Last night we tried a few new things in the Vickery home, mostly focused on trying to get Raymond into a bedtime routine that is not nursing to sleep and getting Mamma to Yoga at 7:00 pm. Morgan came home early (6:25) to make sure I could get to Yoga and to work on the new Raymond bedtime routine. I had news for him when he arrived - Raymond had his first for real diaper rash.
You think at nearly 7 months we would have already passed this milestone, but now, out of no where his entire front and back and down his legs were COVERED in the rash, he was screaming in pain when I changed his diaper and used a disposable wipe and couldn't be put down, etc without also suffering. It was terrible when I realized all of this at 5:00 pm - I even called the doctor (for a diaper rash!) as I was so startled by his suffering. I was about to talk myself out of my Yoga class to make sure Raymond was okay --- but my internal dialogue took a shift and I decided that Morgan would be fine for 2 hours. FINE. And it is just a diaper rash after all...
I had just a few minutes to run down the diaper rash care before running out the door - wash with soap and water and a wash cloth, use a cool wash cloth to make sure all the soap is off, let totally dry and then COVER in zinc based diaper rash cream. Whatever you do DO NOT USE DISPOSABLE WIPES - and whew, I was out the door. As we have reusable bamboo wipes in a warmer beside the changing table and all the other necessities I did not think this would be a big deal.
I had an awesome Hatha Yoga class and was feeling totally restored! I came home to an empty front room with toys all over the floor and hearing Raymond screaming in his room and went straight to him. It was actually pretty adorable, he reached for me and said "Mamma" (there were witnesses!) and kissed my face (or tried to suck on my face, either way adorable!) and I went to nurse him to calm him down.
Morgan came in to finish his dinner and was obviously grumpy. I asked what was wrong and he said "I just had to deal with a crying baby for 2 hours, I'm in a bad mood." Okay, I understand this, God knows he has come home to me in a similar state many many times. Raymond fell asleep and I took him in and put him down in his crib and he automatically woke up screaming I reached down to pick him back up and realized his sheet was freezing and soaking wet. Morgan forgot to tell me/change the sheet from the wetness associated with the whole diaper area cleaning...
I gave him to Morgan to calm down while I changed the sheet ... and in looking around Raymond's room I discovered many things. (1) There were clothes on the floor between the dresser and changer (2) the drawers to the dresser were all half way open (3) the disposable wipe container was on the floor (4) there were 3 reusable wipes that were wet on the changing table and on the floor (5) all of the nicely folded clothes in the dresser were tossed around making no sense at all. I began to realize I must have missed quite an episode.
While I was straightening up Morgan went back to trying to get Raymond to sleep. He read him a story in a very flat "I'm so pissed off right" now voice, he walked around with him, he looked at me grumpily and asked if I had any suggestions ... I finally took Raymond back and we went through nursing, walking around, singing songs, etc - I finally thought he might be asleep and got into the shower at 10 but he was still crying until Morgan was finally able to get him to sleep at 10:30.
As we crawled into bed Morgan's bad mood was really starting to get to me. I asked him if something else was wrong ... we talked for a while and he finally admitted: "I know this is what you deal with every day - but - I just couldn't do what I wanted to do and take care of Raymond ... none of his toys were interesting, I couldn't get him to stop crying."
( -He gets major kudos for giving me some props and understanding that my day isn't about what I want to do at ALL with Raymond - )
For all of you moms out there I'm sure you can appreciate that I was tying very hard to be sympathetic and not laugh out loud at this statement. Really? You were not able to do what you wanted to do? You had to adjust all your activities around Raymond?
We laughed about it this morning and I think Morgan has recovered from 2 hours of not being able to do what he wanted to do. I hope so anyway, as I plan to go back to the Yoga class next week.
This comic relief got me through getting up at 12:30, 2:30, 4:30 and 6:30 with Raymond. Man, it would have been so cool to do what I wanted to do and sleep through the night.
Oh Tappan I hear ya. We almost had the world's biggest fight last night when I discovered that Jonathan had used *MY* bottle brush to scrub spinach bits out of the food processor and there was spinach in the bottle brush. I made him pick out every last piece by hand. Grumpy-ness all around.
ReplyDeleteHi Tappan! Such a great story! I'd like to tell you that it's going to get better, but it probably won't. I love it when Brian tries to thoroughly read the paper every morning after feeding the kids. Granted, he makes breakfast, but he also makes zero effort to clean up at all. In fact, I can't even remember the last time he picked up some toys. The best thing you can do for your sanity is exactly what you did - leave the house, "do what you want to do" and deal with it when you come back. And always remember, you are a GREAT Mom.
ReplyDeleteOh, and one other thing. When Cole got his first serious diaper rash, I was actually at the doctor's office. It was all pussy, and I was like "Dr. Al, Cole has a SERIOUS diaper rash. And Dr. Al said "Maggie, diaper rashes aren't serious, diabetes is serious." Well, it looked serious to me!
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