(The mosquito won.)
Alternate title: Ask me why I am not training for a longer distance road race? Reason #32.
When the girls were infants, their pediatrician made a comment during one of their appointments that experiencing one step forward, two steps back was completely normal. There have been several times over the past three years when it has been more like one step forward, five steps back. This past week is a perfect example.
The girls have never been good sleepers. They are good at other things so I try to cut them some slack. A few months ago, we saw some major improvements with the bedtime fussing and about a month ago, we were able to read bedtime stories, tuck them in and head downstairs. There would be silence from the bedrooms. I remember thinking, "This is what we have been dreaming of for the past three years."
And then we hit a rough patch with Allie. She seems to be past that now but Anna has decided that she needs to scream and cry hysterically at night instead of going to sleep. Awesome. Unless I sit next to her bed until she falls asleep. Awesome.
So last Friday night, I needed to run. I wasn't able to hit the road until 8:00 after we finished "tucking" the girls in. Yeah, "tucking in" means that they were still fussing and I left Rich to take care of it. I ran my newish 4.6 mile route and was super proud of myself for finishing in 44:46. I arrived at home all excited to show the time on my watch to Rich. I walked up and down the street for a few minutes to cool down and as I approached the house, I heard crying.
Please, please let it be the neighbors. Yeah, no. It was my own kids. Still awake more than 45 minutes later. Allie was actually asleep. It took me about 5 minutes to calm them down. Apparently, I am the only one who can tuck Emily in the correct way and Anna was so tired that she fell asleep within two minutes.
I felt more tired than usual over the weekend. Maybe a little sick here and there. I did sleep in for two hours on Sunday morning but that was all the time I could take for myself to be fair to Rich and the girls. Rich had the girls playing out in the yard during the morning and later that afternoon, he told me that he hadn't seen any mosquitoes until the girls went to play in the sandbox. He promptly sprayed the girls with bug repellent and all seemed fine except that Allie had a mark on her forehead and may have been bitten.
7:00 PM rolls around and Allie's forehead is pink and her eyes are puffy. She had had a runny nose on and off all day and she really just wanted to go to bed. She felt slightly feverish to me and when I would attempt to feel her forehead, she would tell me that it hurt. She fell asleep but kept crying out in her sleep and eventually woke up around 9:00. Because of the Tylenol recall, we had nothing in the house to give her for pain relief and Rich had to make a trip to the pharmacy to get a generic brand.
Allie and Em took turns waking up and moaning/crying between 11:00 and 1:00. I ended up sleeping downstairs with both of them. As you can imagine, I didn't get much sleep at all. The world keeps turning though and Monday morning, I was up bright and early to complete my role as a productive member of society.
Monday - Allie's forehead is pink and puffy. The skin around her eyes is swollen.
Anna's eye swelled up last summer from a mosquito bite right next to her eye but it only lasted for a day or so.
Tuesday - Allie's forehead is pink and puffy. The skin around her eyes is swollen. Grammy has found the alleged mosquito bite in Allie's hairline. Allie keeps rubbing her eyes saying that they hurt.
Now, we've never had to give Benadryl to the girls. I don't know anything about giving Benadryl. Rich suggested that we wait to see how she looked on Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning - Allie's forehead is pink and puffy. The skin around her eyes is swollen. Maybe a tiny bit less than on Tuesday. Rich thinks that it looks better.
My response was, "It's so puffy right there that she looks cross-eyed. This is not the child I gave birth to!"
Grammy brought her to the doctor who wanted to know how many doses of Benadryl she had had. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah. None?
Two doses of Benadryl and she is back to normal. I am not though.
In addition to the reaction to the bite, Allie and Em have had runny noses all week. With sore throats. Last night was the first night that I was able to sleep in my own bed since Saturday night. Actually, I don't even remember if I was able to sleep in my bed Saturday night. And guess what? Yes, I now have a runny nose with a sore throat. Awesome.
We tried something different tonight at bedtime. It did eliminate the crying but Allie and Anna didn't go to sleep until after 9:30. And I need to go to bed right now.
(I know, I know. I know how lucky I am to have three little ones. I know.)
2 comments:
Don't be afraid to complain about something. I find myself sugar coating the ending by saying I'm grateful as well. Us triplet moms are allowed to say what's on our minds. I always was afraid that someone in my family would say, well, you were the one who did IVF and got triplets. No, we have bad days just like anyone else!
sleep issues are beyond frustrating. this is your venue to vent and complain. don't feel you have to justify/ rationalize it. I always knew there would be some sleep deprivation involved with having children. I, like most women I know, just assumed it would last months. Not years. We are into year 2 ourselves and sleep is still very inconsistent. Like yours, she goes back and forth from going to sleep easily, to deciding to randomly scream herself to sleep for a week or longer. you are not alone!
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