How did I explode the toilet?

11:46 PM

At 6:00 this morning, I woke up, picked up Emma, and made my way groggily out of the bedroom for her 6:00 feeding. I had to pee, so I plunked the baby down in her crib and made my way to our hallway bathroom with my eyes half open.

Two months ago, our landlord sold the house we live in. Before that, he "fixed" several things in our apartment, the hallway bathroom toilet being one of them. Every third flush, the toilet runs for hours on end if you don't jiggle the handle or open the top and reach in to unkink the chain. The landlord assured us three times that it was fixed. He even had a "plumber" come in to look at it (I say "plumber" because it was his "buddy" so you know how THAT goes).

As I flushed the toilet at 6:00 this morning, I heard Emma screaming bloody murder in her crib. I went in, picked her up, changed her diaper, and carried her out into the hallway, where I could hear that the toilet was steadily still running. I muttered a myriad of curse words that I would wash my daughters' mouths out for saying under my breath, and headed into the bathroom to check out the situation, with Emma in a football hold under my right arm. I lifted the top of the tank and reached in, balancing the tank top on my arm. As I jiggled the chain, the tank top slipped off of my arm, fell into the toilet tank and CRASHED through the bottom of the tank, where water immediately started pouring out at 29382 mph.

I ran into the bedroom, screaming, "HONEY HELP I DROPPED THE TOILET!" My poor hubby, who had just fallen asleep at 4 a.m. after a harrowing night with the twins, threw the covers back and came running into the hallway, where the water was slowly filling up the bathroom floor and creeping out into the hallway carpet. Luckily, the hubs is exceptionally good in a crises, and he reached down behind the tank and shut the water off. As he stood up to look at me through bleary eyes, the smoke alarm started going bonkers.

He reached up and pushed the button on the alarm, but nothing happened. He held it down for several seconds, and the alarm blared louder.

"Take it down and take the batteries out!" I yelled over the beeping.

He unscrewed the alarm and, to our dismay, we realized that it was hard-wired to the ceiling. It started to die down, but not after Hershey threatened to rip the whole thing out of the ceiling. We stood looking at each other in the hallway, Emma sleeping peacefully in the crook of my right arm through all of this excitement.

After another screaming alarm, we finally found the breaker and cut the power to the alarm. I fed Emma, and Hershey came into the nursery 10 minutes later with an inconsolable Jane. We sat together on the couch as a family until 7:15 a.m., when we decided that we were too exhausted to worry about sleeping in an apartment without a smoke detector, carried the babes into the bedroom, put them to sleep, and went back to bed ourselves.

At 8:40 a.m., Emma, deciding that NOW would be a good time to wake up, started crying like a little lost lamb. I swept her out of our room, trying to give Hershey some precious sleep time. Of course, when I walked back in at 9:45 to pick up Jane, my poor hubs was wide awake with Jane cradled in his arms in the "big girl bed". I carried her out, promising Hershey at least 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Here is my point:

I have an amazing husband. He has put up with my quirks, insecurities, psychotic episodes, and OCD and has never complained. He has supported me and been my backbone through some of the happiest and saddest moments in my life. Together we have built this amazing, shocking, hilarious life that I wouldn't trade for the world.

It is so important to look at your significant other once your duo becomes a trio (or more) when the babe has gone to sleep and thank him for being there. It is so important to remember to connect as husband and wife in order to maintain your partnership, because that's what your little ones need the most! Say thank you, go on "dates", eat dinner together. Give each other breaks, take time to do something for yourself to keep your own sanity in check. I remember how scared I was that it wouldn't be "Hershey and me" anymore once the babies arrived, and that tiny little voice in my head is what keeps me coming back to him.

Is it going to be easy every day? Absolutely not. Will you hate each other sometimes, disagree, argue, forget to say "I love you" some days? Absolutely. Exhaustion does crazy things to people, and you are trying to adapt to a completely different identity. You went from girlfriend, to wife, to mom -- those are all huge leaps to make within yourself. Find ways to find your way back to each other despite how difficult raising a family can be. LAUGH. And ALWAYS act as a team. Even if you don't agree, agree to disagree and present a united front, because at the end of the day, that's all you have. Remember, for as much as you have sacrificed to become a mommy, he has made the ultimate sacrifice: YOU. As soon as you found out you were pregnant, he took a backseat to that baby. But it's just as important to pay attention to him, too!