Nightus Interrupticus

We had an odd night last night. First, Josh had trouble putting Wren to sleep because of his "sore leg". He has been complaining of a sore leg for a few days. He has had Tylenol at bedtime for the past few nights to help with what we suspected were growing pains.

It was not growing pains but I am going to leave you in suspense for a moment.

At 2am Frost woke us saying he had a very sore tummy. He had been awake since 1am, tried to sleep on the couch, tried to walk around but it was still too sore.

I asked him where it was sore but he was ambiguous - showing various areas on his lower left side and flank. I gave him Tylenol and snuggled him in our bed for an hour but he was still unable to sleep (and so was I) so I got up to google side pain. Because I am neurotic I was thinking appendicitis, obstructed gut, arthritis in the hip etc.

DrSears.com suggested constipation or stiffness from vigorous exercise and recommended a warm bath. Due to the construction and tiling debris in the new bathroom a bath was not possible. I asked Frost whether he might need to poop.

"Oh, yes, I do actually."

At three am we clomped downstairs in the dark, no doubt interrupting Corinna who was sleeping in the basement. Then Frost spent a long time on the toilet complaining that it would not come out. I got the giggles thinking that this was a ridiculous experience and that I had not imagined parenting would look like this when I was single. I think I was in a sleep haze because I only went to bed at 11.30pm due to Nookitis.

Also, part of the reason Frost had this issue was our bathroom upstairs is unusable so he avoids going downstairs because it is time out from playing or reading Foxtrot comics. We are all going through bathroom-absence pathologies. Last night I actually peed in a bucket. I could not be bothered to walk downstairs [if you are not part of my audience able to cope with the idea of peeing in a bucket you can just pretend it didn't happen and is in there for dramatic effect.]

Frost felt better immediately after our basement excursion reached its goal and fell asleep in his bed.

I was unable to get back to sleep. My 15 stitches hurt and I drifted in and out of those strange dreams when you are conscious and 'awake' but the world is subtly altered - for example I had the most gorgeous bird sculpture made out of popsicle sticks hanging from my ceiling and twirling and twirling. Dreaming it turn was keeping me awake.

While lying half awake I realized Dr Sears was right about Wren too. His leg is sore because he has been scooting so much! It is only the leg that pushes the scooter!

Well done, Dr Sears.