Tag Archives: sleep

All done

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by

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!

If you liked this, you might also like:

The Meltdown

Shell Shocked

Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law

Posted in Health and Weightloss, Uncategorized by

Why is it that every time I need to get some good sleep to prepare for a big day, I get almost no sleep? I think the universe is messing with me.

Today I needed sleep for several reasons:

  1. I started the 30-Day Shred and wanted to have the energy for it.
  2. I’m starting a new eating plan. Giving up some of my favorites will be hard and if I’m tired, I’m more likely to give in.
  3. I have a work meeting that I need to be sharp for.

Last night was not just a case of insomnia. Rather, it was one thing after another causing me to lose sleep.

I started off shooting myself in the foot by popping in a movie (“The Bounty Hunter” – I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars. And maybe a half extra star for the scene of Gerard Butler without his shirt on) at 8:00, that I knew would go past 9 p.m. (my usual bedtime). And instead of stopping it part way, we watched the whole thing. So now it’s about 9:45ish.

During the movie, Samson was being all weird. He kept running to the back door and he’d bark or growl but when I tried to let him out he’d back away. Uh, thanks for freakin’ me out Dude! Is there an ax murderer back there? Is there some rabid raccoon ready to dart in and infect us all? Or perhaps he sensed a raindrop because that would scare him most of all…

I started to get ready for bed and as I brushed my teeth remembered that I needed to talk to CJ about a few things coming up this week (his birthday, St. Patrick’s Day, etc). It was 10:30 by the time I actually made it to bed.

Strike 1.

About 1:30 a.m. I woke up to Isabella crying. I think she had a bad dream because it was that kind of terrifying shrieky cry that stabs me right in the heart. I was prepared to jump out of bed and to her resvue but CJ beat me to it. I was already awake though and my heart was pounding for my little Munchkin. Then my mind started racing to all the things going on this week. So I tossed and I turned.

Strike 2.

I started hearing noises too, like someone in the house. I thought back to Samsons’ spookiness earlier and thought for sure we were about to be robbed/kidnapped/murdered. My mind raced to an image of me and CJ getting shot and then me dragging my body to Samson’s kennel, where I let him out to go attack. As he’s tearing  up the intruder limb by limb, and CJ is calling the police, I crawl in to Isabella’s room and manage to pull her out and shield her with my body, if he comes back for us.

Ok, so I have a wild imagination.

Then my knee decided to join the party and get in on the action.

Strike 3.

Here’s the back story on my knees. I have had trouble with both my whole life. My patella don’t have the “point” on the bottom that lock them in to the groove between the femur and the tibia. Also, my tendons are slightly misaligned and tend to pull outward more strongly than inward. Consequently, my kneecaps slip out-of-place all the time. When I was younger, it happened a lot. I could be walking, running, standing up, going up/down stairs…it didn’t matter. The kneecap would just slip out and then back in real quick, causing me to fall.

I have dislocated both knees 3 times, the most severe one happening in college on my right side. My kneecap slipped, pulled a piece of bone with it, then got stuck on the outside of my leg. I had to physically push it back in while writhing around on the floor in pain, swearing like a sailor. That one put me in a full leg brace and on crutches for 3 months, during the summer. Yeah, that was fun. I looked really hot too. It’s hard to be a sexy young college gal when you’re hobling around in 100 degree weather with a big thick ugly brace on your leg, covering your kneecap that is swollen to the size of a softball. How I ever got me a boyfriend that summer I’ll never know.

It doesn’t happen as much these days because my muscles are stronger. Still, I always wear braces when playing volleyball, because of the side to side movement.

Back to last night. During the middle of the night, when I was tossing and turning, my right knee decided to go in to its fire dance. That’s what I call it because of how it feels. It starts slow. The first sensation is that of someone taking a hot poker and jamming it in to the middle of my knee cap. Then the heat starts to spread up and down my leg until it reaches my ankle and hip. At that point, the fire starts getting hotter and hotter causing my whole leg to throb and burn. This only happens when I’m really tired. Not sure if it’s arthritis or nerve pain or what. It doesn’t hurt to move it or walk on it and the only thing that will stop the pain is 4 Ibuprofen (and it has to be 4 – it laughs if I just take 2 and 3 takes the edge off but doesn’t stop it altogether. It’s that last 4th soldier that can beat the fire in to submission).

I finally got up and took the meds and then went to lay out in the living room. Sometimes if I have insomnia, it helps to move to a different place. So I grabbed my Steelers blanket and curled up on the couch. The pain finally went away after about 30 min., and I drifted off to sleep.

