Last night is now a distant haze, and I don't really want to relive it all here. But I'll relive some. It started off innocently enough, Rhys fell fast asleep without a peep.
I was chatting with my dad on the phone around 8:30pm when I heard Rhys squawk. "Gotta go, Rhys is crying".
He didn't stop crying until 1:30am. We put a lot of miles on the 'ole rocking chair last night, since that was the only thing that would help him settle. But put him back down...and screams. The worst, frantic, painful screams. The entire night was a stressful, frustrating, heartbreaking game of 'try to guess what is wrong'. Is it his teeth? Are his eyes still itchy? Is it separation anxiety? It's Daycare! This all our fault! Is he hot, cold? Maybe he has an ear infection? Is he frustrated with his sleepsack? Maybe indigestion from the fish sticks? We tried everything...Tylenol, burping, coddling, water...he was inconsolable. Convinced he simply just 'missed us' we attempted twice to get him to sleep with us in bed, something we have never done before.
How do other families co-sleep? Seriously, he tossed and turned, and sat up, and screamed, and rolled, and screamed and rubbed his face into the bed...so that didn't last.
Finally after some tears he fell asleep for an hour or so in his crib. Then he woke again at 3am, screaming, crying, etc. Again with the guessing game, but this time Warren & I are delirious with fatigue and stress and start arguing and getting snippy with each other, thinking every idea or theory the other person has is stupid.
Warren: Okay, don't yell at me, hear me out, but maybe it's...
Amanda: Stop it! This is NOT because of the cupcake they gave him at daycare! I've had enough of your sugar-phobia, damn it!
Ya, it wasn't pretty. But stress and lack of sleep aren't a good mix, and then add in the screams of an inconsolable child and blood pressures are sure to rise. We weren't at our best.
At 5am, after many more attempts at rocking him to sleep, we brought him, once again, to our bed. He was wide awake. We came to terms with the fact that our day was likely going to be starting at 5am and turned on the cartoons and gave him some milk. Soon after that...propped up and nestled into Warren's shoulder, he was snoring. Warren soon followed, then I did too. We slept together, our exhausted family of three, half sitting up in our king size bed until 7am.
Long story short - went to the doctor and the culprit is...ear infection.
Sometimes I wish I'd gone to medical school, so that I could be a Doctor, instead of just playing one on TV.
3 comments:
Okay, forget about the roller coaster and the ferris wheel. Let`s go for a nice, flat, boring prairie road, please. Your description of the all nighter stress brings back memories. No one is at their best in that situation. Hope Rhys feels better tomorrow.
Ohhhhh, those nights...the WORST. Been there, done that, don't wanna go back, but know I will, many times over. I like the idea of flat prairie roads, too!! Hope you all get some much-needed sleep tonite.
As someone who has encountered more ear pain than most small countries do, I can totally sympathize with poor little Rhys (and his poor parents too). It's so hard when our kids can't talk and tell us what is happening to them. So, so hard. But I am sure the medicine they give him (was it amoxicillin of some kind?) will cure it up quickly and he'll be back to his little cheerful self.
.....and the accusations that your spouse's ideas on how to fix "the problem" are stupid? Unfortunately that's pretty much par for the course. We ALL do it....
Post a Comment