You’d think, with all I’ve written about sleeping and crying, that the most upsetting sound I could hear at 3:15 in the morning would be my daughter’s cry.  You’d be wrong.  The most upsetting thing I hear at 3:15 in the morning is a cheerful, completely awake voice saying “Elmo? Big Bird? Kitty?”

 

When Em wakes crying, she’ll generally go back down pretty fast.  When she wakes yakking - who knows how long she’ll be up?  There have been mornings when 4:30 becomes wake-up time, because she’s just not going back down.

 

Thursday night (or rather Friday morning) she woke at 3:15, talking to her stuffed animals with all the coherence of a well-rested toddler.  I tossed and turned for a while, and at about 3:45 she started getting upset.  So I got up, changed her, and fed her.

 

And sure enough, she went right back out.  I was back in bed by 4:20.

 

 

One other thing that strikes despair into Mommy’s heart: diarrhea.  Which we got this afternoon.  Which means - unless she had something awful to eat that we missed - another rotavirus.  ANOTHER.  This will be her third.  Or maybe fourth?  I’ve caught it from her every time - except I don’t get diarrhea, I get nausea and have to live on white rice and saltines for a week.

 

There are very few physical experiences I despise more than nausea.  I’d rather go through labor again than be nauseous (noting, of course, that labor wasn’t that bad for me; but I digress).    I can only hope that maybe, just maybe, I won’t catch it this time - I’ve been pretty religious about washing my hands and using Purell, which has kept me from getting a sinus infection for four months now (a new record since she entered day care).  Of course, some of the things I’ve found on the Web suggest that the only way to kill rotavirus is to use chlorine; so it might not matter.

 

The good news is, if she really has a rotavirus, I’ll have to keep her out of school next week.  I’ve got my laptop, so I can work from home.  I won’t be at peak efficiency, of course; but it’s better than nothing.

 

The bad news is, if I get sick as well, I get to stay home with a baby AND be sick at the same time.  She’s always got so much more energy than I do when she’s unwell.  You wouldn’t even know it, really, without her diminished appetite and nasty diapers; she’s unfailingly cheerful at these times.

 

The other bad news is I suspect this will keep her from sleeping as well as she’s been sleeping.  The good news is that’s likely to be temporary.

 

(This incoherence brought to you by Big Miss Em and her 5:40 wake-up call.)

 

Yawn.