where there’s whining, there’s a reason.July 1st, 2008 @ 7:16 pm
If you haven’t experienced it for yourself yet, let me tell you: Parenting is an adventure. It’s full of drama, suspense, and mystery. Half the time, I feel like a detective trying to figure out why she’s crying, why she’s laughing (seriously, sometimes I wonder…?), what she wants to eat, why did her diaper look like THAT? why won’t she just GO TO SLEEP? It never ends.
Every time that Maggie leaves her normally good routine of sleeping through the night and we have a few rough ones, we always forget that the last time it happened, there was a major reason for it. Back in February, she had an ear infection. In April, she had hand-foot-and-mouth disease. Both times we initially thought ‘It must be teeth!’ and lamented the fact that she had like TWENTY-SOME MORE OF THEM, and oh my WORD how will we survive them all if this is how she acts when she’s getting a little tooth? (and maybe one of us has thrown a pacifier or two against the wall at 3am. Maybe. It wasn’t me. It was me.) But then, a few days later, there was a totally different explanation- a real, possibly serious one that involved a trip to the doctor- and boy did we feel stupid.
So two Thursdays ago when she was up most of the night and I only got 4 hours of sleep, I tried to remind myself that there is always a reason. Sure enough, two days later, she had a runny nose, and by Sunday night she was pretty sick. All week she fought a fever and a nasty sore throat, and we ended up at the doctors again (no strep, thankfully) It was a rough week for all of us, but over and over, we tried to remind ourselves that for Maggie, it was even worse! Even though she’s rapidly turning into a ‘kid’ much more than she is a ‘baby’ (but I will still call her The Baby for as long as I want, thankyouverymuch.) she’s still so little and doesn’t understand why she feels so crappy. She just knows that she does, and she lets us hear about it.
A lot.
At all hours of the day and night.
ANYWAY. Where was I?
SO! We had a sick baby all week. Explanation for all the crankiness, clingy-ness, non-sleeping-ness for days.
BUT OH WAIT. There’s another explanation.
Four other explanations- in the form of molars that just broke through the gums. FOUR OF THEM AT ONCE, PLUS THE SORE THROAT AND COLD, OH MY GOD MY POOR KID. Dan noticed what we thought was one molar on Saturday, and today at her 15-month checkup she was sitting on my lap facing me and doing that “I’m gonna flip myself backwards upside down and get a head-rush!” thing, and I could see all four molars, plain as can be, right there.
And we spent the whole week whining about how WE were tired, and WE felt like crap. While my child was sick with The Virus From Hell and also having 16 (count ‘em!!) sharp corners shoved through her gums.
Wow. She’s such a freaking trooper.
kids · life · Maggie · motherhood
Irene
said,
July 1, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Isn’t that the truth! Just when I think I am going to scream at one of my little ones for being difficult, fussy, cranky, etc, I discover a very good reason for their plight and I find myself full of remorse for not being more understanding!
Hopefully, she is over the hurdle and can enjoy the rest of the summer happy and healthy!
Bobbi
said,
July 1, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I have to admit, these are the kinds of stories that make me a little nervous about parenting - mostly because I NEED SLEEP. Adequate amounts of sleep are what get me through my days. But obviously, the good far outweighs the bad - otherwise people wouldn’t have children :)
Bobbis last blog post..Twitter Updates for 2008-06-30
Melissa
said,
July 1, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Poor Maggie. :( It’s hard being little! Maybe her teenage years will be a breeze, to make up for it. ;)
Jaime
said,
July 1, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I hear ya! We just spent a week and 1/2 of very sleepless nights. I kept thinking that Abigail was torturing me, just for the fun of it. Turns out that she has extreme eczema and was so itchy that she couldn’t sleep, then was so sleepy that she was cranky. It feels good to finally have this mystery solved but I keep wondering what is in our future!
I hope Maggie feels better soon. At least she got all 4 in at once and didn’t have to suffer through them one at a time.
Jen
said,
July 1, 2008 at 10:01 pm
@Jaime: That was kind of what we thought too- and really, the teeth were only part of it. I don’t think things would have been nearly as bad if she hadn’t been so sick at the same time. But still… TEETH STINK.
Jen
said,
July 1, 2008 at 10:04 pm
@Bobbi: I was worried about the lack of sleep too, believe me! Both Dan and I are BIG sleepers- I needed at least 7 or 8 a night (sometimes 9 or 10!!) to feel human. But pregnancy helped me adjust to interrupted sleep (especially toward the end!) and I was actually surprised at how quickly I got used to it once she was born. Of course, then she started sleeping through the night and we got un-used to it! lol So now when she does get sick or is teething and wakes up a lot, it’s pretty rough. But, like you said- the good WAY outweighs the bad. The biggest thing is that we just want to take away the hurting and sickness but we can’t. Poor little babies!
Priscilla
said,
July 2, 2008 at 8:42 am
Ah…teeth. Lincoln has been pretty cranky recently and has really started drooling A LOT! So I think that he’s got more teeth coming in. He already has 8 so I think his molars may be coming in but I don’t feel anything just yet.
I hope he gets all four at once like Maggie so that the crank and drool is over quickly!
Oh did Maggie have the ulcers on her hands and feet in April? Lincoln had that too but the ulcers were only on his tongue and in his throat…..I think he got it from me!
It is definitely an awful feeling when you really can’t take the pain away from babies. It’s also hard when you can’t quite figure out what is wrong because they can’t tell you. But, it does get easier…..eventually she will be able to tell you exactly what’s wrong and it’s much easier to treat!!
Allison
said,
July 2, 2008 at 9:14 am
Oh my gosh! Poor Maggie! No WONDER she was so unhappy!
Well, I hope everything get back to normal. That is, until the next set of teeth come through at the SAME TIME as a virus. Ugh!
Allisons last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: Incoming!
Jen
said,
July 2, 2008 at 9:22 am
@Priscilla: yeah she had them on her hands and feet a little bit too. I actually never saw them in her mouth or throat- it was all kind of an ‘after the fact’ thing. We realized that was why she was so miserable! The spots on her hands and feet came last after it was mostly over.
Isn’t being a mom fun??!?!?! heh
Adult Ühler
said,
July 3, 2008 at 6:40 am
I’m with Bobbi on this one. I am nervous about the possibility of kids and that I’m effectively setting the next 18+ years of my life in semi-concrete.