Triple Whammy

I know, it's been a week since I've written. It's not that I don't have anything to write. I have an ongoing list of things I'd like to tell you about. It's just crazy around here. I thought that once school started I'd have all this free time, but I forgot to take one very important thing into consideration. Amanda. I've been trying to get her on a good nap schedule, but it's not working. I've been trying to get something, anything, done while she's awake, but that's not happening either. I don't know where everything went wrong, but the easy going third kid I thought I was going to get was just a dream.

It's allergy season here in Texas. Well, I think all year is allergy season, but I think now it's kind of spiked. Supposedly they are really bad this year. See, the funny thing is, I don't have allergies. Sure, I get one or two allergy-induced sinus infections a year, but otherwise I am not bothered in the least. Almost everybody I know has allergy problems. They say that if you don't have them when you move to Texas, you will soon. I'm not sure how I've avoided them, but I have. The problem is, my kids haven't. Andy doesn't have them too bad. He's like me, a couple of times a year he'll get an itchy throat and a croupy cough, but that's about it. Sarah, on the other hand, started taking allergy medicine at one, as soon as they would let her, and takes it year round. She doesn't often get bothered by allergy symptoms, but she has the medication in her system all the time. Amanda is a different story. She has had allergy symptoms since she was only a couple of months old. I didn't know that was possible, I thought you needed to be exposed for at least a season before systems showed up, but they are starting to believe it is. The doctor finally put her on allergy meds when she turned one, but they haven't really helped. For the first three weeks she was on them her nose ran constantly. I thought for sure they weren't working. Finally her nose cleared up so I assumed her body had finally gotten adjusted to having the medicine. Last week it started again.

I know she's not sick. She doesn't have a fever and she doesn't act like she has an ear infection or anything else. I've taken her to the doctor so many times for them to say, "nope, there's nothing wrong with her". But overall she's just very unhappy. Her eyes are kind of puffy and her nose runs incessantly. She coughs because of the drainage and she's having problems sleeping. As a result, we are having problems sleeping, because we have to get up with her and try to get her back to bed. Then, during the day, she doesn't want to take a nap and just wants to be held. If we're not holding her, she's crying. Overall, it sucks.

On top of that, she's cutting about six teeth and she has a horrible diaper rash. I don't know if the rash is from something she's eating or because of the allergy stuff or some other infection, but it looks awful. Her gums are so swollen she's trying to chew on everything. Luckily not us, but everything else. So basically she's miserable, which means I am miserable. When Charlie comes home and says "what did you do today?", my response is, "nothing". That's right, nothing. I held a crying baby all day while the laundry sat there not done, not being folded, not being put away. I spent an hour trying to put the baby down for a nap, with her sleeping in my arms but every time I moved even a little bit so that I could put her in her crib she would cry. When she cries, it's not a sad little cry. It's a loud, piercing, screaming cry that means business. I'm not sure where she learned it, but it's awful. Then, every time we went to get Sarah or Andy or anywhere in the car, she would sleep. Of course that was only for 15-20 minutes and so she never got a real nap, just a bunch of cat naps all over town. Not when we were at home where I could be doing something, but when we were in the car.

I know, I know, this too will pass. I'm sure I went through this with Andy and Sarah too and can't remember any of it. I guess this time I just feel like I have so many other things I need to be doing, and as I sit there trying to calm my screaming baby they are mocking me. On top of that, it's hard to listen to crying all day long. It's a serious downer. Although everyone tells me to relax and enjoy the time with the baby because it will be gone before you know it, this is not time I want to enjoy. Hurry up, go faster.

I got the name of an allergist from a friend today, I think we'll start there. If nothing else I'd at least like someone to get a baseline of what's going on so we can follow it in the future. That way if they get worse we'll know where we started. Hopefully she can shed some light on what's going on. I'll talk to the pediatrician tomorrow about the diaper rash. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, but if so we'll take care of it. The teeth, well there's not much I can do about that, but that will be over soon enough. I'll make sure to stock lots of ibuprofen.

See, it will be okay, but if you don't hear from me for a few days, now you know why.