Oh, What a Night...

Starting around five o'clock on Tuesday evening, Jack started getting fussy.  This is not terribly unusual.  Jack's "witching hour" starts around 4:30 to 5 o'clock and goes until about 8 o'clock.  During the witching hour, Jack is just whiny and fussier than normal but is fairly easily consoled.  Tuesday evening, he started getting fussy and I could not console him.  He did calm down while I gave him a bath...but I can't keep him in the bath tub for the rest of his adolescence. Then he was screaming (we have left Fussy Land and are quickly approaching HELL) off and on all night long.  He would fall asleep for about 45 minutes (I think to recharge his batteries) and then would wake up screaming again.  The only thing that would calm him down would be for me to hold him and walk around.  Well, that gets old after a while real quick when it's 2:30 in the morning and the baby weighs nearly 14 pounds!  I tried everything: putting him in bed with me, rocking him, the magical exercise ball and nothing worked.  I was in tears, he was in tears, the dogs were praying for silence.  This pattern continued for about eighteen hours.  Did I mention that Dave is in Chicago?  So I talked to Dave on the phone and he thought that Jack had entered the colic phase (or the Period of Purple Crying as we call it in Raleigh) so I was just trying my best to love this monster and remain sane until this phase passed...which apparently could be months! 

I called my mom and she convinced me to call the doctor because maybe Jack had an ear infection.  I called the doctor and they told me to bring him in.  As soon as the nurse told us to come in, Jack looked up at me and smiled (monster!).  We get to the doctor and he is the happiest baby I've ever seen (which made me feel like one of those crazy mothers I don't want to be).  He was smiling and admiring his plump physique in the mirror while we waited for the doctor.

Jack looking poorly in the waiting room

Jack admiring his portly physique

The doctor came in and said that Jack was indeed sick.  He has a headache (how the doctor knows that...I don't know) and his throat looked a little irritated (I think that's from 18 hours of screaming!).  So the doctor sent us home and told me to administer Tylenol, flush his nose out with saline solution and keep the humidifier going.  The doctor said Jack should be feeling back to normal in 3 days.  I'm sorry Jack is sick, but I'm glad that I'm not crazy!

After we got home, Tracie and Sophie came over.  I handed Jack over to Tracie so she could love on him and I could get a little break.  I cannot even begin to explain how grateful I am for Tracie coming over.  I think I would have lost my mind otherwise. 

When Tracie and Sophie left, Jack was pretty calm and he snoozed off and on throughout the evening.  I gave him a bath, fed him and rocked him to sleep.  I put him in his crib and he immediately started crying.  I rocked him and tried to console him, but he was pretty upset.  At one point I had to walk away and let him cry for a bit.  I went back in and rocked him to sleep and then put him back in his crib and he settled down and stayed asleep for a few hours.  He slept pretty good last night and has been a happy content baby this morning.  We watched Jeopardy (Watson the IBM super computer was on) and snuggled and he is currently taking his morning nap. 

Jack is pretty sure he's ready to take on Watson

I'm so glad Jack is on the mend, and I'm glad that we survived this together...now Daddy, PLEASE COME HOME!