Deep Cleansing Breath...

I think one of the most difficult things about having a newborn is not getting the sleep I am used to. :) With my first two kids, this wasn't really an issue because they were both formula fed and slept 4-5 hours at a time, right from the get go.

Since Jeffrey and Emmett have been nursed, they have both started out sleeping in 2 hour intervals. I think my friend must have iron milk, because she nurses her baby and he sleeps 5 hours a night! Jeffrey really didn't start sleeping longer until I had to stop nursing him when I had to have additional surgeries a month after he was born.

Anyway, one bonus is Emmett likes to snuggle. It makes the lack of sleep more bearable. :) He has started sleeping in slightly longer intervals at night...at least it feels that way. I might just be hallucinating in my lack of sleep blurriness... Still, he has started sleeping an hour longer. That doesn't sound like much, but it it's a start, and definitely better than two! :)

Well, poor little Jeffrey has been the unlucky child to get painful illnesses. First he got the cold sore outbreak in his mouth. That was six months ago I think...all I remember is how horrible it was for him, and for us!

Now he has roseola. That in itself wouldn't be too horrific...but he is also teething. Big teeth. Yowch! So, if he didn't already feel kind of miserable, now he certainly does. Since I am already on lack of sleep anyway, this has really helped improve my patience and compassion. Sure, it would be easy to lose my cool, especially since there have been many times in the past 4 days where Jeffrey has been inconsolable.

Today, for example, he has basically cried nonstop the whole time he's been awake. (no worries peeps, we took him to the doctor AGAIN just to make sure he didn't have an additional infection going on. I think I've talked to the pediatrician every day for the past four days...)

Still, I just think of how miserable he is and how much pain he must be in that nothing helps temper, and my compassion level goes up about four notches.

After all the crying today though, he did finally eat something! And it wasn't a cookie! He ate dinner, including vegetables (which seem to be his favorite anyway) and drank some more juice. Normally we don't give our kids juice, but when they are feeling cruddy and it's all they will drink... they get some.

So, hopefully he will continue to improve and get better and better. My other hope is that Emmett didn't contract this illness. On that one, we will just have to wait and see. I also hope those monster teeth finally come through! Some more sleep would be nice too, but we'll just take what we can get.