Completely and utterly overwhelmed

5littleladies wrote: Jas and I leave for a conference tomorrow and I am not at all prepared. Thanks to my oh-so-wonderful morning sickness my house is a disaster, there is hardly a crumb of food in my house and I have laundry to the ceiling. Ok, the laundry is usually to the ceiling but that's beside the point. The girls will be at my parents house tomorrow night and then home on Friday and Saturday nights so thankfully I have very little to pack for them, but Sara and hubby are watching the girls here Friday night and my brother Saturday night and I would really like to leave things in a less than completely chaotic state. Any suggestions on how to clean a house, go grocery shopping, and pack for 4 girls in a 8 hour or so time period WHILE dealing with almost constant nausea?? I could cry. Ok I am crying.

My3LilMonkeys replied: One thing at a time and don't overdo it and hurt yourself - I'm sure everyone will understand if your house isn't perfect.

luvmykids replied: Set your timer for 15 minutes. Work on whatever is most important to you for that 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, do it again. If you can focus on one task for 15 minutes you'll be suprised how much you get done. And give yourself a 15 minute break every hour. I learned that from flylady but I swear that M.O. has gotten me through many a crisis.

I'm sorry you're feeling so crummy. I hope you're able to get enough done to feel ok about leaving

Teesa®© replied: Can someone not go shopping for you? Give them a list so they know what to get. Maybe Sara could come over early and give you a hand?

Honestly, I'd only work on laundry. Since you said you've very little pack, I'm not sure whether it's because they don't need much or there's nothing clean. Go through the laundry and just wash what you need. While it's washing, you can pack what you do have and when it's drying, you could either do at least soak the dishes so they'll clean easier later or go shopping if no one else can.

I'm assuming here that Jas is DH? Why can't he go shopping while you do laundry? Or vise-versa. If he's working, he could pick the stuff up on the way home?

Are your children old enough to help? I hand dirty stuff to my children and they put it in the washer, or I take it out of the washer and they put it in the dryer. We make an assembly line, lol. You could put clothes on the bed and they could put them into a bag.

My2Beauties replied: You know I bought this anti-nausea medicine (liquid stuff) that you drink when you feel nausea come on and you can literally drink like once every hour or so when I was preggo and it did really work well. It was in the medicine aisle at my local grocery store and it didn't cost much, they even had a generic store brand that I bought. Ask the pharmacist, my OB said it was very safe. Also peppermints help nausea if you chew on one and so do crackers or bread, but they only helped briefly. Peppermints are really good, they last about 10 minutes or so if you suck on it slowly and you can pop them in over and over! Just some suggestions. As far as cleaning and all that goes....do one thing at a time and don't overdo it. I'm so sorry, I know exactly how you feel there isn't enough time in the day

MommyToAshley replied: You know, I feel overwhelmed and I am not planning a trip, I'm not pregnant, and I only have one child. Oh, and my laundry is always piled to the top too... I don't get it, even when you do laundry the pile doesn't get any lower... what's with that??? So, I admire you just for making it through the day, I don't see how you do it.

Take it easy and just do what you can. Maybe the girls can help around the house and your DH could pick up the groceries. You need to take care of yourself. Have you tried eating small snacks, a little cracker here and there? I had horrible morning sickness with Ashley and it helped not to let my tummy get empty.

~Roo'sMama~ replied: Jen you know I don't care how messy the house is! I'm sure Paul won't care either. I hope you're not still stressing out about this... just do what you need for you to be able to leave and don't worry about the rest.

lisar replied:

luvmykids replied:
I went through a bottle a day It's called Emetrol and the generic should be right next to it

My2Beauties replied:
Yeah that's it....that stuff is awesome! It's really safe, like she said I went through a bottle like every 2 days, I literally drank it straight from the bottle

mckayleesmom replied: Recruit the kids.....They are all old enough to do something.....Your oldest can vaccume, second can put things away, and hand the 2 little ones a couple wet rags and let them dust........

Make it a game.....Mckaylee and Russell like dusting.

A&A'smommy replied: Oh honey I'm sorry I would be overwhelmed too!!! I hope you get it done!!!

5littleladies replied: Well I am for sure going to see if I can find the Emetrol-I will try anything at this point!!

Dh got up with the girls this morning and told them they would have to help me as much as possible and he would reward them if they do. We'll see how that goes. They really are helpful for the most part (Madeline especially-I don't know what I would have done these past weeks without her!) but some days are better than others. For example-Right now they are all supposed to be cleaning their room and I'm not sure what's going on but I hear a guitar and giggling so I'm guessing not a whole lot of cleaning at this point. Jas works until 5 today and we have a 3 hour drive and want to leave around 6 so he won't be able to help much, but he did say that we will just run to the store after we drop the girls off at my parents house and get the groceries we need then. So for now I'm just doing what I can.

And yes Sara I know you don't care (Paul might but he would just make everyone clean) but I do! I'm not going crazy-don't worry, there will still be plenty of mess when you get here.

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
Lol that's true, I'm sure he would make the girls clean. I might do a little cleaning while I'm there too but I make no promises! I'm not even getting my own house clean right now.

Crystalina replied: I found my Emetrol at Kmart. I had to get it from the pharmacist and pay for it back there. It was like $7 and change.

5littleladies replied:
Oh my goodness-Don't even think about cleaning this house. I have it to a relatively decent point right now. Just make the kids clean if it starts getting messy!

My2Beauties replied:
I got mine at Meijer's and it was with the other medications, not behind the counter (I find that weird) but I only paid like $3 or $4 for mine, but like I said I got the Meijer brand. It was literally called Anti-Nausea...how inventive

kimberley replied: aww i agree about the kids helping out and take it in small intervals. hang in there