Screaming All Night Long

Last night, Ryan woke up at midnight right as I was about to fall asleep. He didn't just wake up crying. He was screaming. And he proceeded to scream until he finally passed out on my bed, his cheek pressed against mine, his tense body perched up against me and his hand clutching desperately to my phone, which had distracted him for the last five minutes before he finally concked out.

Those 2.5 hours were HORRIBLE. He screamed and screamed and writhed around uncomfortably. He refused to eat. He didn't have a fever. He didn't puke. Nothing calmed him down. Not a bath (which made him scream harder). Not a bottle. Not being rocked continuously around the house for an hour. When I picked him up, he bend his body and kicked his legs out at me until I thought he would fall out of my arms. When I put him down, he tossed his body violently around the bed/sofa/floor OR he sat up, placed his blanky over his head, and screamed bloody murder.

It was frustrating, tiring, and terrifying. I felt so angry at him and so sorry for him at the same time. Then at precisely 4:30, he woke up and did it again. The rest of  the morning is a blur.  A blur of screaming (on Ryan's part) and crying (both Ryan and myself) and falling in and out of slumber for five minutes at a time. His screaming was so violent, so long, so ear piercing, I only thought of the worst, most serious scenarios.

At first I thought it was teething. But he has never had a problem with teething. EVER. Not even when he got four top teeth in the same day. And his crying and fussiness continued well into the day. The only thing I could fathom was some kind of stomach upset. Jacob had just gotten over someting weird (a four day sickness with only two episodes of puking and mostly just feeling ill). My husband is also getting over the tail end of a similar ailment. Whatever weird flu this is, it is creeping me out.

For the rest of the day Ryan was whinny and couldn't figure out what he wanted. Bottle. No bottle. Food. No food. To be held. To be put down. To play. To rest. Today was a complete disaster and one of the worst parenting days that I remember in a long, LONG time.

And of course it just happened to be a day jam-packed with a birthday party and a wedding. Somehow, with only four hours of sleep, I managed to survive both. But holy geez, things sure were miserable!