My Poor Little Man

I have been so frustrated with the progress, or should I say Lack of Progress!, with Judson. You see, I am a Babywiser. I schedule my kids. The others have done really well with it and it helps me know what to expect. Anyway, all that aside, it just hasn't been working with Judson. He cries A LOT! I cry a lot, too. He isn't sleeping through the night and he is very rarely just content. I was beginning to take it personally.

Do you other Moms ever have moments where you finally can see all the hard things from a different perspective and you realize they aren't just hard for the sake of being hard. There really is something wrong. Then you sheepishly look down and shuffle your feet and mumble, "Oh, that's why things have been so hard."

About two weeks ago I took Judson to the doctor for a cough. We had been passing this cough around for about a month and half so I assumed he had finally gotten it from his overly affectionate sisters. The doctor quickly diagnosed reflux and prescribed some medication to help strengthen the muscle that closes off the stomach from the esophagus. Anyway, I was doubtful of the diagnosis. So for the last two weeks I have been thinking that Jusdon was purposefully waking up at night just to keep me from getting a good nights sleep. Then he purposefully doesn't sleep during nap time so he can yet again keep me from getting some much needed sleep. It was all very personal! That little toot was doing this on purpose! I mean good grief he is huge! He shouldn't have any trouble sleeping! And why does he insist on waking up 45-50 mins into each nap!? He must have it in for me!

Well, this morning after a rough night, I was ready to give up. I went into my room, hid behind the bed and curled up in the fetal position and cried. I am a little sleep deprived. While I was praying that God would have mercy on my sad little soul I realized that maybe I should do a little research into this reflux thing. Thank you, Lord for placing that thought in my mind.

When I looked it up on the internet everything started to make sense. All of the symptoms. The fussiness, ALL DAY! The waking at night with bouts of screaming. The gagging and coughing, the wheezing, the spitting up. So, at this point I sheepishly look down at my feet and say, "Oh, that's why things have been so hard."

Now that I am armed with the knowledge of what this really is, even though the doctor already told me!, I can do it. You see, I was expecting things to work a certain way. With FaithLyn and Elise it worked. Then I thought about Olivia, hmmm....It makes sense now. She must have dealt with this too. She had all the same symptoms. Except she cried all night and Judson cries all day. With Olivia I kept trying to make her do it my way and she was not physically able. I wasn't doing anything wrong and as soon as her reflux got better then all the work that we had done on shedule just fell into place. But unfortunately she never was a great sleeper like the other girls. I was determined not to make that mistake again. And here we are!

Oh well, at least we caught it this time. I am so thankful for a doctor who listened to me and diagnosed the problem quickly. Now that I have faced reality that it's just going to be different I can hopefully move forward. I realize now that letting him sleep in the rocker during the day is ok. He has to sleep and letting him cry only makes his reflux worse. Giving him his pacifier isn't going to keep him from learning to go to sleep on his own. I am not going to rely on these things but I will now allow myself to use these things as a resource to help get through this. This will not last forever!

I will sleep peacefully again......someday. I have hope again. That's all I needed. I had it all along and I refused to grasp it and hold on tight. I will now. I am hanging on for dear life to the hope that this to shall pass.

How often have I done this is other areas of my life? I have certain expectations for how things should go and I miss all the signs that things are just different this time. I keep trying to fit life or God or people into these neat little boxes that I can understand. Sometimes it works. But most times life is just MESSY! I keep trying to tell myself I have it all figured out and then BAM! something comes along and I have to face the fact that I still have a lot of learning to do. No matter how many kids we have each one will be different and things that worked once might not ever work again! That's life. I don't really want to have it all figured out, do I?