Just in case anyone happens to be wondering why I haven't blogged lately, I thought I'd give you a rundown of how my night went last night. While it (thankfully) is not typical of every night in our house, you can get an idea of the challenges we are facing these days!
8 p.m. All children are in bed. Kenna last nursed at 6:45 p.m., so I figure I can get a little bit of sleep before her next feeding, since I haven't had a decent nap since Tuesday.
8:15 p.m. Arden emerges from his room, finds me, and reports that he needs to poop. I have a nice conversation with him while he poops, then wipe his bottom and tuck him back in.
8:30 p.m. I am in bed.
9:00 p.m. Tobin wakes me up to tell me that HE needs to poop. I tell him to use my potty and doze off again.
9:10 p.m. "Are you finished yet?!" I ask Tobin. His affirmative reply has me wondering just how long he would have sat there if I hadn't asked!
9:45 p.m. Kenna wakes up to feed.
10:00 p.m. Tobin peeks out of his room and immediately shuts the door when he realizes I am with Kenna in the living room. Since she is in the process of being burped, I immediately head for Tobin's room to find out what in the world is going on. He assures me he will get right back in bed and that I don't need to come into his room. Of course I do come in. Ah ha! I discover a Calvin & Hobbes comic book on the floor of the bathroom--he uses the bathroom light as a night light with the bathroom door cracked a bit. I see that he has been sitting on the floor and reading by the bathroom light. I deal with this unacceptable behavior and hide the book so he can't repeat the offense. 10:00! My stars! It's 2 hours past the time I tucked him in bed. Sigh.
10:30 p.m. I have finished nursing and changing Kenna and crawl back into bed.
1:15 a.m. Kenna wakes again, this time with a scream that startles me. I rush out to the living room (she has been sleeping in the pack-n-play in the living room during the night so that I can get more sound sleep without hearing her little noises), where I see that she has snorted some milk out of her nose. She's done this on occasion, so I'm not alarmed. However, after a few minutes of nursing fussily, she pushes away, arches her back, and her screams begin to crescendo. With some concern, I try burping her, thinking she has a bubble in her tummy that is causing her distress. She screams louder. I walk with her into my bedroom, holding her in a variety of positions, patting her back, and wondering what is wrong with my baby and how I can help her.
I'm beginning to get quite alarmed--this has never happened before. Suddenly I hear noises from her nose as she tries to breathe in through her nostrils, and it clicks: she must have some milky mucous still up there, and the poor little girl can't breathe. I remember the nurse at the hospital telling a tech during one of Kenna's check-ups that babies are nasal aspirators; they only breathe through their nose. No wonder Kenna is so panicked. I rush back to the living room, where we've been keeping the bulb syringe, and I begin sucking as much junk out of her nostrils as I can. It doesn't look as if much is coming out, though, and Kenna is still screaming. By this point I am in total distress, crying, "Dear God, please don't let my baby die!" I continue to suction out her little nose, praying that God will help me know whom I should call.
Amazingly, all this takes place in only a few minutes, but it seems like an eternity. Finally Kenna's cries change...she is no longer frantically screaming but is now crying in a slightly softer tone, a cry I recognize and am so thankful to hear. She's ready to eat.
As she nurses, her little body completely relaxes, and she makes contented little noises, utterly unaware of the helpless anxiety her mother has experienced in the past terrible moments. I wipe Kenna's tears off her little cheeks and continue to cry myself, thanking God over and over for helping Kenna be able to breathe again.
1:45 a.m. Kenna is finished nursing and is bundled up for the night. She is blissfully sleeping, but I can't bring myself to let go of her yet. I rock with her and shower her head and face with kisses.
2:15 a.m. I crawl into bed again, thinking that after that ordeal, surely both of us will sleep out of sheer exhaustion for several hours.
3:15 a.m. Arden wakes me out of a sound sleep. He tried to go potty but didn't get there in time. I send him to the laundry room to change out of his wet clothes and go to clean up the mess. At least his bed is dry...the bathroom floor, however, is a completely different story. How can so much pee come out of one little body at one time?! I tuck Arden back in bed, then go to the laundry room to rinse out all the pee stuff. I find that Charis's fitted sheet is on the floor of the laundry room--great. She must have wet the bed. But I don't see her pajamas. Sigh. I go into her room and pick them up off the floor so I can rinse those out, too. She is sound asleep in her "nest" of blankets on the floor. At least she didn't wake me up, too.
3:35 a.m. Kenna wakes to nurse again. Typically I wouldn't feed her after only two hours, but I did notice that she hadn't nursed as long after her traumatic experience at the last feeding. In fact, I am noticeably uneven...I NEED her to nurse off the left side NOW!
4:15 a.m. I go back to bed.
6:45 a.m. Kenna wakes again to nurse. Guess it's time to start my day...
4 comments:
sLOL, Beverly--you are reminding me of why I really DON'T want to have this baby right this minute, even though I am getting so big and bulky! We have definitely had nights like that around here.
How scary for you with Kenna's nreathing. I am so glad the Lord brought to mind the aspirator! I vividly remember right after I had Nathan at the Air Force Academy (he was born at 5:24 PM). Bob had to leave at 8:00, since it wasn't a private room, and I was terrified of being left alone with this new little person when I had really had no experience at all with newborns! A surly tech came in and dumped a ton of forms on my isolette, which totally intimidated me (all those ones about which side and how long you nursed, wet/poopy diapers, etc.), and then he put the aspirator in with Nathan. "Umm, what is that?" I asked. "An aspirator. Use it in the nose," he snapped. "Umm, how will I know when it's needed?" I hesitantly asked. "Oh, you'll know" he said, and then he walked out. That whole long night I anxiously listened for any weird sound that might clue me in as to when I would need that thing! I guess now I know what kind of sound I was listening for--I'm so glad I didn't need it back then! : )
Hang in there Beverly, Rhonda will be there soon to help with the kids durning the day so you can get some naps in. Wish we were closer to help. I am so thankful that Meghan doesn't wet the bed at night and she generally sleeps through the night. She did have us out of bed with one of those terrifying screams the other night. She was sound asleep, we think it was a bad dream. Tabitha on the other hand has had trouble sleeping this whole last week, tossing and turning for a couple of hours last night. Not sure what's going on, maybe allergies or another molar. I hope everything or I should say everyone sleeps tonight.
I wish I could be there to take a few of them off your hands! I don't know what it is about kids not sleeping this week! I know we are struggling with that at home. I will say many prayers for you tonight as I lay in bed that you are getting to do the same along with some sleep. Take care and I miss you!
So thankful everything is ok with Kenna! And we'll be praying you get some more sleep soon. (AndI must admit, I remember getting in trouble for reading at night by the light of the night light!)
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