Dr. Mom (and Dad)

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.

Parenting 'Right Of Passage', Perhaps?

Yesterday Rhys was not himself. He had a terrible night's sleep and was grumpy all day. Runny nose, bum rash and general malaise with an ample amount of whining. Let me tell you, nothing makes me appreciate his easy going self than when it's gone. I could see his 2 top front teeth pushing their way through the gums, so we figure he was teething. Some baby Tylenol helped him have a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon, which was glorious. The cherry flavoured medicine used to go down easily, but this time he winced and scrunched his nose at the taste, but he took the full dose.

Now, jump ahead to bedtime, when Gramma Patsy was over and Warren & I were getting all dolled up for a fancy romantic dinner at 'Rush' restaurant downtown to properly celebrate our anniversary. I was in my bathrobe, had just finished bathing Rhys, and had him all snuggled in his jimjams. Time to give him a nighttime dose of the cherry flavoured medicine that we hoped would help him sleep better and get the rest he needed. He winced and scrunched and turned his head and even gagged a little at the taste. But I persisted. Then, IT happened. Projectile Vomit. All over my baby. All over my bath robe. All over Gramma Patsy's arm. All over the carpet. Splatter on the bedding. Later, when I picked up the medicine bottle, it was also dripping vomit. My poor little man. I felt so responsible, because I was forcing him to swallow something he didn't like. It was clearly a gag-reflex reaction. Warren came to our rescue to help clean up the mess, and I was just thankful he wasn't there to witness it happen. He would have freaked out and insisted we go to Emergency at the hospital. It was exorcist-like.

So, son's projectile vomit all over the place while getting ready to go out. I think this means I have 'earned' my first parenting badge. Kind of like they do in Beavers and Brownies. I can sew that onto my Mama Sash and wear it proudly.

I'm VERY pleased to announced that, even though he needed more care & love from Gramma Patsy than usual while we were out, he woke up in a delightful mood this morning, runny nose gone, bum rash gone, and those little white 'Satan's Kernels' poking through a bit more. Maybe he'll have some adorable buck teeth in time for his birthday. Perfect for chomping down on birthday cake.

In the end, we were able to dress ourselves and have a delicious meal, just the two of us.

New Parent Milestone.

Warren & I have reached a new parent milestone that we're anxious to leave in the past. We have a sick baby.

I've heard all my mom friends talk and write about the times their kids have been sick, and I knew it would be miserable. But it's hard to imagine what it will really be like, until it happens to your baby.

Rhys' cold started off as a somewhat 'cute' stuffy nose. A few sniffles that we chalked up to teething. But tiny little sniffles didn't last long. They quickly developed into a full on head cold, and four days in he's now sporting a wicked smokers cough on top of it all.

Just imagine all the symptoms we as adults have when we have a head cold & cough. Tired, red, droopy, watery eyes. Eyes that look like they've been crying for hours. A clear stream of snot running out of both nostrils, some crusties lingering on the tip of your nose that dried there while you slept. A forceful, hoarse cough that sounds like something scraping at your lungs from the inside out. Now imagine all those full-size, grown up symptoms packed into a tiny little 18 pound body. It's PAINFUL to watch. Painful to listen to. Painful to know we are doing every thing we can to make him comfortable, and it's barely enough. Saline spray, nasal aspirator, baby Tylenol, humidifier at full blast (his room is like a tropical rain forest), pillow under his mattress to elevate his head ever so slightly, nighttime bottles of warm milk as Rhys tries desperately to keep his eyes open long enough for us to soothe him. He has even dozed off on the change table, out of pure exhaustion.

I know people say sick babies are more 'snuggly', but I wouldn't call it a 'good' snuggly. It's a restless snuggle, mixed with cries of anxiety, booger bubbles and sneezes. It's a snuggle that says 'I want so desperately to sleep...to BREATHE...and even mommy can't help me". WOW. Just writing that makes me tear up.

A trip to the Public Health Nurse 'drop-in' this morning, and we now figure he's mostly likely got a really nasty viral infection that's going around (probably what Warren had when we left on holiday). The nurse said it can last weeks and weeks. So, if I have plans with you in the near future, I may need to bail.

