All I have for you today is a non-stamping-related pity party, so feel free to jump to the next blog if you don't want to read my whining....Remember night before last, when I said I'd probably regret staying up into the wee hours to blog and stamp - boy was I right! But I had no idea just how much I'd regret it! Courtney woke up pretty much right after I published that last post - and was not a happy camper!!! She was just screaming, and then would fall asleep in my arms but start screaming again if I tried to put her down. This is very unusual for her. And of course all this screaming kept her brother from sleeping as well. It was a pretty rough night! I took Courtney to the doctor and found out she has an ear infection!! At 2 months old!! Even the doctor was shocked, she kept rechecking her ear to make sure she wasn't mistaken. And then she wanted to make sure there wasn't anything else wrong so she took blood & urine samples. First of all, I had no idea they could draw blood from tiny baby arm veins! And the urine sample, not fun!! They had to use a tiny little catheter - the first nurse couldn't do it, the second nurse couldn't either - so then they put a bag on her and she wore that over to the lab to have her blood drawn, hoping the stress of that would cause her to pee. Nope. So then the doctor tried doing the catheter herself and finally got it. Of course Courtney was screaming during all of these attempts. So in her short little two months of life, she's had a stuffy/runny nose for a good portion of it, pink eye (!) and now an ear infection! It's tough being the second child! It's sort of making me feel like taking Carter out of preschool (aka germ central) and going into hiding for the rest of their childhood! But I would honestly go crazy these days without my brief break twice a week. I am just not finding enough hours in the day and it's really stressing me out and making me rather depressed. It wouldn't be as bad if we weren't trying to get the house ready to sell. We can't have clutter (ha! that's possible with a toddler & a newborn???) - I'm trying to purge a bunch of crap we've collected for the past 12 years - our community garage sale is this Saturday so I've been piling crap in the garage for the past couple weeks. But I just can't find enough time to finish anything! Yesterday morning I was trying to clean out a hall closet - I got everything pulled out of half the shelves and lined it up in the hallway, then had to go to the doctor's appt. I figured I'd have time after the appt to finish before picking Carter up from school. Wrong! I didn't realize we'd have Catheter Fest at the doctor's! So the crap is still lining my hallway. And will I be able to finish today? Who knows. Carter is very sensitive these days about getting attention from me, which makes this even harder. He's figured out that I respond to Courtney when she cries, so now he does this fake, whiny cry whenever she starts crying, and does it louder and louder to try to drown out her crying. It's really enough to make a person go a bit crazy. I call these days my fire station days - where I wonder whether the fire station takes toddlers too, or just newborns...
Ok I'm done. Again, I know a lot of you have been through this, or worse, and it's really not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. But man it's just been really stressful. You know it's bad when I think about how much I miss going to work, because at least there I'd have a break...!
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Oh, honey, I have been there! I used to call that "The Anvil Chorus" when my oldest started that "I'll cry because the baby is crying" when my middle child was a baby. Take a deep breath...this too shall pass. I will NOT tell you, "Enjoy them now, every moment is precious, yada yada yada" because when people told ME that I wanted to clonk them on the head, LOL!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear your daughter had to go through the trauma of a catheter. My daughter did too when she was about 1.5 yrs old and it was traumatizing for me as well.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the daycares and germs. I have 2 in daycare and the baby is at home with me (4.5 mo old)...we all pass the being sick around a few times before it goes away.
Calgon take me away!!! That's how I wish to end every day, with a relaxing soak in the tub, no crying babies, etc.
My son had the ear thing at 2 months too, we passed infections back and forth between us for months. Sinus for me, ears for him. Now he is a boisterous 5 year old with no ear issues at all. He was in day care through all of it and I believe those early illnesses have made his system stronger now. I get sick because of allergies/asthma and struggle with it for weeks, he is well within a day or 2 even with strep.
ReplyDeleteI only have one so I can't really offer advice about how to handle a jealous older child. For today I would suggest you ALL NAP TOGETHER. Baby in one arm, older one next to you on the other side. Y'all need some sleep.
My prayers for a quick recovery are with your family.
You poor, poor thing! And ditto to everything Janine said! ;)
ReplyDeleteHugs, girl!
oh no, my poor cyber baby!! I am crying over here for her.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to deal with all that and the other crying kiddo...I would definitely be the one crying the loudest! Hang in there, hopefully this will pass sooner than later.
Oh my goodness. You go right ahead and have a pity party. You have earned it! I wish I lived close, I would come and give you a break!
ReplyDeleteI know exactly how you feel. My Maggie, now 6, was a crier. It seemed that was all she did. I really do not know how I kept my sanity. If I had a toddler too, I would not have survived.
Best of luck to you, kiddo! XO, Mimi
Libby,
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that! It will get better. You will survive. Here's hoping that your kids will stay healthy.
Ahhh {{{{Libby}}}}
ReplyDeleteMama said there'd be days like this. But you have no idea how hard it is until you are going through it. I had four little boys.. one was colicky. I have to admit that I would sometimes put him in his crib and then go outside and sit in the backyard just to get away from his crying. Hang in there girl.
Sorry to hear that :( I hope she gets better. My husband will not let me take Alex where there are other kids or large crowds. I know he will have to be around kids at some point.
ReplyDeleteYep, I've been there, and did that last night, and have the bags under the eyes to prove it! It's hard to struggle, but I always try to remember that they grow up and older and don't need you as often. My 8 year old is Mr. Independant, and my daughter is not quite two and wakes up and makes a fuss... and all of us very tired!
ReplyDeleteAwww... poor baby. She is a doll.
ReplyDelete{{{{{Libby}}}}} you're doing a fabulous job at juggling it all!! I don't think I would do nearly as well. Hang in there! I love your little darling in her cupcake shirt!! I hope she's feeling better!
ReplyDeletePoor Courtney! Poor Mommy! Hang in there, Libby!
ReplyDeleteOh, dear--this is NOT what you signed up for, is it? I'm really sorry about Courtney's ear infection. There's not much that's more miserable than the pain of an ear infection. I hope everythings gotten better by now. Sounds like Courtney's gotten off to a rough start. Dang, those first nine months floating around in the dark must seem like pretty good times to her right about now. So sorry, Libby!
ReplyDeleteOh, Jen! My heart goes out to you! I hope that Courtney is feeing better now, and that MOM is too! Huge, supportive {{{Hugs}}} to you!
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