Clark was up all night long. I’m exhausted. Something’s wrong with him, and I’m not sure what it is. He’s woken up a few nights like this, when he’s writhing and screaming. It seems like his stomach hurts or something. Like there’s too much air in his little body, but I really don’t know. He arches his back, then curls into a ball. And screams. When I try to hold him, he pushes off, walks up my torso, and rocks from side to side. If I put him down, it gets worse.
The other times he’s done this, I’ve had to be up with him for 20-30 minutes while he cries and writhes, then he goes back to sleep and I can put him back in the crib. Last night, he woke up at 11:30. I’d been asleep for 20 minutes. He did get some sleep, but I couldn’t set him down, and he’d wake up every 40 minutes or so to cry and writhe some more. So I sat in a chair most of the night, holding him and getting little, fitful catnaps for 40 minutes at a time, until 6:00 this morning, when I got to sleep for 2 hours.
Now he’s completely fine and happy. He never has this problem during the day, or nap time, just at night, and it’s picking up in frequency. And I want to die.
Abigail is home with a fever yesterday and today. And I have some heart shaped pancakes to make for Liv’s class party.
Nate is on two deadlines this week. We were going to go out for lunch today, it’s been planned for weeks, but now I’m too tired to be coherent (not an exaggeration), Abby’s home sick, and one of Nate’s friends that recently bought out a printing business has had the worst run of luck getting it off the ground, and called this morning asking (again) if he could come in and bail him out. My house is completely trashed from spending all of yesterday on this big dinner I was in charge of last night. It’s going to take some serious effort to clear space to make heart shaped pancakes.
I’m just laughing. (Inwardly. I don’t have the energy to physically perform the function).
I don’t mind Nate helping out his friend. I’m glad he’s able to do it, and the two of them have a history of swapping favors. So it’s ok. Abby is significantly better today than she was yesterday, which is a pleasant surprise. I thought she had the flu.
It’s all ok, but good grief! What a Valentine’s Day.
February 14th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Poor little guy! Has he had any vaccinations lately? That could definitly cause his crankiness… Just a thought.
~heidi
Here’s hoping for much better days for you!
February 14th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Sorry to hear about Clark’s fitful sleeping. My youngest had a frightful time sleeping, but that was because of night terrors. It was horrible when he’d be in the throes of one because he didn’t recognize me and could not be comforted. When it was over, he’d go right back to sleep and be fine. I think they started when he was just over a year or so. Once we learned that his feet needed to get some air rather than be wrapped up in socks or under the covers, the terrors lessened and then have mostly gone away. Not sure if that sounds at all like what Clark has, but it sounds similar in that the fussy times never happen during the day but only at night. Something to google, anyway, if only to eliminate it as an option…..
Aren’t sleep problems the worst? Here’s to you and little man getting some shut-eye..
February 14th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Sounds a lot like food allergies. Unfortunately, the only way to tell right now is to do an elimination diet. If you want to see if this is it, I would cut out dairy, eggs and nuts (out of your diet since you’re nursing) and see if he gets better. Other top allergens are soy, peanuts and nuts.
February 14th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Clarke isnt lactose intolerant is he. My daughter took 8 months to be diagnosed with that when she was a baby and it only really started from when she was about 4 months old, and got progressively worse. Screaming for 4 hours where we would have to walk the hallway for that amount of time with a screaming baby, and could do nothing for her. After she was diagnosed the tummy pains settled down, but hers used to attack her around about 4:30p.m and last until about 9:00 pm. I hope that Clarke doesnt have it, but maybe have it checked out. I hope you can catch up with your sleep too, maybe have an afternoon nap during the day.
February 14th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Gosh, you are exhausted! Be good to yourself today — I say, do whatever you want (disregard the messes) — maybe some tea and knitting? There are days when you just have to take care of yourself a little first.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Any chance of getting in a good nap today and going out later? Being up all night stinks!
February 14th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
My daughter, at about one year, had similar symtoms, but just once. She screamed, and pulled her legs up, and screamed. We got her to the ER, at which point she was fine, just fine – the presumption was that she had one single bout of:
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/system/surgical/intussusception.html
Who knows? She never had it again…
Diane
February 18th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
you poor thing. my two cents (as if you want it) echo some of the other commentors’. my daughter did that sometimes between about 7 and 12 months… it usually was gas/tummy troubles. i always worried, but began to realize that she typically would have a tiny, almost imperceptible little fart and then calmn down somewhat eventually allowing me to put her down to sleep. sometimes i would give her gripe water. she did grow out of it and i thought for a while that it was cheese she was eating at dinner (too close to bed time)…. who knows!