And woke up again at 2:30…3:30…4:30…and then when my alarm went off at 5:30.

I hit snooze but couldn’t go back to sleep so I dragged myself up to do the Shred. Nothing was going to keep me from a good butt-kicking!

Here’s hoping I can get to bed early tonight and make up for the “zzz’s” I missed out on last night!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Waiting Room

5 Things

Cry Me a River

5 Things

Posted in Family, Health and Weightloss by

Well being home this week with a concussion wasn’t all bad. Ok, so it wasn’t all good either. But, in the spirit of looking at the glass as half full, here are a few positive things that have come out of this week:

1. We saved on gas. My car was parked down at The Mall for the better part of 4 days and therefore didn’t get driven (drove? Whatever). Hey, if we can save a few pennies out of this whole ordeal, I’ll take it!

2. Speaking of pennies, we have now met our insurance deductible. We were about $1000 dollars away as of Monday morning. Considering Monday afternoon contained a trip to the ER, various doctor charges, a CT Scan, an MRI and blood work, I’d say we’ve more than covered that one grand. Not to mention they’ll probably charge me for the scrubs they “gave me” to wear home.

3. We know that I do in fact have a brain. Hey, some people questioned it but now I have the MRI results to prove it! And, not only do I have a brain, I have a big one. One of the biggest the radiologists have ever seen! Neener, neener, neener! Ok, maybe I’m making that up. Or maybe not. Guess only me and the radiologists will ever know…

4. I got caught up on sleep. Ever since being relocated to The Mall, sleep has been more and more fleeting. I get up earlier and go to bed later and do a whole lot more in between. But this week, I’ve been to bed by 9pm every night and had at least 1 nap every day. Awesome!

5. And the most important thing – I got to spend more time with Munchkin, CJ and Samson. While I would rather have another reason to be at home with them, I’ll take anytime I can get. Munchkin is such a joy and every minute we have together is precious. While I am getting stir crazy and am ready to get back to work, I will very much miss being at home with my family during the day.

Cry Me a River

Posted in Family, Isabella/Munchkin by

Oh what a night.

It started out OK when we put Munchkin to bed around 8pm, which is a little later than usual but not by much. She went down easy because she had missed her afternoon nap. I went to bed shortly thereafter and life was good.

I was in the middle of a nice dream about Derek Hough when it happened. The beast awoke.

Around 10:30 I heard her screaming and could hear CJ in there consoling her. She would calm down for a few minutes and then start screaming again. This went on. And on. And on. I finally got up at 11:30 to see if I could help. Hubby desperately handed her off to me. I could see he was frazzled and had that crazed look in his eye that said “if you don’t help me now I may literally go crazy.” He had fed her and given her some Tylenol. Now it was time to work my “mom magic”.

I changed her diaper and then we snuggled in the rocker. Only, she didn’t want to snuggle, she wanted to scream bloody murder. She didn’t have a fever and she wasn’t pulling on her ear or anything. I was baffled.

I finally got her to calm down and snooze. Then she woke up and screamed. Then she’d snooze. Then she’d scream. Again, this went on. And on.

We finally decided we just needed to let her cry it out. So at the next screaming fit, we let her cry. And boy did she cry. After 5 minutes, I went in to tell her it was OK and then left. And she cried. And cried. I finally decided “screw it!” and was going to take her out on the couch with me and try to sleep with her. As soon as I picked her up, she was stopped crying. We went to the living room (by this time it’s after midnight) and cuddled on the couch. She snuggled up to me and then when I tried to put the blanket over her, she freaked out again.

I’m running out of ideas so I grab another bottle and she sucked down 6 more ounces. I thought maybe this was the answer to my prayers and she’d drift off to sleep now so I placed her back in the crib and crept out. She was quiet for 5 blissful minutes and then it started up again.

Out of desperation I called the 24 hour nurse help line. They asked me a checklist of questions, all of which were things I had done, and her answer was to take Munchkin to the ER.  Gak!

I thought I would see how the next few minutes went and then make that determination. She woke up once more and then finally conked out at 1 am.  I got to sleep about 1:30 and slept til 6:45.

I still don’t know what was wrong with her. Maybe she was overly tired and got herself so worked up that she couldn’t calm down. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well. Maybe she was possessed by a demon. Who knows. All I do know is that today I feel like a zombie. Guess I’ll be starting Halloween early!