Sweet baby Rhys, get better soon. Mom and Dad love you...

The Sea Was Angry That Day, My Friends

Our visit to Maui landed smack dab in the middle of the whale season, and we're told this is one of the best whale seasons in decades. Knowing this, a whale watching boat ride was at the top of our list of things we wanted to do while we were here. Originally we planned to go separately - my mom & I on one trip, and Warren, Rob & Tiff on another. But when we were booking it the guy told us that people bring kids on board all the time so we were extra excited knowing we'd all be going together.

We had it planned to a tee. Warren would carry Rhys on his back in the Baby Hawk carrier. I would be on video camera duty, and Warren would have the zoom lens, ready to capture the money shot of a breach whale. We made sure to have all our equipment charged up to the max the night before. We were set.

Once we finally got Rhys into the Baby Hawk (it's a bit of an art form to put that thing on, and we're not very practiced at it) he fell asleep:

As we boarded, a crew member snapped a souvenir photo of our little group. This photo captured our excitement for the adventure ahead:

Once the boat left shore, things began to sour. First, the captain announced over the loud speaker that anyone with children had to remain seated, holding the child. What?! We didn't know what the rules were for the baby carrier so Warren stood up to ask a crew member. As soon as he stood up and realised how unsteady he was walking, he knew the answer before he asked. It was totally unsafe to walk around the boat with a baby, even if he's attached securely to you. So our plan was to find a safe seat on the upper, open-air deck and take turns holding Rhys while the other stood up to look for whales and take photos. 45 seconds up there and I began to feel 'off'. So back down to the lower 'inside' deck we went. And there is where it hit me full force. SEA SICKNESS. And we'd only been on the water for 5 minutes. This was a 2 hour whale watching tour. Warren said the colour left my face and looked drunk. A crew member approached me and asked me if I was feeling alright. 'Not really' I replied. 'I didn't think so' she said. So she suggested I go to the back of the boat, stare at the land mass and she brought me some ginger ale:

My sickness got to the point where I could barely look up. I was sitting at a table with my face in my arms, focusing on breathing deeply. I couldn't have cared less about seeing a stupid whale, at that point. I just wanted to be back on land. So, Warren sat across from me, holding Rhys, watching me deteriorate and listening to the tour guide describe the beautiful mom and calve who where swimming around the bow of the boat, not being able to snap a single photo (or watch it at all for that matter).

We looked around and my mom was dry heaving out the window, and Rob was sitting with the his head between his knees. The only one enjoying the trip was Tiffany, who is very intelligent and took Gravol before we left!

SO, whale watching was a complete BUST. We laughed about it afterwards. Warren thought the entire situation was pure comedy and he kept saying 'this will be great for your blog!'. I suppose there is that.

Later on we found a secluded beach and went for a quick walk (that is where we took the family portrait).


And another Gramma Patsy outtake...Rhys spitting up and her looking a little grossed out at the whole thing:

We're all hoping today pans out a bit better!

Crumby.

Yesterday was kinda crumby. Warren & I both woke up feeling yucky. Warren had a sore throat and a really raspy voice, and I was feeling nauseous. Warren was clearly the sicker of the two of us, and I was convinced my queasiness was due to hunger or something. An hour or so went by and Warren's voice & throat were feeling a wee bit better. My queasiness was not. A barfing session ensued. BLECH.

So, I did my best to be on 'Rhys Duty', while Warren tackled our to-do list. It almost seemed like Rhys knew we were sick, because he was quite subdued all day, and even had an extra long nap in the afternoon (thank-you baby!). We were worried that he might be sick because he was so low energy, but nothing else seemed different about him.

Today: The cleaning lady is coming to try and make our house somewhat suitable for our family members to live in while we're gone. While she's here, Rhys & I & the dogs will be hiding at Nana & Grandan's place (Warren's parents). Tonight we'll try to get a couple more things done. Ick.

What wonderful things are YOU doing today? Come on people, cheer me up!