Tuesday, October 12, 2010

When things get desperate

Fall is here.  I used to love fall.  Until I had a child.  Now fall is the start of cold/flu season.  I still revel in the cool crisp air, but some things will just never be the same.

That said, V has her first (of many to come) colds of the season.  Her colds come on fast and furious.  She's okay and then within minutes, full blown snot, coughing, sea lion moving in, etc.  That's exactly what happened Saturday.  I could tell things were starting to head down hill when she woke up from her afternoon nap. 

Girl. Was. Cranky.  I'm not typically a fan of giving her dr*gs, but short of calling a priest for an exorcism, Tylenol was my next best option. 
The dr*gs did their job, and within 20 minutes, I had my happy little girl back.  But that's the problem with dr*gs..  They just mask. 

7:30 PM - we do our usual gig, bath, book, b**b (still nursing once a day - I'm hooked more than she is, but I digress) and V was off to dream land. 

8:30 PM - screams of desperation are heard from her room.  Typically I let her cry it out, but I knew this was not one of those times.  I go in to scope out "the situation" (Note:  this is not a reference to Jersey Shore's situation, which I do not watch, and only know about through Regis & Kelly, various social medias, and Dancing with the Stars). 
V is CONGESTED!  Girl can barely can't breathe out her nose and the excessive crying and sniffling is not helping a sista out. 

I clean out her nose and try to get her to go back to sleep.  She just lays there looking at me with longing eyes.  "Please don't leave me mommy" eyes.  I sit next to her crib, with my arm hanging over the side, and pat. And pat.  20 minutes later I can't feel my arm.  I have to use the ladies room.  I think - maybe she's asleep now.  Her eyes ARE closed.  I quietly walk away.  Before I even reach her door, Whaaaa, whaaa. whaaa..  What???? How does she know that?!  Girl's got skills.  I still have to pee like a race horse.  E comes in to relieve me.  She's not too particular, but still wales for Mommy.

I come back.  We go through the pats again.  Arm is dead.  Again. Back is killing me.  I may pass out.  And then I get desperate. 

V is still systematically checking to make sure I'm there.  So, I do what any other overly tired, desperate resourceful mother would do, on a Saturday night, at 9 PM?  I climb in the crib with her.  Not too bad.  A little hard for my taste, but at least I am not losing feeling in any of my appendages.  This makes V very happy.  And this is when she melts my heart.  She laid there with this look of total content, kept trying to hold me and climb on top of me to sleep.  I did have to draw the line somewhere and she ended up falling asleep just next to me. 

Next I worried what kind of psychological damage I would do to this child now that she thinks that Mommy is here and Mommy won't be there when she wakes up.  Thankfully, she's been blessed with great sleeping skills.  I laid there for a good 20, maybe 30 minutes.  You know, to make sure she was nice and asleep.  When I climbed out of the crib, V was snoring (due to the excessive mucus) and didn't even budge.  Mission accomplished!  She did wake up again around 4:30 am.  Daddy stepped up to the plate though and took the late shift.  Thank you Daddy!! I don't think I saw him again in bed till circa 6:30 am. 

So, what does this little diddy of a story tell us?  That mothers will do crazy things to comfort their children and that an infant crib will semi comfortably fit a desperate mother.  Thank you Graco!

1 comment:

  1. I know I'm way late on catching up on your blog, but as you've pointed out I've been terrible at keeping up even with my own. That said, I love reading yours! They crack me up - not about V being sick, but your attitude towards it all. I think I need a dose of 2 hrs of yoga/day on most days just to have that positive, making light of things attitude...and lets face it, what mom has 2 hrs/day?!!! LOL I hope V's feeling much better by now! And we still need that get together!

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