grandkids are here.  Early. Their mom was sick all night, so our son got them all up, fed, dressed, and dropped them off on his way to school. There had been no time to call with the change of plans.

8:00 am – Grandma came out of the puppy room with a loud yip, “HE’S POOPING!”

8:00 am – Our son and grandkids gave me one of those “oh, Grandma” looks.

8:10 am – Son left. Grandkids started fighting. A hard morning for their parents had made them grumpy. Great Grampa (my dad) called and said, “I think Mom would like to get out shopping today”, which meant, “She driving me nuts. Please take her away for awhile.” I gave my excuses to my dad. Then whispered loudly to Chris, “We need a baking project!” He agreed to read a story while I figured out what we were going to do.

8:20 am – Chris was on the couch reading to Opal and Lucien. The oldest, Mattheus, was in with Emma and the puppies. I peeked in to see Mattheus lying on the futon with a puppy curled up next to him. His smile was pure magic.

9:30 am – Kids were fighting again. I told them we were going outside for a walk. Shoes on, we went down to the park near the Senior Center and played on exercise equipment meant for seniors. We ate our snack and I sent a text message to Chris with a grocery list: chocolate, cooking oil, whiskey. He texted back, yep!

11:00 am – We came back home and made the dough for doughnuts. Lucien stirred and told us how he was going to have his own restaurant when he’s older and the sign on it would say BACON. After all this, they played quietly together while I cleaned up and prepared their lunch. Opal said, “I’m three. Now I can have bacon.”

11:30 am – Ate lunch

12:30 pm – The nurse at Mom and Dad’s facility called to ask where Dad’s painkillers were. She had reminded me to bring them and they were all out. I sent Chris.

12:30 pm – Kids resting. Opal was in the puppy room and I was feeding a puppy. She fell asleep while she watched. I finished feeding the pups and washed their feeding stuff. Took an hour.

1:30 pm – Six year olds don’t take naps. Mattheus helped roll out the doughnut dough and cut doughnuts. I don’t have a doughnut cutter, so they came out kind of funny looking. Finished at 2:30 then Mattheus drew pictures in the flour on the table.

3:15 pm – Kids up from rests, ate donuts, and asked Grandpa to read them a story. Emma did the puppy feeding.

3:40 pm – Kids started fighting again. Grandpa gave me a look that said clearly, Do something now before WWIII starts in our living room.

On with the coats and shoes and outside in time to see Mama drive up. She brought us flowers.

5:30 pm – Pot pies for dinner.

6:30 pm – Feed puppies

7:00 pm – Decide not to run errands tonight.

It was snowing. Still is on Saturday evening and it’s not supposed to let up until sometime tomorrow afternoon. Springtime in Colorado.

Despite the extra work, I was grateful for those wee puppies. They were there when one of the kids needed some unconditional licking and loving.

I’m on night duty again tonight.