Wrecked
So it's been kind of a rough week. Lots of good stuff, but some bad stuff and some just plain exhausting stuff. I'm wiped out.
Last weekend we took an extended long holiday weekend and flew to visit my parents in Smaller City, about a 2.5 hour plane ride away. It was Bat Girl's first plane trip, and I would rate the experience a C- overall. There was a lot of crying, a lot of fussing, mostly I think because, with her new crawling status, all she wanted to do was crawl crawl crawl, and being confined to a small space, even in Mommy or Daddy's lap, was not acceptable. Not to mention her ears hurting--though we did manage to make her take a bottle for most of the take-offs and landings, teaching her the important lesson that food makes the pain go away (a lesson all girls need, right?). I am thankful that there was no airplane pooping and so no need to attempt an airplane diaper change, my biggest nightmare.
BG hadn't seen my parents since she was 10 weeks old, so they were basically complete strangers as far as she was concerned. She's normally a pretty social kid, but apparently she's developing some stranger anxiety, because she wouldn't allow either of them to hold her--we got there on Thursday, and it wasn't until Saturday that she could hang out in my mother's arms without crying. She cried every time my dad tried to hold her, which I'm pretty sure broke his heart, until Monday morning--the day we left--when she took a bottle from him and feel asleep in his arms. (My husband thinks she's just scared of big men in general.)
That wouldn't have been too much of a problem except that the day after we arrived my husband did something to his back and couldn't pick up BG without searing pain for several days. So: combine that, plus the fact that she wouldn't let my parents hold or feed her for several days, plus the fact that she woke up 3-4 times a night thanks to the unfamiliar surroundings...I did every night waking, every early morning wakeup (5 a.m. due to time difference), put her down for every nap and every bedtime, held her, carried her, had her pretty much glued to my hip for four days. I was destroyed.
We came home on Monday and BG discovered she could crawl up steps. Tuesday morning I got up with her and played with her and fed her, as usual, before work. When I put her down in her crib so I could go get ready for work, she started wailing, then reached up, grabbed the crib railing, and pulled herself to a stand. And boy, was she proud of herself. Good thing we lowered the mattress from the highest setting the previous week, huh? She likes to pull up all the time now, but the trouble is she doesn't know how to get down, except by letting go, crouching a little, and doing a spreadeagle flop onto her back. I don't think she's figured out the cruising thing yet; right now pulling up seems to be just a means to get closer to Mommy. When I'm changing out of my work clothes at the end of the day, I often put her on the bed and then stand right up against the bed while I change my top (so I can grab her if she ventures too close to the edge). Now, whenever I take my shirt off, she crawls over, grabs my belly flab, and pulls up on my bare tummy. Nice.
The cat was acting weird when we got home, a lot of unusual litter box activity. Wednesday night she was yowling a lot, and when my husband got up to check on her, he said her ears were really hot and she looked like she was trying to pee everywhere. Thursday morning we got up and discovered she HAD peed everywhere...peed blood, in fact. (How did we discover this? Let's just say that I pulled on a T-shirt I'd had lying next to the bed and had a most unpleasant surprise.) Took her to the vet, and after keeping her overnight and running all kinds of tests, they determined she had crystals in her urine and a stone in her bladder, requiring surgery. So our poor cat, who has never spent a night away from home in her life, has been in the hospital since Thursday, because they couldn't do the surgery until today. We get to bring her home tomorrow. Surgery will run us well over $1000, including the tests and 5 nights board, and we have to change her diet to the expensive stuff you can only buy at the vet. Of course we'll spend whatever it takes, but considering we've been pretty strapped financially anyway, this is not a welcome development. Not to mention that our little kitty has to have surgery, under general anesthesia, and was probably miserable and lonely all weekend. Sniff.
This weekend was exhausting--I did get a break on Saturday when I went to a baby shower solo, but other than that BG was pretty much hanging on me all weekend. I think she's going through a Mommy phase right now--she wants to be ON me or in my arms all the time (except when she wants to be crawling, of course). On one hand, it's really gratifying, especially when I walk in the door at the end of the day and she squeals with joy and crawls over to me and reaches out her arms for me to pick her up. If she's on the couch with her dad and I sit next to them, she will literally fall into my lap. On the other hand, it is really fucking draining to never get a break. My husband worked all day Sunday, 10 am to 10 pm, which only made it worse.
