Tonight was so NOT the normal bedtime routine...

I think it may have been because poor Little M is sick, or because I was waiting for a call from a recruiter about an interview, but the bedtime routine was shot to hell tonight.

Little M is also on 4 different medications, one of which is dispensed in a nebulizer. The first try with the nebulizer was constant crying (him, not me). The second try was better, I used the brain-sucking (thanks, Grampy) Nasalclear to entertain him since it has little songs on it (and bravo to whomever thought of that!)

So here's how bedtime went after Little M climbed the stairs...

I locked the gate at the top of the stairs then put him down to explore while I set things up. I knew I needed to refill the humidifier with distilled water, so I opened a fresh gallon (which fits in there with room to spare) and poured it in. There was more water in there than usual when I started, so I quickly ran out of room and spilled on the carpet in Little M's room. Oh, well, I can clean it up with his bath towel after the bath, since just about every other towel in the house is currently in the laundry room. On to getting the baby to the bath.

I put him on the changing table to undress him, and I notice that we have a stowaway in the room. Little A is using one of her nine lives to explore the room while I am otherwise occupied, so I make a mental note to kick her out later. While I'm distracted Little M takes my go-to toy for distracting him so that I can undress him and starts running it along the wall. My mind tells me this is probably not a good thing...and yep! It falls between the changing table and the wall. But I have a naked child, so off we go to the bath.

It occurs to me as I'm in the hall on the way to the bathroom that I have not actually run any water in the bath yet. Oops.

So I put naked Little M in the big tub (this is our third time in the big tub, the others have gone fine) and turn the water on. Big.....mistake. The loud faucet coupled with bathroom acoustics scares Little M, who tries to climb up the side of the tub and then me. I pick up my poor baby and apologize profusely as I let the water run, check the temp, and finally turn it off.

I put naked Little M back in the tub. He is still not convinced that the loud water monster is not in there waiting for him, so the climbing begins again. I decide to try getting in there with him to show him it's not scary.

I take naked Little M back out of the tub and put him on the floor. I get halfway through undressing when I hear a grunt from Little M. When I look over, there is a light yellow puddle in front of him. He has managed to get BOTH bathmats by peeing between them.

So I have to open the linen closet to find the ONE remaining clean towel that is not in the aforementioned laundry room, and put it down to soak up the lake of pee. I finish getting undressed, pick up Little M, and we get in the tub.

I put him down, then start to sit down myself and by the time I'm down he's standing, trying to once again climb up me. I try to reassure him, but he just lays the little head down on my shoulder, so I just wash around this and get him clean and rinsed.

Now I have to get him out. I have put his towel on the toilet, so I put the hood on his head and try to wrap the rest around him without letting it hit the water in the tub, and with reasonable success he ends up sitting outside the tub.

While I'm getting out of the tub, he takes the opportunity to start pulling things out of the linen closet, whose door I've managed to forget to close, what with all the peeing.

So I have to get out, get the door closed, get dry, and put on enough clothes to get across the hall (which was about half of what I started with) and we're back at the changing table.

Little M has spotted the cat. She has made her way to the top of his dresser, so with Little M in one arm, I grab Little A by her scruff and throw her out of the room. Not literally, of course, though she would beg to differ.

So we're back to the changing table, but Little M is so wound up by all the excitement that I can't get him to sit still for anything, and we no longer have the go-to toy. By the time he's dressed and ready for the last feeding of the night, he's twisted up in the sleepsack.

I finally get him out of the cocoon, with room to kick the little legs around, he's calmed down and we're nursing, and my phone rings. It's the recruiter I talked to last night, telling me I'm all set for my phone interview later with the hiring manager.

When I finally left Little M in bed (still chatting and coughing), and used his towel to clean up the humidifier water, I felt like I'd been through the ringer, and decided that come hell or high water, we're doing the bedtime routine the old way (in the baby tub, pre-filled) tomorrow.