Exhaustion

Last week we were initiated into parenthood... Emma had her first stomach flu. Naturally, it came on only a couple of days after starting her new medication, just to put me into panic mode. I calmed down after both her rheumatologist and pediatrician told me that she most likely had a regular tummy bug and not a rare reaction to Enbrel.  Regardless of the cause, it was an exhausting few days, complete with an abundance of vomit, clean-up, stress, and tears, insufficient amounts of food and water, and one fussy, little girl. The last of the vomits happened Friday at 1 in the morning. Barry and I worked as a beautiful, albeit sleepy, team as he cleaned the kid and I cleaned the bed and put on fresh sheets. It took a long while before she was calmed down enough to sleep, but we finally all got back to our beds. Then I had to get up and go to work. I was very tired. Thankfully, Emma has fully recovered and is back to her pizza-eating self.

Then Sunday happened to be "The End of Daylight Saving Time." I think Daylight Savings is a ridiculous program and I'm about ready to move to Arizona. I used to love it before motherhood. I especially enjoyed that day in fall when I instantly gained an hour of beautiful sleep. Now, that happens to be the most dreaded day of my year. That's the day when I know I'm going to wake up heinously early, deal with an insane amount of tantrums, and wonder how we'll ever get back to a moderately normal schedule again. Seriously. I've been woken up at about 5:30 A.M. two days in a row now. I'm not a pretty sight to behold and my kid is having more tantrums than I care to admit. I think she's asleep now, which means I need to sneak off and take a nap as well. My brain has been pretty much useless for three days straight.

Before I pass out on the couch, let me close by saying that Emma had her second dose of Enbrel on Sunday and so far everything is going well. I'm glad she is tolerating the medicine, braving the shot, and responding to treatment moderately well. Keep your fingers crossed that this is her miracle drug and we can make her nasty arthritis go away.

zzzzzzz.....

My little duck, 24 hours before the stomach flu!