And I think she's teething, or something. She's still waking up a lot, where she used to go all night or maybe only wake up once. I'm not too worried about that, since I figure it's a sleep regression thanks to all the physical advances and everything will settle down...eventually. But yesterday evening she cried for, I'm not kidding, an hour and a half. Screaming and arching her back like she was in pain, kicking, pushing at me with her arms. At first she calmed down when I held her (so I held her or slung her for, like, two hours), but after a while nothing helped. Not singing, not rocking, not food, not diaper change, not something cold to chew on (she won't chew on anything, and in general she hardly ever puts anything in her mouth--is that weird?)...holding her didn't make it stop, but putting her down made it worse. And then it happened again this morning, for 30 minutes. Starts up out of nowhere, ends just as abruptly. We can't feel or see anything coming up through her gums, but I can't imagine what else it could be. And the fact that she won't put anything in her mouth makes it kind of hard for us to help her...all the frozen washcloths and wooden teething rings in the world don't help if the baby won't bite them. She's rejecting solids a lot lately too, maybe that has something to do with it?
Aaaand I'm working late tonight. So, fun all around. Blech.
Last weekend we took an extended long holiday weekend and flew to visit my parents in Smaller City, about a 2.5 hour plane ride away. It was Bat Girl's first plane trip, and I would rate the experience a C- overall. There was a lot of crying, a lot of fussing, mostly I think because, with her new crawling status, all she wanted to do was crawl crawl crawl, and being confined to a small space, even in Mommy or Daddy's lap, was not acceptable. Not to mention her ears hurting--though we did manage to make her take a bottle for most of the take-offs and landings, teaching her the important lesson that food makes the pain go away (a lesson all girls need, right?). I am thankful that there was no airplane pooping and so no need to attempt an airplane diaper change, my biggest nightmare.
BG hadn't seen my parents since she was 10 weeks old, so they were basically complete strangers as far as she was concerned. She's normally a pretty social kid, but apparently she's developing some stranger anxiety, because she wouldn't allow either of them to hold her--we got there on Thursday, and it wasn't until Saturday that she could hang out in my mother's arms without crying. She cried every time my dad tried to hold her, which I'm pretty sure broke his heart, until Monday morning--the day we left--when she took a bottle from him and feel asleep in his arms. (My husband thinks she's just scared of big men in general.)
That wouldn't have been too much of a problem except that the day after we arrived my husband did something to his back and couldn't pick up BG without searing pain for several days. So: combine that, plus the fact that she wouldn't let my parents hold or feed her for several days, plus the fact that she woke up 3-4 times a night thanks to the unfamiliar surroundings...I did every night waking, every early morning wakeup (5 a.m. due to time difference), put her down for every nap and every bedtime, held her, carried her, had her pretty much glued to my hip for four days. I was destroyed.
We came home on Monday and BG discovered she could crawl up steps. Tuesday morning I got up with her and played with her and fed her, as usual, before work. When I put her down in her crib so I could go get ready for work, she started wailing, then reached up, grabbed the crib railing, and pulled herself to a stand. And boy, was she proud of herself. Good thing we lowered the mattress from the highest setting the previous week, huh? She likes to pull up all the time now, but the trouble is she doesn't know how to get down, except by letting go, crouching a little, and doing a spreadeagle flop onto her back. I don't think she's figured out the cruising thing yet; right now pulling up seems to be just a means to get closer to Mommy. When I'm changing out of my work clothes at the end of the day, I often put her on the bed and then stand right up against the bed while I change my top (so I can grab her if she ventures too close to the edge). Now, whenever I take my shirt off, she crawls over, grabs my belly flab, and pulls up on my bare tummy. Nice.
The cat was acting weird when we got home, a lot of unusual litter box activity. Wednesday night she was yowling a lot, and when my husband got up to check on her, he said her ears were really hot and she looked like she was trying to pee everywhere. Thursday morning we got up and discovered she HAD peed everywhere...peed blood, in fact. (How did we discover this? Let's just say that I pulled on a T-shirt I'd had lying next to the bed and had a most unpleasant surprise.) Took her to the vet, and after keeping her overnight and running all kinds of tests, they determined she had crystals in her urine and a stone in her bladder, requiring surgery. So our poor cat, who has never spent a night away from home in her life, has been in the hospital since Thursday, because they couldn't do the surgery until today. We get to bring her home tomorrow. Surgery will run us well over $1000, including the tests and 5 nights board, and we have to change her diet to the expensive stuff you can only buy at the vet. Of course we'll spend whatever it takes, but considering we've been pretty strapped financially anyway, this is not a welcome development. Not to mention that our little kitty has to have surgery, under general anesthesia, and was probably miserable and lonely all weekend. Sniff.
