Category Archives: trials and tribulations

So, last week? The week I basically didn’t post anything? Was a really, really rough week, parenting-wise. I don’t know what it is about almost-20-months old, but lately everything is a mommy vs. Hatchling battle, and I’m sure I don’t need to tell regular readers who’s winning. One low point was when I accidentally engineered it so the Hatchling walked face-first into the bookshelf in her bedroom. I was putting her down for a nap, the room was already dark, and I asked her to close the door and come over to me in the rocking chair. Across the room. In the dark. Real smart, no? We’ve done it before with no harm, but Fate wasn’t letting us off that easy again. She misdirected and walked past me into the bookcase. I heard the thump, followed by the howl of pain, grabbed her and rocked and comforted her, and once she’d calmed down I put her down for her nap. When she woke up and I finally saw her with the light on, she had a huge (ok, not that huge, but freakishly large to my guilt-addled mind), oozing, bloody sore on her little button nose. Arrrgh. BAD MOMMY.

But what’s been worse is that, for whatever reason, she was just having a tough week. Not sleeping well, not eating very well, and holy short fuse, batman. If I had a nickel for every meltdown in the last 7 days … okay, I’d have like $1.50, but that’s a lot of meltdowns! And these aren’t your standard, run-of-the-mill tired or hungry or whatever meltdowns. They’re meltdowns with no discernible cause, or with such a minor discernible cause that you think it CAN’T be THAT. I mean, really? You’re going to pitch a fit because you dropped your baby-doll? It’s right there! Just pick it up again! OK, I’ll pick it up again. Jesus, just calm down!! And so forth. While I consider myself a fairly patient person, I’m finding that I do not cope well with tantrums of this sort. I’ve been getting irritated and impatient, and then snappish and generally unpleasant. With a one-year-old, for chrissakes. I mean, she’s ONE. She’s going to have unreasonable tantrums. I knew this going in. Why am I letting it get under my skin? BAD MOMMY.

Part of the reason, I expect, is that I’ve been having some sleep issues again, and sleeplessness tends to deplete one’s reserves of calm for dealing with cranky toddlers. Either I’ve been up too late reading, or when I go to bed on time I have restless, nightmare-ridden sleep. Super fun! So we’re going to throw some pills at that particular problem tonight (not prescription pills, though – did I mention that Mr. Squab’s new insurance doesn’t kick in until next week?) and see if we can adjust our mental attitude this week. Wish me luck.

On the plus side, I actually mailed out almost all of my Christmas cards today. So there’s that, which is nice.

Every parent has stuff they bitch about when it comes to their particular child-raising situation. Maybe your kid only eats white foods, or refuses to take baths, or only likes death-metal lullabies. The kids, they’re quirky, and they’re all pre-loaded with sucky habits for parents to fixate on. At the same time, though, most of us are lucky enough to have at least a few things that our kids are really good about. Things we can’t bitch about, or other parents will kill us. Like, maybe your kid knew how to nurse like a champ right from the womb. Or maybe you were in labor for only three hours. Or your kid learned how to read at the tender age of three. For us, at least since the Hatchling has been about 6 months old, the good thing has been sleep. From birth to 6 months, don’t even get me started, because OY. But since around the 6 month mark, she’s pretty much been a champion sleeper. 11-12 hours every night, 2-3 good solid naps during the day, everybody relatively well-rested as a result. Sure, she might have a rough night here and there when she’s sick or sleeping in a strange place, but she’s good about 95% of the time. I realize how lucky we are in this regard. I know several parents who would give critical body parts to science if their kids would sleep as well as the Hatchling does on a regular basis. And I’m not smug about it – we just got lucky in the parenting lottery on this one, and the most we can take credit for is facilitating the sleep by, you know, changing the crib sheets occasionally and making sure the heat is on in the winter.

So I get that I don’t really have any leeway to bitch about this, but I gotta say: it’s been a little rough the past couple of weeks. Last week it was clearly illness-related: a double ear infection on top of croup would make it tough for anyone to sleep well. But the ear-infection is supposed to be gone now, and the croup is definitely over, and yet the Hatchling still woke up 3-4 times last night, two of which were bad enough that we had to get up with her and calm her down and put her back to bed. Like, at 2:30 in the morning. And then again at 5:00. And again, I know there are lots of parents for whom this is a fairly normal occurence, and to these parents I say: you are better people than I am. Because a few nights like this after close to a YEAR of good sleeping and I am getting pretty strung out. Is it her molars? The legendary 18-month sleep regression? Pure cussedness? I don’t know, but I sure am glad we’re going to the doctor this week because, let’s be honest here, I am a total pussy when it comes to sleep. And I NEED SOME.