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April 28, 2005
"I want my mommy!"
Fabulous Babe was out last night for work so it was just Jack and I for dinner. Jack was hungry and ate a pretty good sized meal: a big handful of Cheerios, a jar of carrots and most of a jar of applesauce.
Can I just go on record saying that the smell of Cheerios has always turned my stomach? Ugh. Of course everything about Jack now reeks of the darn things and I'm trapped with their stench until he moves out. *sigh*
After dinner it was playtime. Jack sat on the floor with his 9000+ Peek-a-Blocks and we played the "daddy stacks them and I knock them over" game. A lot of his play these days is just standing next to things and trying to balance himself while he holds on for dear life. Sometimes he takes a few steps between objects but wants to hold on to fingers for safety.
I've found that leaving the TV off makes things easier when playing with Jack because he isn't turning to see what the new noise is about. I'm not a big fan of the TV being on around him but understand that's not as practical as I might hope for. TV has it's uses but constant exposure isn't something I want to see going forward.
After we played for almost an hour and a half Jack started rubbing his eyes which is the cue for bedtime. We went upstairs and within a few minutes he was on the bed, surrounded by Nuks, snuggling Froggy and sawing lumber.
I went downstairs and started to get the trash ready for pickup and some general cleaning. (Those 9000+ Peek-a-Blocks figure into that heavily.) Pretty soon I got things to the point I felt like I was ahead enough to read the paper.
Nope. From upstairs comes the worst cry I've heard Jack make yet. I run upstairs figuring he's stuck somehow but when I open the door he's just laying sideways. When I went to pick him up Jack was screaming and shaking and thrashing uncontrollably.
I’ll admit I was terrified for a few seconds because I had never seen Jack like this. He was crying and screaming harder than anything we’ve encountered. His shaking was almost like a seizure it was so intense. To say it was unsettling is understatement.
Gathering him up off of the bed I held him as tight as I could and just started to whisper in his ear to try to get his attention. The shaking stopped after a few minutes but for about 15 minutes it was a hopeless task. I walked with him, I bounced him and all he wanted to do was cry and look for mom.
Yup. The entire time I held him he was trying to look everywhere to find mom. He would crane his head, move his whole body and do everything to try and find “Ma” which he repeated again and again.
When he stopped crying I went to the phone to try and call Fabulous Babe. (No dice.) We went downstairs to play but he was still keyed up and just wanted to sit and look around. When FB called back he smiled as I held the phone to his ear. After listening he just lounged around with his Nuk and waited for her to get home.
Physically there wasn’t anything wrong with him. The best I can figure is that he had a scary dream of some kind. When Fabulous Babe came home we tucked him in bed and he didn’t make a peep after that.
I said once before I wish I knew what babies dream about. I can only guess that last night he had a dream where his mommy wasn’t there or he woke up and was completely disoriented. When you’re two foot small that’s no fun.
Posted by Jim at April 28, 2005 10:32 PM