This weekend was exhausting--I did get a break on Saturday when I went to a baby shower solo, but other than that BG was pretty much hanging on me all weekend. I think she's going through a Mommy phase right now--she wants to be ON me or in my arms all the time (except when she wants to be crawling, of course). On one hand, it's really gratifying, especially when I walk in the door at the end of the day and she squeals with joy and crawls over to me and reaches out her arms for me to pick her up. If she's on the couch with her dad and I sit next to them, she will literally fall into my lap. On the other hand, it is really fucking draining to never get a break. My husband worked all day Sunday, 10 am to 10 pm, which only made it worse.
And I think she's teething, or something. She's still waking up a lot, where she used to go all night or maybe only wake up once. I'm not too worried about that, since I figure it's a sleep regression thanks to all the physical advances and everything will settle down...eventually. But yesterday evening she cried for, I'm not kidding, an hour and a half. Screaming and arching her back like she was in pain, kicking, pushing at me with her arms. At first she calmed down when I held her (so I held her or slung her for, like, two hours), but after a while nothing helped. Not singing, not rocking, not food, not diaper change, not something cold to chew on (she won't chew on anything, and in general she hardly ever puts anything in her mouth--is that weird?)...holding her didn't make it stop, but putting her down made it worse. And then it happened again this morning, for 30 minutes. Starts up out of nowhere, ends just as abruptly. We can't feel or see anything coming up through her gums, but I can't imagine what else it could be. And the fact that she won't put anything in her mouth makes it kind of hard for us to help her...all the frozen washcloths and wooden teething rings in the world don't help if the baby won't bite them. She's rejecting solids a lot lately too, maybe that has something to do with it?
Aaaand I'm working late tonight. So, fun all around. Blech.
posted by electriclady at 1:19 PM
7 Comments:
Wow, that's a lot of stuff. I am so sorry about your cat!
We flew to Sweden right after the little lady learned to crawl, and it was miserable trying to keep her stationary.
Whatever weird sleep stuff she is doing will settle down. Ebb and flow.
I love that she pulls up on your tummy. That's hilarious! Babies have no manners. :)
Oh, my goodness. That was jam-packed. I'm sorry all this is landing on you at once. I, too, felt like I needed a vacation to recover from my vacation! And I agree, it sure sounds like teething to me.
D liked a cold frozen peach in one of those "mesh feeders" when she was teething. They have the feeders at Babies R Us and the smell of the tantalizing frozen peach slice combined with the novelty of the feeder convinced her to gnaw on the thing.
And the silver lining to the sleep regression? Once BG is cruising and used to it, it will tire her out so much that she'll sleep for longer. Well, hopefully. Fingers crossed.
This kid is a frickin' genius, I keep saying...well, or my kid is simple, which could be. Hmm...
In regard to sleep regression, it suuuuuucks. Yet something else "they" never never tell you about, the bastards.
I'm also guessing teething, even if there has been no evidence of teeth yet. P had an absolutely hellacious time last week - carrying on unlike she has since she was a near newborn. I cried about her behaviour for the first time in ages, and do you think I could get any teeth out of it? Hell no. Not a molar to be seen.
Oh yeah, and listen to what May says about the silver lining of sleep regression. Speaking for myself, so far so good.
The lowercase had some odd teething -- didn't act completely himself for a while but no evidence of any teeth. Then he just went right back to normal for quite a while until suddenly a couple of weeks later -- tooth!
So sorry to hear about your kitty -- hoping the surgery went well and you're all resting easier.
Well hell, no wonder you're exhausted--I'm tired from just having read what you've been doing! Those "mommy" stages are cute for a little while, then they get very wearing. P has gone through several and it's really hard when you can't even take a short break from them. Everyone needs their own space sometimes.
I hope your poor kitty is better soon!
I can't even imagine what it is like...as Erin said, I am tired just reading this post. I hope that things will get better soon. And sleep will eventually get better again..once she figures out all these new things she is learning!! Hang in there!!
Sleep regression? Say it isn't so. We are so spoiled that Zack sleeps so well, I don't think I could go back to getting up at night. I need my sleep!! :-)
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