Chaos

The wheels on the Maguire bus fell off this past week and seem to be rolling around town with no signs of reappearing. The boys both had colds at the end of the week. I was home with them on Thursday and Steve stayed home on Friday and we paid our pediatrician a visit on both days. At Friday's visit Ian was diagnosed with his 6th ear infection, though by now they all just blend together so it's easier to just say that his ears have been infected since about January and he just gets a daily antibiotic like some people take a multi-vitamin (he gets one of those too). Because of the ear issue he doesn't like to be horizontal (my understanding is that the pressure builds when you are lying down). To help him sleep we prop him up - usually on us. But, he has the annoying habit of rubbing his head back and forth on you, kind of like he's trying to itch his forehead (maybe he is, I swear he has allergies already even though he's supposed to be hooked up to my own defective immune system - I'm allergic to a lot of crap - through b-milk). And, when he itches his forehead the pacifier pops out and then he starts crying. This happens no fewer than 8 million times a night. So, we don't sleep. Seriously, I don't think I've had more than 45 minutes straight sleep in months.

But...back to the wheels.

Graeme, as you may recall from previous posts, can be a pain in the a--. Well, when he's sick it's all magnified. He was pretty pathetic from Thursday to Saturday. By Sunday he was feeling better, but he was absolutely unbearable to be around. I feel as though something is not firing correctly, or there's a chemical imbalance, or something. He gets out of control dozens of times a day at everything from the spoon I give him for cereal to turning off the TV (which is rarely on for just this reason, but when he's sick we rely on it more frequently). I often will take him outside when he has these fits. It's a combination of hoping the fresh air will break the cycle, getting him away from the trigger, keeping the house quiet for other occupants and our neighbors, etc. My dog-walking neighbors saw me in my pajamas at the crack of dawn many times this past weekend because these fits were non-stop. By fits I mean full-blown, top-of-the lungs screaming for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, along with kicking, pushing, shoving, throwing. Usually about 20-40 minutes into I can offer up my arms in a kind of peacefully way and he'll collapse into me, exhausted. Getting to the collapsing point is challenging and frustrating and I don't always perform my best in the process. These fits have also started to bleed into our nights. Last night he was up at 2AM with all sorts of issues and Steve ended up sleeping in his room in the toddler bed just to get him to stay put. It's to the point now, though, where we really can't live like this. I can't even find a way to inject humor into this post to make it entertaining for you (and me). We need serious help. The fact that I'm looking forward to work for a break tells me that something isn't right on the homefront. I'm really not sure where to turn, so I'm going to start with the pediatrician. My expectations are low, frankly. I'm sure it all just sounds like typical 2 to 3 year old temper tantrums. If that's the case, then we just need some parenting guidance. Either way, something has got to change here.