Midnight Snack...

Around 10:15 last night I was cleaning dishes and noticed that I had only given Luke one cup of milk during the day instead of his regular 3-4. I figured that there was a good chance that he might wake up hungry at some point but that maybe he'd sleep through and never realize that he missed out. Maybe 15 minutes later, as I was getting ready for bed, Jeff came and told me that Luke had been crying for a few minutes and wanted to know what, if anything, I wanted him to do. I went and checked on him and cuddled him for a couple minutes then tried to put him back to bed. Usually that does it when he wakes up, just a quick cuddle and back to sleep. Not quite last night.

After putting him back down and letting him cry for a bit to see if he might go back to sleep I made him a milk cup and cuddled with him some more. But he wasn't into the milk. Not at all. All he was interested in was screaming. My ears were done. He'd scream for a minute then settle down and look like he might nod off and then scream again. After a while he calmed down and I really thought he was going to go back to sleep.

Again, no such luck. By this time it's almost 11:30 and I've been listening to him scream on and off for an hour. I tried the milk again but there was no way that it was getting anywhere near him. I figured he just wasn't hungry because he generally loves his milk and gulps it down when he's hungry but he would have absolutely nothing to do with it.

I was getting frustrated at this point. There was nothing I could do to calm him down and I couldn't find anything that seemed to be really hurting or causing any issues. I stripped him down and checked over every inch of his body but still, couldn't really find anything that might be causing such problems. The only thing that I thought might have been the problem was something in his diaper region as when I took it off he seemed to be a lot happier and really was angry with me when I tried to put it back on. So I left it off for a while, praying the whole time that he just wouldn't pee on me. After a while he got really worked up again so I put the diaper back on and just kept trying everything possible to get him to calm down. By midnight I was starting to really worry about what might be wrong and what I was going to need to do. I finally decided to give him some advil because that was the only kid's drug that I had around and thought, maybe, just maybe he's really hurting and this will help. All that did was make him more mad when I finished giving it to him because he really liked the taste and wanted more. Ya, my kid's a druggie.

So after another 15 minutes I went in and talked to Jeff and we decided that if he was still screaming and writhing in seeming pain at 1am I would have to take him to the ER and find out if there really was something wrong with him or what. I so didn't want to do that, but at this point I didn't know what else to do. Jeff tried to hold him for a few minutes so that I could go to the bathroom but that was just pain for everyone. Luke screamed and screamed and screamed the whole time I was gone and I knew that I was in for a long, lonely evening. At least for me he'd calm down for a few seconds between screaming bursts. But those screams, man, were they ever loud and shrill. I was so tired and frustrated and a little scared that there might be something really wrong with my baby.

Finally at 12:30 I went to the kitchen to see if a drink of juice might calm him down (I'd been offering him milk multiple times throughout the whole screaming match and he never wanted it) and for a second or two it worked. Then the screaming started again. I was going back to the living room when I walked past a container of wagonwheels and in a last chance effort offered him one.

That was the most frustrating and wonderful moment all at the same time. He grabbed it from me and devoured it. He was instantly happy and smiling. I was so glad that he was "better" but so, very mad that the past two hours of screaming and horrific-ness was all because he wanted something to eat. Seriously, a wagonwheel, that's all it took. Grrr, just thinking about it makes me mad. But I was so glad that I wasn't going to have to go to the ER. After half an hour of happiness and laughter I decided that I was done and wanted to go to bed. So I turned the tv off and we sat in the dark for a while, trying to get him sleepy again. Even after almost half an hour he was still going strong and having fun. But me, I was done. So I picked him up and deposited him in his pack n' play and went off to bed and that was the last I heard of him, at least until 4:00 when he started screaming again....