Day 9

We just finished day 9 of the experiment to see how long Josh and I can go without sleep.  As we head into the night, I pray that we will get some sleep tonight!  It started two Sundays ago in the middle of the night...

Emma woke up crying, coughing and with a fever.  I stayed home with her on Monday/Wednesday and Josh took Tuesday/Thursday.  Since her fever was high, she had trouble sleeping.  I did something I never do - I slept with her.  She kept me up all night, every night tossing and turning.  Through cough medicine, breathing treatments, Advil, and the humidifier, she managed to get over her cough but she couldn't shake the fever.  Finally on Thursday, her fever finally broke.  We thought we saw a light at the end of the tunnel.  Turns out, there was no light...we must have been delusional from lack of sleep.  That night James started with a bad cough.  HERE WE GO AGAIN!  We were up all night. 

The sad part is that Josh and I had planned our very first date night since we had James for Friday night.  For those of you doing the math, that means it has been eight months since we've been out just the two of us.  We were so tired, that we considered forgetting the whole thing.  We decided to go ahead and keep our plans since James seemed to be reacting well to the breathing treatments.  We did end up having a good time and it was nice to be out without the children.  The best part was that we were able to finish conversations at the same time that we started them.  Most of the time, we start talking to each other but get interrupted and it's hours {or days} before we get back to that subject.  I'm very glad we did it, but I was not glad that Emma woke up screaming at 1:30 in the morning.  She had an ear infection.  Yep, you guessed it - we were up all night. 

On Saturday, her doctor called in an antibiotic.  James' cough deepened and breathing treatments were just making him mad at this point.  By Sunday, Mother's Day, Emma's ear was much better.  She actually slept all night on Saturday night.  Thank the Lord!  However, James was coughing incessantly and could not be consoled.  We were up all night.

On Monday, I took James to the doctor because I was certain he had an ear infection or pneumonia.  I wanted the doctor to look at me in the eye and tell me there was nothing he could do for my little boy.  Well, turns out that his ears/throat were clear and there isn't anything they can do for his cough since he is so young...we just have to wait it out.  He did prescribe an oral steroid at least.  It didn't work quickly though, because he was up all night on Monday.

That brings us to today, Tuesday.  I am praying that tonight is the night folks.  Day 9 will be the day that we all sleep peacefully.  Nobody will cry out in pain or frustration and everybody will sleep until at least 6:00 am.  Say a little prayer for us.

Doesn't it look like he is plotting this experiment of how little sleep we can get and still function?  I told him tonight that he and his sister had won and we physically can't do it anymore.  We need sleep!