sleepless in cambridge

The Doyle family has had a rough couple of days. On Wednesday we took River for his two month check-up where he was subjected to four shots. This is the first time he's had vaccinations so we didn't know what to expect. We opted to forgo the Hepatitis B vaccine--you know, for a sexually transmitted disease, for my NEWBORN. (Why this vaccine is now standard for babies--and required for children entering school--is beyond me).

Obviously he was upset about the needle pricks, but the doctor suggested I breastfeed him while she did it, and it did lessen the trauma, I think. He was fine on the car ride home and passed out for a long nap shortly thereafter.

Then at 5pm there came such a wail from his mouth that did not stop for three hours straight. River was upset. VERY UPSET. And there was really nothing we could do about it. None of our usual tricks worked to calm him down and no amount of cuddling, feeding, rocking, singing, bouncing, dark, light, quiet, or loud made a difference. Those of you that are parents understand what a screaming baby does to you. For my childless friends, imagine someone ripping your heart out, showing it to you, and taking a bite of it just for kicks. That's what it feels like when your baby cries.

He went on being upset for hours--taking short breaks from screaming until finally it tapered off around 10pm. Finally, at last, he slept beautifully and I thought all was well.

He nursed at 2am and I gave him my finger to suck on while he fell back to sleep. I noticed that his mouth was very warm--much warmer than usual--and remembered that the doctor had warned about him getting a fever as a result of the shots. Fever in infants is a life-threatening condition, so I woke Thom up and we took his temperature.

Well, he barely had a fever, but it was enough that we needed to call the after-hours number for his doctor. I won't go into the details of the rest of that night--thankfully an emergency room visit was not in the cards--but we got the fever down and it only cost us a night of sleep.

Then on Friday afternoon I noticed River being more fussy than usual about taking his naps, and he seemed to need to eat much more often than usual. By Friday night he was eating every hour and a half and we figured out he was going through a growth spurt.

Well, here we are more than 48 hours later and I've been feeding him every single hour since then.

Every.

Single.

Hour.

And I am tired.

I've started feeling a bit loose in the brain from sleep deprivation, and I'm just praying this thing peters out soon. Thom had a dream that River had grown a foot overnight as a result of this growth spurt, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of his outfits start looking a bit tight on him.

Here's what I think is going through my boy's head as he puts us through the ringer: