Wednesday 21 January 2015

The hardest week so far...

Squidge on a tough day

I never thought being a mummy would be easy, and I know there's nothing anyone can say that'll prepare you for how wonderful, and how tough it is.  But this last week has pushed my limits.

Basically we're teething.  On Saturday afternoon, Squidge started whining, these really high-pitched squeaky whines.  We thought nothing of it other than him finding his voice more.  Then the whines turned into big scary cries, the kind of cries that nearly had us taking him to A&E as he sounded like someone was ripping his arm off.  Panicked and stressed, we stripped him down to check for rashes or marks and he seemed fine, checked his temp that was fine too.  We'd noticed he'd been drooling a lot in the day and chewing his hands, so we tried some Dentanox teething gel which seemed to help. He was over tired too, so we took him for a drive which sent him to sleep, but only for half an hour.

Sunday came and went, a fair amount of crying but it'd subside with the teething gel.  Monday was a good day, he managed to have decent naps in the day so his mood was greatly improved.  Then Tuesday came... Tuesday was a horrible day.  He refused to nap (he usually has about 2-3 hrs in the morning, then about an hour after each feed in the day) and I ended up spending about 8 hours (in total) walking around the house with him and trying anything I could to get him to sleep while he was crying (tried his rocker too, poddle pod, moses basket, cot... everything!).  What made it worse, the plumber was here flushing our radiators, so the front door was open all afternoon (when it was snowing outside) so I couldn't take him downstairs where he has his day naps as it was too cold, and there was a lot of noise from knocking pipes etc.

Every time I managed to get him to sleep, 20 mins later he'd be awake, whether by his own doing or being woken up by banging pipes.  Then we come to today... today has been testing.  The morning started off well, he didn't have as long to nap as usual, he had 1.5 hours - from that point, if he's awake, he's crying or whining or screaming... nothing settles him... I ended up joining him in the meltdown, I just didn't know what to do as nothing made him happy.  He had a dry nappy, food in his belly, I tried his play mat, snug seat, bouncer, my lap, shoulder and chest, nothing - just crying and tears the whole time.  I gave him teething gel and nelsons powder too, neither of which helped.

When times are like this, I honestly don't know how people cope... I coped by crying my way through it with Squidge.  Today it dawned on me just how tough being a mummy can be, but you know what, I'm here, it's late afternoon, he's FINALLY settled down and I'm still here.  I wasn't sure if this post would be over-sharing a bit, but I'm glad I've written it, it was cathartic to write, and you never know, another mummy having a terrible few days like I've had might stumble on this and not feel alone. We're not alone, as much as it can feel like that sometimes.

4 comments:

  1. Sending big hugs!! I remember these days well! They're hard but you will get through it.....I did! :D x

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  2. Thanks lovely, it's so hard at times isn't it? I know it'll get easier, and most of the time he's so good, he really is, but when he's crying like that it's so incredibly stressful :/

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  3. Hang in there hun! I know it's hard, I've been there, you're exhausted and you don't know how you will cope with another day like this. If you need to cry, cry then, don't force yourself to do any chores on days like this, just try to relax as much as possible. It will get easier, I promise :) Maybe he's having colic?... Non of my boys suffered too much while teething so don't know what could help your baby. Have you tried giving him Calpol when he's in so much pain? I know that this used to help my boys when they were complaining a lot. Sending hugs! x

    Mummy’s Beauty Corner

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  4. Yeah he's got colic on top of this and has done for quite some time, so he's fed comfort milk out of Dr Browns bottles and given Infacol before each feed. With the teething, he's been showing signs for a while, but this last few days he's had red cheeks, drooling loads, chewing his fists and when I put the teething gel on his gums, you can really feel the roughness, and he really bites down on our fingers, poor little baby :/ Yeah, I had a good cry today, it all just got too much :/

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