Monday, July 25, 2011

One Kid or Two?

Last night was probably the most difficult and the least restful that I have had since Natalie was born.  Two hours after she went to bed, I woke up writhing with the pain in my ear.  In fact, it was so bad that I almost went to the emergency room.  However, I did a little research and discovered that taking some Sudafed could help those with allergies and ear infections . . . seeing how I haven't taken my prescription allergy medications or any kind of antihistamine since Natalie was born, I figured that perhaps this was partly allergy induced.

After taking two Sudafed and a heavy dose of pain killers, I decided that I could wait it out until morning.  Natalie promptly woke up and wanted to be fed.  Once she was fed, she did not want to go back to sleep.  By this point, it was almost 2 AM!  I put her in her crib and decided that, since the monitor was off in our room so that Patrick could sleep, I would just stay up for a little while until she calmed down.  Unfortunately, Patrick had turned the monitor back on thinking that he might have to give her a bottle if I ended up going to Patient First (which was closed anyway) . . . so my sacrifice was a little pointless.

Half an hour later, Natalie was asleep.  She woke up again at 3, though, and cried for a few minutes before falling asleep again only to repeat this process every ten minutes for an hour.  At this point, I had moved to the sofa so that Patrick could get some sleep.  I was still in a lot of pain.  Finally, I decided at 4 AM to go and pick the baby up to see if she had a dirty diaper--she doesn't usually cry and then fall back to sleep, let alone do it for that long.  Immediately after I put her upright, she stopped crying, smiled, burped, and fell promptly back to sleep.

Once I was back at the sofa, I began to close my eyes only to hear several loud "MEOOOWWS!"  Apparently Pippi, thinking that it wasn't fair for me to be up and tending to the baby and not paying her (Pippi) any attention, decided that it was time to play.  In fact, she walked up dragging her favorite toy in her mouth and then proceeded to drop it by the sofa with a few yowls.  She was mad when I went back to sleep.

Natalie woke up again at 6:30 AM, and then she remained awake and fussy for most of the day.  Needless to say, I am utterly exhausted.  My house is a mess, and I have a doctor's appointment for my ear this evening . . . after 7 PM was the only time they could squeeze me in, despite my level of discomfort.

Anyway, instead of one kid it seems that I have two, and the older one is very much jealous of the attention that Natalie receives.  The minute I put Natalie down is the moment Pippi jumps up on me and refuses to budge.  She thinks that she is more fun than the baby because she can bring me her toys and play with me . . . and she doesn't require the level of care that Natalie does.  Poor Pips is used to not having to share my attention.

Natalie, on the other hand, also gets very upset when she doesn't have my attention (at this point, the doctor says it is still the reflux that makes her need to be held belly to belly all the time).  In fact, Natalie gets soooo upset in her crib that she scoots from the middle of the crib to the head of the crib and moves her body from being parallel with the crib sides to being perpendicular to them.  If she's really mad, she rolls over.  Yes, that's right.  My little not-quite-five-week-old has rolled over twice now.  The first time was last Monday and the second was this afternoon.  She is both strong-limbed and strong-willed.  Hopefully she'll lose the will-part.

2 comments:

Hannah Kyrie said...

Oh wow Erin! Sounds like you have had QUITE the night! Goodness! I'm praying you get that ear infection healed ASAP! That's just crazy! As for Natalie Rae, just a heads up....babies go through a HUGE growth spurt around 6ish weeks! Isaiah would only sleep at the MOST for 2 hours at a time! Wake up, eat, then go back to sleep for 2 more hours. It was the WORST couple days of my LIFE! Because I had just had my gall bladder surgery. Thankfully Mom was there to help. I've heard the growth spurt is from any where between 6-8 weeks. But just a heads up. She could be starting on that as well! I'll be praying for you! Wish there was something I could do to help besides prayer. But being in MI...I don't think there is anything I can do!

Erin said...

Thanks. We had a really rough 2 and 3 week growth spurt just recently.

Oh great--here comes the cat yowling at me with her favorite toy in her mouth. She already claimed my lap earlier! I swear that she seems more like a dog sometimes!