Triage

Apparently, Grandmothers leaving us makes Little One sick. 
When my mom left, She woke up covered in vomit.
Yesterday, when my Mother In Law left, She decided to spike one of Her fevers.
Yikes.  Why Little One? WHY.  Why wait until I am home with you and a newborn and no help?  And this time, we have the added bonus of having J on night shift. 
So when he got home, I had been up ALL night with one or the other of the girls. I was exhausted. He let me take a shower, and then I was on my way out the door for both girls' check-ups, while he tried to get some sleep, because he had been up all night at work and was exhausted. When I got home and Little One was at 103.6 (on Tylenol and Motrin), he was on his way out the door. And we were both exhausted.
And I learned all about the toughest thing about having two kids vs one.  It's having to triage.
What do you do when your toddler is wracked with chills in the bathtub, tired and cold and crying because She wants out, at the same time your newborn (who can't understand "wait a minute" any more than I can comprehend a sanskrit treatise on quantum theory) is also screaming and crying because She is hungry and needs to be changed?
Who do you pick up?
Who do you leave, red-faced with streaming tears, feeling abandoned?
I played this game all afternoon, all evening.  One would cry because She needed me to comfort or help Her RIGHT NOW, and Her crying would remind the other one that, hey, She needed comfort/help RIGHT NOW.  So I would attempt to tend both Littles at once.  Nursing Miss while holding Little One on my lap and feeding Her with a spoon.  Changing Miss with my left hand, my right arm wrapped around Little One's shoulders holding the story I was reading.  Draping the baby over my shoulder while I measured the motrin.
But sometimes, like in the bathtub situation, I had to decide who needed me the most at that moment, and the other one had to wait. This was the most guilt-inducing day of my entire parenting career so far. In the end, I put Little Miss in Her cradle while I got Little One dry, jammied and medicated.  Miss screamed for about two horrible minutes, and fell asleep.  Thank goodness.  So I could read stories and snuggle Little One, get Her all comfy and loved on and tucked into bed.
Both girls finally slept, and I was left to look around at the aftermath. What to do first? There was clean laundry piled on the couch, dishes in the sink, toys here and there, towels on the bathroom floor.  I was exhausted. My dad was (thankfully!) coming the next day to rescue me and I needed to get sheets on the bed.  The floors needed cleaning.  In the end, I fed the dogs and went to bed.  Because I after assessing the situation, I determined that the thing in the worst shape was Me.  And sometimes, in this job, you have to triage.