Week 17 – The Worst Week Ever or How Ellie Lost Her Groove Again

Warning: If you are one of the many readers of this blog who is about to have a child or is even thinking about having a child, skip this entry. Also, if you are someone who finds lack of sleep one of the worlds’ true terrors, skip this week. I wish we, as her parents, could have skipped this week.

This week we learned that Karma hates us. Or that Karma does not appreciate it when you brag about something. In many blogs past, even in the ones that talked about how bad things were, Meredith and I always ended on a note of hope and something that basically said, ‘we are so happy!’ This week, we are not happy. Let’s start with Monday night and we’ll just walk you through the suffering of this week as it progressed. Hopefully it will be cathartic. (For us, not you the reader.)

Monday night Ellie woke several times. But it wasn’t this crying of a colicky baby it was sort of a general whine, kind of like after you’ve been beaten up and you’re lying there feeling every ache and pain. Well, Meredith and I took turns trying to sooth and rock our tired baby back to sleep. I think we got four hours that night. The problem wasn’t getting her to sleep, she was tired and I could get her to fall asleep in my arms – but the transfer to the crib. As much as I love to have a sweet little baby sleeping in my arms, there is no greater frustration than having her wake screaming just as you’re tip toeing it out of her room. Ugh.

The next day, determined to reverse this trend of sleeplessness, I convinced Meredith that I should try to give our angel formula again. For those of you that don’t know, formula takes longer for the baby’s stomach to break down so they tend to sleep better, think of that after Thanksgiving dinner feeling… oooh yeah. Well, we are limited in our formula choices (there area only two formulas that are not milk or soy based) and, as you may recall, the one formula Ellie took last week gave her horrible, painful gas. So this time we made a switch (back to the one that she rejected for several weeks) and hoped beyond hope. Now, men, if you’ve never fed a baby, it’s a glorious thing. Women don’t tell us what a pleasant experience it is. You’re nurturing her, you’re soothing her, and you’re ever so gently lulling her into the comfort and safety of your arms. It’s quite majestic. And as predicted, Ellie slept pretty well for us that night. Unfortunately, it was the calm before the storm.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much nightmares. Ellie was completely miserable. Our usually strong healthy baby wouldn’t stand on her legs, was lethargic, gassy, painfully whiney and to top it all off, had pretty much stopped sleeping. That cold I was keeping at bay came full force since I was no longer sleeping either; my body got really sick. Meredith, usually sweet and loving was snippy and grumpy – so take that and add in sick and you have the level at which I had reached. The Molloy family was miserable. Not to mention that Ellie had not pooped since Tuesday, which just added to our worries Probably too much information here, but this is for posterity so we’re honest… she is usually a champ when it comes to bowel movements so we were especially worried when by Friday, still nothing.

On Friday morning, Meredith had a half day at work, so we decided to just keep Ellie out of daycare for the day and take her to the doctor to see if she had any advice for us. That morning we took Ellie’s temperature for the first time… rectally. Yikes.

I read the instructions, then we covered the thermometer in the little plastic thingy and covered that in lubricant. We put Ellie at a ninety degree angle and um, well, looked at her tiny butt, looked at the seemingly huge thermometer, looked at each other and thought, ‘there is no way we can fit, let alone violate our baby in such a manner.’ However, after rereading the instructions, we ventured forward, far more traumatized than Ellie. Thankfully, she did not have a temperature. That morning, Ellie continued to be miserable, the poor thing, over tired, cranky and constipated.

Once the doctor’s appointment was made, Ellie and I continued our morning together. Then something wonderful happened. Ellie pooped! T’was the biggest, baddest poop if ever there was a poop. After which, she smiled and smiled and cooed and giggled and when I had her at the doctor’s office, she was this perfect smiley happy baby. Ordinarily, I’d be happy about this, except in the eyes of the doctor, not only was I a crazy first time father, but I was a liar too!

The doctor suggested that she may have changed her sleeping habits because she’s a smart baby who has figured out a way to spend more time with her parents. Or her little mind is racing during this important developmental phase and it is preventing her from sleeping soundly. Or she could be in the beginning stages of teething. There were lots of theories, but no concrete reason that she is not sleeping and no magical way to get her to start again.

So, we have resigned ourselves to the fact that Ellie no longer sleeps through the night. We have tried everything. We have let her cry it out, cuddled her, rocked her, bounced her, put a humidifier in her room, bought a noise maker, swaddled her, swaddled her with one arm out, stopped swaddling her, put her to bed earlier, put her to bed later,..none of it seems to matter. She lost her groove. Don't get me wrong, since the Big Poo of 2006, she has been a complete delight during the day. She is chatty and smiley and more fun than ever! She's just not sleepig well at night. We now just expect that she will wake up 2-3 times every night. And that it will take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours to get her to go to sleep again. It’s frustrating. It’s exhausting. But it’s the way things are. Just hopefully not forever.