And this too shall pass...

For some reason I thought things were going to get easier. I was wrong. All at once Son is teething, has a cold, has learned to stand up and has developed separation anxiety. These are all stages I had heard of in theory, but let me tell you what they mean on a practical level. By day a drooling, runny-nosed, coughing and frustrated baby who does not want to be left alone for a second or sit in a pram so must either be held or played with (in a standing position) constantly. By night a crying baby who cannot breathe, has coughing fits and freaks out if mom’s not there when he wakes. Putting him to sleep day and night has also become something of a challenge: as his eyes close and sleep begins to wash over him, he automatically starts to reach for things he can pull himself up on- cot bars, cushions, clothing, hair etc. He climbs in a closed-eyed frenzy for a while till he comes into awareness and finds himself standing. His eyes are now red but he cries if you try to help him into a lying-down position again and he just wakes up more if you leave him standing. And heaven forbid Mom’s not there! I’m so tempted to just leave him to cry himself to sleep but that’s close to impossible for me at the best of times and now that he is all sickly, I really couldn’t bring myself to do it. So I lie in the bed with him, letting him climb all over me; pulling my hair, clawing my face and sometimes smashing my nose so I have to check for blood. Eventually we both fall asleep, usually. Last night we hardly slept at all and just played the beat-up-mom game. Doctor? Says wait, it’ll pass on its own. Panado? Doesn’t work. Cough syrup? Doesn’t work. This is what I’m going through. Just so you know.