Today was one hell of a day, and it all actually started last night.
Last night, the baby and I stayed up entirely too late, and then when we finally did get to bed, Vance came into the bedroom freaking out because he was flushed and had insanely high blood pressure. I mean it was HIGH, like 160/120. My immediate reaction to this was, in my only half-awake daze was, “Gosh, that’s really high. Jeez Vance, how are you not dead?” Of course, I was kind of thinking I would be able to go right back to sleep now that we knew why he was so flushed, but Vance’s reaction was more along the lines of, ” SHIT, JANETTE, WHY AREN’T YOU FREAKING OUT? DON’T YOU CARE?” And then there was a back and forth about whether or not we should take him to the ER, and then I remembered that we had two kids we would have to wake up and load into the car if this were to happen, and I was (still am) COMPLETELY exhausted, like almost delirious from having not gotten a full-night’s sleep in 3 weeks, or a decent nap in that long. So in the end, I talked him into staying in bed and relaxing, which did bring his blood pressure down, and then suggested he go see the Doctor first thing in the morning.
Several times last night I would get up to feed the baby, swaddle him, and put him back in the co-sleeper/bassinet, and then fall back asleep, and then wake up FREAKING OUT thinking I fell asleep in the middle of feeding him, and he was somewhere in the bed, smothered to death. I actually woke up yelling “OHMYGOD WHERE’S THE BABY!” and then I found him swaddled in his bed, where he was supposed to be. Duh. This is all due to the profound lack of sleep, I am sure. It’s driving me insane even in my sleep.
So. This morning Archer decided to get up at 6:30-ish and stay awake for as long as possible. Vance’s blood pressure was high again, so he set up an appointment for that afternoon. I decided to get up and go down stairs with the baby, and sit on the couch with Vance. I could barely see straight, I was so tired. I gave the baby a bath, got showered myself, and then I had to go pick-up Deven, even though I wasn’t sure I was safe to drive. Vance wasn’t feeling well, so I didn’t bring up the possibility of him getting Deven since he had to see the Doctor right afterward. While I was sitting outside the school waiting for Deven, I started feeling light-headed and nauseous. I almost passed out in the car waiting to get my son. Luckily, they were late, so I was able to shake it off enough to be able to drive home, where I immediately kicked Vance off of the couch so I could lay there. I know being mildly hungry and severely sleep-deprived was the likely cause of this episode. When Vance left and told me he was going to work after his appointment, I cried, begging him not to leave me. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to take care of everybody in this condition, where I felt like I could barely stand up. So, he left and told me he would call me, not promising anything.
By the way, Vance’s blood pressure was fine once he got to the Doctor’s office, of course. It had previously been high during office visits, so the Doctor ordered blood work to check his thyroid and…stuff. I don’t know what’s going on with this boy.
He called me afterward, telling me he was going to work, and I cried some more, and Vance came home. I fed the baby and went up stairs for a very short nap, since I had an appointment at Deven’s school at 3. The nap turned out to be enough to get me feeling like I could function enough to hold a coherent conversation with Deven’s teachers.
Since school is about to end, they wanted to hold a meeting talking about his progress for this year and what they are hoping to work on when school resumes in August. They told me that Deven is doing very well academically, that he is breezing through his personalized goals, and doing an amazing job sticking to his schedule, which is no surprise, since he was awarded for following his schedule so well. He has always been so very into structure and schedule, and familiarity, even when he was an infant. At the same time, we could leave him with his grandparents for a week, and it was no big deal. He would develop a new way of doing things there, just like how he did things at home.
The things they wanted to continue working on were all behavioral, of course. Deven has been imitating every single inappropriate sound he hears much to the amusement of the other kids in the class. I rolled my eyes, because we are dealing with the exact same thing at home. He will mimic the sounds the baby makes as he is crying, so there is not only a fussy baby to deal with, but an echo as well. He doesn’t seem to understand that you don’t do that, it’s obnoxious. They were insistent that it’s pretty normal and I shouldn’t get onto to him too hard, but that is so incredibly difficult sometimes.
Other than that, they’re also having problems with him staying seated when the other kids arrive, which is again, normal for his age and gender. He needs to be prompted to ask for something when he wants it, and so on. He’s doing fantastically well with his potty-training (knock on wood) and despite his parrot-like tendencies, they have no desire to kick him out and lock the door behind him.
Now we just have to figure out what we’re going to do with him and ourselves during the summer break.
I’m off to bed before the baby wakes up. I am beginning to lose mental steam, and this blog is in danger of making very little sense if I keep going. Night all.
