Stress-It's a Killer

We're getting down to the nitty gritty of our move - packing every day used items, never having what we need on hand. Chad has had some big tests and lots of networking type seminar things to attend at school. The kids have been maddeningly clingy - by kids, I mean Chloe. Everett is needy too, but he's 6 months old and teething; he's doing great considering. Chloe is scared by every little sound, every day sounds, ie. the neighbor, the house creaking, a truck going by, etc. She gets upset that I can't carry a 30 pound child while pushing 60lb worth (at least) of milk, water, juice, Everett, and other groceries through Wal-Mart. Every minute of every day is "Play with me!" After enough no's we both concede to watch yet another movie. It's draining!
Anyway, we had a very long day today, and here's every gorey detail. Yesterday, she made some really bad choices including choosing not to nap. She was terrible. At dinner time, she get sent to her room and chose to sleep instead of coming back down to eat. So, she went to bed at 6:45 and was out in only a couple of minutes. We were thrilled. Well, I went in around 11 to change her into a diaper and change her sheets and everything (she's not potty trained at night yet and had an expected accident, but no big deal.) Well, she never went back to sleep. Around midnight, she started wailing/crying for no real reason. After lots of comforting, scolding, threats, yelling, ingoring, and comforting again, she finally gave up a little after 1am, at which point she had also managed to wake Everett, who had been finally getting weaned off of his 1:00 waking. It was all so infuriating that I had to strive for a place of numbness - Chad couldn't even cope. So, I got to bed finally around 1:45. Of course Everett woke up at his regular 5:00 feeding - long night. I woke up this morning to a room full of poop. She had taken her diaper off, had pooped on the floor and tracked it everywhere. I don't wanna be too graphic, but it was very wet and had soaked down into the carpet - actually it very well might've soaked through the carpet pad and reached subflooring. After cleaning as much as possible, we went to the store for groceries and a wet vac. I spent another hour or more cleaning up the rest of it, got the kids down for a nap, scarfed a pb&j, (yes, peanutbutter! And Everett has had farts that rival the adults in the Bond family for stench ever since.) ran into the shower, woke up the kids, and ran back out the door for my dr. appointment that I was 10 min. late for (and she's always pretty punctual.) It was all fairly horendous.
Here's the upside: I was livid but mostly just didn't know how to react, so I tried to think very carefully before reacting. I'm grateful because after thinking about it, I don't think it was vendictive or a cry for help after all. Judging from what she said, I think she was just hanging out in her bedroom and wanted to put panties on, but then needed to poop, and I didn't hear her. (I didn't hear her because we turned the fan on so loud trying to drown her out the night before.) And since it's a no no to poop in her panties, she didn't know what else to do. Thankfully, I don't think I over punished her, even in retrospect. She was really pretty good today. After my appointment, I was able to stop running like a chicken with my head cut off. She helped me sort some things (which was nice) then watched a video while I checked blogs. Oh my gosh, she belted out the lyrics to the theme song on her video. It was AWESOME! She even picked up the guitar and played along. I will forever regret that I didn't pull out the camera in time. So, I don't like blogs that have music on them, for various reasons, but "My Many Coloured Days" has a song that has really grown on me. I find myself actually stopping to listen to it, and singing along. It's such a happy-go-lucky sounding song. So I paused Chloe's video and we danced to it. The last time we danced together like that was long before having Everett (he and I quickly got too fat for it.) I forgot how much fun it was, she loves it, and it's dang good exercise! Then, after dinner I had a presidency meeting with 3 ladies who are always good company, and the day has ended very well. I'm still wondering though how I'll survive the next months and how I managed to survive the past 24hours. So moms, what were your horendous days like?