We all have rough days. The kind of day where you can’t find one direction because everyone else is pulling you in 8 different ones. You know what you want to do, you know what you need to do, and then everything else pops up in the way. I had that kind of day. I came home from that kind of day and wanted to relax and write this article in fact (which is now very different than what it was going to be). Why???
Hammy isn’t feeling well. He’s getting a molar, he might have the beginnings of an ear infection, and his usually sunny disposition was anything but come bed time. I was trying to finish up moving around a few photos and syncing the household iDevices when Mom went to put Hammy to bed. She waited on the couch as per usual until he fell asleep in her arms, got up, put him in his crib, and all hell broke loose.
There may as well have been a pterodactyl in his room once she closed the door behind her. There was screaming, violent thrashes, gagging, and coughing. Usually when he goes off, we give him about 10 minutes, he tires himself out, and goes to bed. That wasn’t going to happen tonight.
Mom went in to comfort him and he’d calm down, but the second she went to leave, he’d go right off again. After a few attempts I went into his room, put my hand on his chest to re-assure him that I was there, and he calmed down.
Mom left the door open, so I turned to close it and stay in the room with him. He went right off again. Leaning over the crib rail with my hand on him, he calmed down again. I decided to test a theory. I sat down indian style next to his crib, reached a hand through the bars, and rubbed his leg to try to keep him calm. This seemed to work, so I went a little further and just stopped rubbing his leg. I put my head in my hands, closed my eyes, and hoped he’d take a queue from me and wrap this up. He didn’t. He was still quiet and just content that I was there with him.
I decided to take my separation a little further. I laid down on the floor on my back, almost out of his line of sight. He didn’t seem to mind. He scurried up, over, onto his knees, and down on his belly with his eyes as fixed on me as possible.
I closed my eyes and realized that it was the first quiet I’d had all day, my happy little Ham man was next to me, and all was right with the world. What made it better though, was he’d lift his head up about every minute or so, just to check if I was still there. This went on for about 20 minutes until finally, he was out of gas and asleep.
It’s amazing the little things we get to, have to do for our kids. It’s also amazing how some of the craziest most stressful situations can turn into the most relaxing and awesome moments of our lives.
