At Least the Week is Almost Over

Last night was yet another one of being up with Eli off and on, all night long. As I mentioned in the previous post, Eli's high fever started on Tuesday, and this continued for the next few days. While Eli wasn't as hot yesterday during the day, the fever spiked again last in the night. We had put him to bed at 7:30, but at 8:30 he woke up crying, and it took me an hour to get him to fall back asleep (Ben was gone at his book group).

Around 1 a.m., he woke up again, screaming, miserable, and burning hot. There is nothing worse than seeing your toddler crying and uncomfortable like that. This time it took an hour and a half to calm him down and go back to sleep. He was up again a few hours later, and then up for the day a little after 7 a.m.

I had a hard time falling back asleep each time that he woke up, and by the time I heard him waking up at 7, I felt awful. Ben had already left for work, Eli was miserable, and it took a long time to get him to stop crying. When I brought him downstairs to eat breakfast, I opened the blinds and saw that a few inches of snow had fallen and there was more coming down.

I LOST it and burst into tears. Seeing the snow pushed me over the edge. The day felt so daunting - I needed to eat breakfast, shower, and get Eli to the sick visit at his doctor's office before it ended at 9 (the doctor had said to come back on Friday if he was still running a fever). I had an OB appointment scheduled for 10:15, and while I had hoped to drop Eli off at a friend's house during the appointment, there was no way I would do that when he was still sick.

Going to these appointments in the snow was more than I could emotionally handle after three nights of very little sleep. I called my friend Carrie and she gave me a pep talk. At 8:45, I carried Eli through the snow to the garage, prayed that I wouldn't get stuck in the snowy alley, and drove to Eli's doctor's office. It turned out that Eli had another ear infection - not a huge surprise.

Then we walked next door to the building with my doctor's office. I was dreading having Eli at this appointment since I'm now to the point where the doctor checks to see if I'm dilated, but thankfully Eli was in such a tired daze that he just kind of stared at me and the appointment didn't last too long. I had mentioned to my doctor that we were going to the pharmacy to fill Eli's prescription, and he was kind enough to fax it to the hospital pharmacy across the street so I could just walk over and pick it up right away.

Eli and I walked across the street through an enclosed tunnel over to the hospital. It took a LONG time because I was making him walk. We picked up the prescription, and then I carried him through the hospital, across the street, through the snow, to get our car and drive home.

Maybe it's silly to write out the dumb details of my morning, but it was one of those days when I wasn't sure I would make it to lunchtime. I felt totally drained. The combination of my grandpa passing away, Eli being so sick, and my being so pregnant and tired was all too much.

Thankfully, I was able to nap for a few hours while Eli napped, and the rest of the day passed without too much trouble. Now it's the weekend and it will be SO nice to have Ben around to help me. Eli's on an antibiotic now, so I'm really hoping tonight is a better night.

I'm SO glad this week is almost over!

It's Been a Long Week...

...and it's only Wednesday morning! Yesterday was the epitomy of bad days - Eli cried for the first two hours that he was awake, I think because his teeth were bothering him. Thankfully, he took a morning nap, and then we were able to get together with some friends to help snap us both out of our bad moods.

We came home for the afternoon nap, and after Eli woke up, he cried and cried and cried - so much that he threw up what he had eaten for lunch all over me. I hurried and cleaned up the mess on both of us and the floor, then we raced out the door to pick up Ben from the train so we could make our appointment to see a house with our realtor.

Once I was at this house, I was so depressed by its tiny size and high price. The outside of the house is darling, set on a quiet cobblestone street surrounded by other pretty houses, but not right for us. Later I checked out a large condo for rent. I'll probably look at more rentals this week as we try to figure out what our short-term plan should be.

And right now, I'm hoping Eli will be able to take a much-needed morning nap while the woman above us is stomping around (it seriously makes the light fixture in my room shake when she walks above me). UGH!!! Why are some people such loud walkers??

Another Early Morning - and I'm a Winner!!

My day has been really up and down. It started at 4:30 a.m., when the dog lady upstairs got up for the day. She of course woke up Eli, who started screaming in his crib. He and I were up for about an hour, and then I attempted to put him down to sleep - amazingly, he actually fell back asleep. I on the other hand, was ANGRY. Who on earth wakes up at 4:30 a.m.?? And why were we so lucky to have a neighbor above us who does this??

I was not in a good way this morning, and almost marched up there again, but knew I wouldn't say anything nice so I tried to go back asleep instead, thinking about poor, teething, not-sleeping-well Eli.

(The picture above is from last week. Don't worry, that snot sucker was never used for its actual purpose - he uses it as one of his toys instead.)

Anyway, I did finally fall asleep, and Eli was back up at 7:30 a.m. I took him to playgroup and then we came home and played for a little bit before his next nap. You know what really turned the day around?

I won a blog contest!!

I have entered so many blog contests and never won a thing until today. The blog, Seven Dogs and A Baby, has tons of contests for baby/kids products and it's easy to enter (you just check out the product's web site and leave a comment back on her blog stating your favorite). I won the Picara Mei Tai baby carrier, as shown above - worth $80!. You can hold your baby in the mei tai in the front, back or side. We'll see how it works with Eli! I think it's so funny because I never got around to getting a Beco or Pikkolo baby carrier, that is similar, but not a Mei Tai style. I don't love that you tie the knots yourself, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

On to other happier things - my parents and Gram stopped by yesterday on their way to a great gardening store in Chicago. Here they are playing with Eli:

And below are some pictures of Eli playing this morning. Motrin does amazing things... he was in a much better mood today than he was yesterday. I think his teeth are still hurting him though.

Notice he is chewing on this frog rattle in most of these pictures...

He makes me smile. I'm still debating what I can do about my neighbor situation.
What would you do?? My friend Katie suggested I ask the dog lady if we can have a "conversation" about the early morning hours issue. That way the dog lady could help come up with a solution, especially if I express how hard it is when Eli is waking at these horrible hours. She isn't as unreasonable as the garbage disposal neighbor below us (who I saw outside yesterday morning as I was taking Eli to the doctor - I said hi and she turned her back to me. She is CRAZY).

At 4:45 a.m. I was thinking, we are putting our condo on the market TODAY. Now I'm trying to be more rational :) Next winter isn't that far away, right?