i.am.tired.

Ugh, what a week this has been.

First, Nate started in with a cough this past weekend. Nothing unusual and nothing crazy sounding, just the usual daycare bug. Sunday night, he woke up around 3am and just would NOT go back to sleep. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Tried teething tablets, nursing, the works. He just seemed really fussy and uncomfortable.

Fast forward to Monday night. Put him to bed around 8:30-9:00 and he proceeds to wake up about every hour that night. He never fully woke up. He would just cry until I went in, put his paci in, and then he would go to sleep again. I tried Tylenol at some point during the night, but that only gave me an extra hour of sleep before it started again. I was exhausted.

When I picked him up from daycare on Tuesday evening, they said he had a great day but he only ate 1 of his bottles. Usually he eats 2, if not 3. So that was unusual. Then, as we walked out to the car, I tugged on his ears and he started crying when I pulled on his right one. Hmmm, could it be an ear infection?

Since it seemed to bother him the rest of the evening, I gave him Tylenol right before bed. I also tried a few different techniques, thinking he might sleep better if he was swaddled in his bouncy seat vs. laying flat. He wasn't impressed with that idea though and let me know it. So then I tried unswaddling him and laid him in his crib, to see if he would fall asleep that way. Big fat fail. He screamed bloody murder while I was downstairs pumping. So I swaddled him back up, nursed him to calm him down, and he promptly fell asleep. Slept perfectly fine that night too, except for a minor coughing fit in the middle of the night that didn't even wake him up (it woke me up though!).

Wednesday morning, we hustled off to the pedi's office to get her take on the ear infection. She dug some ear wax out and determined that it wasn't an infection (yet?), but gave me a prescription for antibiotics *just in case*. She said not to bother with them unless he gets worse and starts running a fever. Off to daycare we went.

Evening rolls around and I go to pick up Nate. Once again, he only ate 1 bottle all day long. For some reason, this stresses me out. I try giving him is 2nd bottle of the day once we get home and he only wants to eat half of it. Stresses me out even more. Eats half of his usual dinner. Then nurses to sleep around 8:30. Wakes up SCREAMING around 11pm. I go in, give him his paci, and he screams some more. I stand there, trying to figure out what to do. Then I think, well maybe he's hungry. So I make him a bottle. He sucks the entire thing down in no time and promptly passes out. And doesn't make a peep again until 6:30 when it was time to wake up. Of course, that didn't help me much because I laid in bed until about 12:30, wondering why he isn't eating much during the day, what I can do to get him to drink his bottles better, when will he wake up next, etc etc.

So yeah, I'm tired. And I have a headache. And all I want is my little guy to feel better, eat better, and sleep better. Is that too much to ask?