Saturday, January 29, 2011

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week!

(If you're wondering the title of the post is from a children's book ).

This bad week started last sunday night. Alex went to bed at his usual time, but then woke up around 11:30 pm and started throwing up. Ugh. Again. We just went through the stomach flu in this house only three weeks ago. He was pretty sick and miserable on Monday, but then perked up in the evening, even begging me for blueberries which he ate with gusto. Tuesday we went to Mother Goose, but not before missing every possible bus we could miss and showed up late, getting the evil eye from Margaret. Alex stayed by the door for the first half, not wanting to participate. Ok, he's still a bit out of sorts I thought. He perked up at snack time, but then was crabby again by the end. I desperately wanted him to sleep at home, not in the stroller on the way home. Of course he fell asleep on the way home. I hadn't tried the transfer in a while so I thought I'd try. Umm no. Bad idea. Pissy toddler who only got a 15 minute nap. My fault.

Tuesday night I got sick. Very sick. I booked my sister to take Alex like she had done a few weeks ago when I got sick and Husband had to work. Tuesday night, crabby no sleep baby continued to do so, until about 1 am when he finally collapsed from exhaustion. For an hour or so he slept. I spent my entire night alternating between trying to soothe him and being sick myself. Not good. And the husband? Not, um, ahem, helpful. Not at all.

Wednesday Alex started coughing and had a high fever, so my sister took him to the doctor while I got to nap for a couple of hours. I woke up and started disinfecting everything in the house. I felt miserable and Alex looked and acted pretty miserable too. Again, only getting a 20-30 minute nap (when he was up most of the night before). I put him to bed wednesday night and went straight to bed. Just as my head hit the pillow, he started coughing and woke himself up. This pattern would repeat itself another 5 or 6 times. I gave up and slept on his floor, figured it would be easier than trekking across the apartment every 10 minutes. He woke up every 10 minutes, the entire night, finally only sleeping for about an hour, before being UP for the morning.

Thursday he was a zombie, I was a zombie, and still only living off ginger ale. He still wasn't napping so in desperation, I took him out in the stroller. He napped off and on for a good three hours. Good for him, but of course Mama didn't get to nap. Bedtime was a struggle, so I decided to again sleep in his room. At least husband had the good idea to bring up the air mattress that we use for camping (this thing is massive and higher than our actual bed). So I stayed with Alex (better than the floor the night before) and he slept for an hour at a time during the night.

Friday was a slight improvement, he had two one hour naps at home (yay for napping Mama too). Slightly less miserable but still not really eating or drinking much. Husband took the night shift on friday night but then Alex cried out for MAMA at 3am, so off I went. Hmmph.

So today, Saturday, was also a little better. Much less whiny (from everyone in the household). Still not eating and still coughing, and a so-so nap. He went to bed early. Cross your fingers for me.
Edited to Add: Alex slept a solid 10.5 hours last night. Ahh!

So, I tell you all of this, knowing that, yes, all of you have had bad days, weeks, months. I don't want a pity party. I've been so overwhelmed and tired and lonely all week. I miss all of you, miss getting together. I don't want any "poor Jen" replies. Tell me about your week. Something funny, something sad, whatever. I'm tired of the quarantine. I got some fresh air today, now I just need some mental fresh air.