Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't let the Bed Bugs Bite!

So after a relatively nonevental month, the weekend before Thanksgiving the kids started passing around a virus.  For the most part, it was fever and a sore throat.  When Macey woke up coughing and having a hard time breathing, I got concerned.  The pediatrician and Papa concurred it was microplasma or walking pnemonia.  After a few days, she recovered fine.  We enjoyed having a nice long break with family time at the lake house.  We came home early from Thanksgiving looking forward to decorating for Christmas and relaxing at home.  But instead things turned around completely.  We found bed bugs in our room.  It has been a nightmare.  We originally thought they were contained to our room but quickly found they were also in the girls' room.  It has been hard, stressful, and crazy all at the same time.  But I wanted to blog about it because in the midst of our house being turned upside down, we have been able to find things to laugh at and things to be thankful for. 

The first blessing is the timing of when we got the bed bugs.  Part of the cleansing process is to wash EVERYTHING in the rooms with the bugs.  I just got a new washer and dryer at the end of the summer.  If I still had the old ones, I am not sure I would have been able to get it all done with the other ones.   I averaged 6-8 loads a day for a week.  I had to empty all the dressers in the two bedrooms also which meant I had to put the clothes somewhere.

So our living room and dining room turned into a closet for all of our clothes.  For someone who loves for everything to have a place and be in its place, it has been stressful washing, folding, stacking and walking around piles.  On the other hand, it gives us an excuse not to have anyone over.  Also, it gives me an excuse to throw away a lot of stuff.  And I never mind clearing out.

The funniest thing has been our sleeping arrangements.  I threw out our mattresses because the thought of sleeping on it grossed me out.  The first time the exterminater came, he only found one bug on the girls' bed.  He told us to keep the bed but let them sleep somewhere else until he could treat it.  So the girls took the guest bed which left Doug and me with the sleeper sofa.  All of our comforters were either contaminated (thus washed and put in quarentined) or being used on one of the other beds.  That led Doug and me to sleep in layers of clothing because the only covers left were a sheet and summer quilt.  No romance but it gives us a good laugh each night when we get in bed and say good night.

Part of the process is also taking anything that could have been contaminated and sealing it up for 6 weeks.  Thus, our garage has a stack of quarentined items.  Then if it was contaminated, the eggs would have hatched and died or any living bugs would have suffocated/starved and died off.  Then we can bring it back in (or throw it out) wash it and return it.  We have decided to play it safe, anything we found bugs in or on we threw out.  It has included: two sets of sheets, a box of barbies, a box of dress up clothes, three linen bins with stuffed animals, purses, and coloring paper, some pillows and pictures over the beds (a favorite hiding spot for bed bugs apparently).  It has been a great lesson for not taking forgranted for what we have and also a reminder of everything here is just "stuff."  We won't take it with us to heaven and we can live without it now. I am so proud of the girls who have watched us take stuff out and not complained one bit.  They have endured being transplanted too and honestly feel they have handled better than me most of the time.  Our phrase has been "This too shall pass" and indeed it will.  Until then the Lord gives us strength to get through.  I will let you know when I am no longer paranoid and able to laugh about it all!