I am going on about 40 hours of wake time on only 2 hours of sleep. Ya’ll are lucky I’m able to type complete sentences at this point. As soon as I click “Publish” on this post I am diving in to my bed and (hopefully) not coming out until tomorrow morning.

Why did I not get any sleep last night? Three words – Isabella is sick.

Her nose started running mid afternoon but otherwise she was acting fine and being her normal self. CJ and I had sand volleyball so my parents came over to baby-sit and we headed out. When we got home, my mom said that Isabella had a hard time going to sleep and was waking up crying quite a bit. Sometimes she does that so I didn’t think too much of it. I sat down to watch my DVRed American Idol from Wednesday and eat a yummy juicy cheeseburger.

About an hour later, it started. The first cry. A sense of dread came over me but I pushed it away.

Munchkin had dropped an oobie so I gave it to her and left the room. But she did not stop crying. She carried on and on. I went back in and picked her up. Usually a little love and time in the rocker will do the trick. Not this time.

The crying escalated. I offered her juice but she refused. I sang/snuggled/rocked/hugged but it did nothing. I had to pin her down to get her to take some Ibuprofen and even then she spit most of it back out.

Then she started writhing. I tell you, it was like she was possessed. She arched her back and tried to throw herself out of my arms. Then she wriggled around until her back was pressed up against me, reached her arms back and tried to claw my face off. I’m not even kidding. She left a good scratch on the left side too. I don’t think she seriously was trying to hurt me. The only thing I could figure is that she was so miserable all she could do was writhe and squirm. Poor little thing didn’t know what else to do.

I started to talk to her then, calmly and softly, and basically just have a conversation. I asked her what was hurting her. If her ears ached, if her nose was sore, if her tummy was upset. She actually stopped crying to listen to me. It calmed her down enough to where she snuggled in and nodded back to sleep. I rocked her for a good 5 minutes, to make sure she was out, and then gently put her back to bed.

20 minutes later she was up screaming again. This cycle went on all night.

See, she would fall asleep and then wake up at some point because her nose was stuffy. When she awoke, she’d discover that she’d dropped an oobie and start crying. Then she’d realize she was feeling poopie and the crying would get worse.

I went to bed around 10:30 p.m. and CJ took over. At 11:30 p.m. I woke up to her screaming again and CJ was having trouble calming her down. So I got up to help. We used the bulb syringe to suck some goobers out of her nose, which she was none too happy about, and finally got her back to sleep.

She was awake 30 minutes later.

This time when I picked her up she said, “All done…” like just by saying it, the cold and misery would be over. I wish it was that easy too.

I finally decided that the only way to keep her asleep, and us from getting up and out of bed all night, was to just have her lay down with me. If I brought her in to our bed, she’d keep us both up, so I took her out to the living room and we laid on the couch. She immediately passed out, snuggled up to me. I however, could not sleep. I was not in the most comfortable position. True to form, every time she dropped an oobie, she woke up. For the most part, she was finally able to get some sleep this way. I think it really helped her to be in someone’s arms. She felt safe.

I however was watching the time tick by and counting how many hours of sleep I WASN’T getting!

Finally at 4:30 a.m. I decided enough was enough and I needed to try for SOME sleep. I took her back to her room. She seemed out of it enough that she could be on her own. I slept for an hour and then she woke up. I made CJ get up with her this time, though I struggled to fall back asleep. Then my alarm went off and that was that.

As tired as I am and as much as I wanted to sleep, taking care of Isabella was #1. Knowing she was able to sleep in my arms, and having her snuggle up to me, did feel good. I want her to always know that she is safe with mommy and daddy. Someday soon she will not want  to snuggle with us so I might as well enjoy it now!

Time to jet to bed. Well, maybe some ice cream and Grey’s Anatomy first. Pray that I’m able to get some sleep tonight!

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The Meltdown

Shell Shocked

Murphy’s Law