Really, really tired. That's how I feel right now.
Natalie's working long, long hours lately. Ergo, so am I. Doesn't matter how much gets done; it seems there's always a pile more in waiting. Small stuff: laundry, firewood, cleaning, tidying, shopping, cooking, getting kids to and from all kinds of things. Medium sized stuff: clearing away felled trees, chainsawing old deadfalls for new firewood, paperwork for the ju-jitsu class, paperwork for a bunch of other things. Big stuff: working with the Elder Son at home on his studies, trying to find a little time and inspiration to work on the novel...
Maybe it's the time of year, as the days get shorter and there's less and less light. Maybe it's stress from all sorts of current events. Maybe it's just the endless grind of juggling three small, boisterous kids while trying to maintain some kind of life. I don't know. All I know is that I'm flat, dead, worn to the bone.
It's six in the evening. The kids are in the bath. I've been holding off on dinner in the hopes Natalie might make it home in time for a pleasant shared meal. I can probably give her another fifteen minutes, but by then if I don't do something to feed the little ones, it's all going to fall apart horribly.
Doesn't help that Younger Son seems to have a chronic cough following his last brush with colds/resp.viruses. We're wondering about asthma. It's a loud, awful, deep, nasty cough, but it's not rattly or productive. Unfortunately, it's also frequent, especially at night. Metronomic, in fact. It carries all the way up the stairs to our bedroom. It wakes up his brother in the middle of the night, and that's not easy.
So you lie there... one in the morning... hoping it was just a passing fit. Thirty seconds, forty seconds, a minute... maybe you can relax -- no. There it is again, like a deep, rough bark, just as you're thinking maybe, maybe it's going to pass. Wait a while, wait a while... there it is again.
What to do this time? Ventolin? A cough suppressant? Have to do something. He's waking everyone in the house, and it's not good for his sleep either...
...and how long can you go on like this?
I can hear him in the bath, right now. The house is warm, the bathroom is a little steamy. It shouldn't set him off, but there he goes.
I think it's going to be another long, sleepless night. Fifth in a row? Sixth?
Too many.
Hamburgers, the superfood.
9 hours ago
Benadryl..THE ORIGIONAL. . I gotta be quick. But I tried about 5 different brands and types, plus tabs, plus plus fucking plus. Cracked it and went to Diff Chemist. he went...HERE USE THIS ONE.
ReplyDeleteWICKED!.
Benadryl is a 'drying' agent, if I recall correctly. Rikodeine is probably more appropriate.
ReplyDeleteBut I'll look into it, definitely. Anything, at this point.
LilliZilla has just about shaken off a nasty cough. Last Sunday was the worst. She coughed so hard and often that she threw up in her cot, six times during the night. Everybody up for a complete change of linens and PJs.
ReplyDeleteThat was a night (and subsequent day at work) that I really could have done without.
Dirk, it is, ya right, my problem was, that no matter what I took to stop the cough, ZIP worked. Most of the stuff was targeted. This one..Original, seemed to be an all rounder, but it stopped my cough at least. BUT, its a BITCH, no denying that, possibly the worst does I have had in a very long time. As for getting rid of the shit on the chest, which the coughing was not doing, that arrived after all the other symptoms has basically gone, a mild little cough..oops up and then find a god dam fucking tissue.
ReplyDeleteOh, man -- Jase, I've had nights like that. But six times beats our record of three. That must have been absolutely horrible.
ReplyDeleteHavock: there is indeed a post-infection cough doing the rounds at the moment. You get a cold first, but the cough lingers, and lingers, and lingers, and lingers... If you've got a dry, irritating, unproductive cough, have a go at Rikodeine.
Have to agree with Havock on this one, doesn't matter what kind of cough, the original Benadryl will calm the cough and give the little one a break, and hopefully a good nights sleep.
ReplyDeleteOur daughter as the same kind of thing - that barking cough that comes every winter. We have now got a new inhalent for her - Symbicort and we still have the ventolin Syrup. They are somewhat working...
ReplyDeleteHope it gets better for you.
Blaegor
Yep. Planet Parenthood. There should warnings issued before you move there. Scary warnings.
ReplyDeleteDrinking tea just isn't cutting it. You simply must develop a coffee addiction!
ReplyDeleteUnlikely I know...
Baz has asthma...when he was an infant and onward, he developed croup over and over again. I'd sit up nights with him in the winter, next to the open sliding glass door in our bedroom, rocking him and listening to him struggle. The cold air, at that point, was the only thing that would calm him down.
ReplyDeleteWe started with a humidifier and that helps a lot to pre-empt a flareup. But he's had so many flareups and been on steriods so often to alleviate the breathing troubles that he's on regular medication now. Pulmicort respules twice a day and Xopenex as needed. At the change of seasons, he's on Zyrtec, which also helps with the flareups. Benadryl just wasn't enough.
Yeah my little bloke has some persistent cogh that rears up at night too...and his ears have played up a bit also (he had Glue Ear, fixed with grommets)in that he said he couldn't hear with one ear the other day. Off to the doc tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThing is it's disrupted his sleep - when well rested he is the happiest kid alive, but when tired he just gets plain ratty. Which rubs off on Wifey and I.
Gah...one day this will be a memory.
There is good news though.
ReplyDeleteWhilst at the footy with the youngest, I rec a call from the eldest bloke (16) mowing lawns, but cannot find your whipper snippier. It was under the tarp in the ute. arrived home, grounds Maintenance work all completed. From about 10 onwards they really hit their straps, maint drops to the floor except for sport, that goes through the effin roof, but its better than...hell, coughs, noses, bums, and the opposite higher maint end of kiddy wrangling.
Its ll good mind you, but fuck me, getting passed those first ten...YES, it gets a fuck load better.
...eight years and counting.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean Havock - when my first three come visiting (aged 13, 12 and 11) it's easier on me than dealing with one 3 year old...
ReplyDelete