Thursday and Friday

On Thursday Dave called me from work and surprised me with the news that he'd used his Marriott Rewards points and booked me (for free!) a night in a nearby hotel, so I could go by myself and SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! He promised to stay home and comfort Annalise through the night as she would inevitably be very angry that when she woke up 7,000 times, Mommy would not be there to nurse her back to sleep. Let the night-weaning begin! I was nervous to leave her. But... not too nervous to pass up a night of luxury.

My friend ingeniously pointed out that the hotel might have a hot tub and so after we put our babies to sleep at our respective homes around 9:00, we spent the night luxuriating in hot bubbly wonderfulness and then made a quick trip to Burgerville for milkshakes and sweet potato fries because what is a fun girls-night-out without ridiculously fattening calories to add to your joy?

Annalise had a hard night but she slept in the bed with Dave and wasn't left alone to cry, so we tried to keep the traumatization to a minimum. Hopefully she can start sleeping better if she knows Mommy's All-Night Dairy Diner is permanently closed. Last night I was back in bed with them and it was a pretty hard night again and I almost gave in and just nursed her 50 times and because she kept asking to nurse and crying when I wouldn't, it was breaking my heart. On the other hand, the sleep deprivation is breaking my brain.

*****

Last night we had a date night! We have a good situation with the parents of Annalise's friend Anna. They watch Annalise for us one weekend night while we go out, and we watch Anna the next night so they can have a date. It saves a lot on babysitting costs and the babies love each other and I feel completely completely comfortable with Annalise in their care. Win-win for everyone! Two weeks ago we saw Inception on our date, and last night we headed out to Northeast Portland to try some of the highly rated food carts in the area. Dave loves the new TV show Food Truck Race, so that was the inspiration.

The plan was after dinner to go a few blocks away for dessert at Ruby Jewel, but once we got to dinner and were waiting for our food, a group of young girls ran up to the group of diners, maybe 100 of us, and started shouting that they had kittens and did anyone want a kitten? People zoomed over to screech and cuddle the babies, who looked too small to be separated from their mom and were filthy and covered with fleas. The girls said someone had just handed them this box, and they were trying to pawn them off on anyone they could. My blood pressure went through the roof. These kids were too young to even know what to do with these kittens who needed to get to a vet and possibly be fed with a syringe every two hours. I went over and let the main girl with the box know that they were too young to just be taken home by someone and given cat food. I told her they needed to get to a vet. She looked at me blankly. "Oh," she said. "Want one?" Knowing Dave might possibly kill me, I told her I would take them all to a vet for her if she couldn't. "Great!" she said, shoving the box at me and disappearing into the crowd with her little sisters before I could say another word. The thing is, Dave is highly allergic to cats. And his highly allergic self was shooting me daggers from a few feet away.

We ate quickly and called the closest animal hospital since the Humane Society was closed for the night. They let us know that the law in Oregon is that if baby kittens under a pound and a half are dropped off without their mother, they must be euthanized. This started one of my many bouts of crying for the night as I tried to imagine how horrible it would be to have to nurse all three kittens through the night in my sleep-deprived state.

"We are NOT taking these kittens home," Dave asserted.

"Well, I'm not going to let them die!" I blubbered tearfully as they mewed and cried in their box. Our one hope that did not involve a sleepless night for myself was that if we took them to a hospital, there was a chance that one of the nurses there would agree to personally foster them. We zoomed to the nearest vet and THANKFULLY that's exactly what happened. The little babies weren't even one pound, much less a pound and a half, but the kindly nurses agreed to take them in to their own homes and raise them until they were big enough to be adopted. (Cue more crying from the hormonal mommy whose own baby was far away.)

So Date Night was kind of ruined but we saved some babies. As we drove away, so grateful that the right thing was being done by the kittens (and that WE were not having to be any more involved in said "right thing") Dave said, only half-joking, "Um, that was... nice. But don't EVER do that again!"

*Whisper-voice, so Dave can't read this* Um... have you met me? It would happen again in a heartbeat.