Merry Christmas and Goodnight

It's 8:00pm and I'm ready to crash for the night. I'm dreading going to sleep though because of the turmoil Noah put us through last night...Christmas Eve. Maybe the little guy wanted to stay up to see Santa but for whatever the reason he decided that starting at 11:00pm no one, and I mean no one, in the house was going to get some sleep.

He's had a slight head cold over the past couple of days and has had minimal coughing but something wasn't right and for the life of me we couldn't figure it out. We tried EVERYTHING...bottles, steam showers, medicine, changing pjs, changing the temperature, changing the noises from the sound machine...nothing worked. "If" we were able to get him back to sleep, he'd be awake 20 minutes later screaming in his crib. Then we did the hard thing and let him cry it out a couple of times but because he continually woke up the husband decided that we should take him to the ER to be on the safe side.

So around 3:00am we bundled up and headed out to our favorite ER facility (see this post) and poor Noah was so exhausted but fighting every bit of sleep on the drive out. The nurses were incredibly sweet and friendly but you could see the terror on his face and in his reaction when anyone approached him. Final verdict: nothing was wrong. Again, better to be safe than sorry. They gave us some prescriptions to help control the cold and by the time we swung by a 24-hour pharmacy and got home it was nearly 5:00am. I fell right to sleep only to wake with the husband bringing Noah to bed. The husband had been awake the whole time letting Noah sleep in his arms...he had woken again 20 mins or so after going to bed in his crib.

By that time it was already 7:30am which is Noah's normal wake time. I took over and we "got up" and played and ate breakfast. We had to save opening presents (since it was Christmas morning) until the husband woke up but by the time Noah's nap came around he was out like a light. Three hours later he awoke, we did presents as a family and the joined my family for Christmas lunch and gifts.

(Update: After discussing with the husband what happened during his shift in the night, we think Noah was having terrible tummy issues. Praying it's all cleared out tonight!)

We enjoyed Christmas Eve with the husband's family, however since Noah is the only grand-baby on that side it can be a little overwhelming getting all the attention. We thought for a bit that he'd been overstimulated by the amount of activities and new people due to his birthday and the holidays and that is probably part of it. I'm glad to get back to some normalcy for the time being.

Post-Christmas, Noah is now a pro at opening gifts. First his birthday and now three different Christmas' where more presents than I can count were thrown his way. So far his favorite toy, we think, was a classic tin yellow Tonka truck the husband picked up at the store. We had it sitting out unwrapped under the tree with a bow on it and it's the first thing he went for when we gave him access to the tree. I'll be taking a note from my brother and sister-in-law by rotating all of Noah's new toys so we don't have so many scattered about at one time. It also gives him a chance to experience a "new" toy a little later during the year. He's definitely not old enough to remember it all.

Oh and did I mention it snowed?! We had beautiful flurries of snow all afternoon (very rare for Texas) and the snowflakes were nice and big and fluffy. I opened Facebook and of course found that half of my friends' list was already posting about it so I declined to make any comments until I was able to post pics from our afternoon...mini-snowman and all.

Noah's in bed now and like it said, I'm dreading going to sleep tonight (and I'm running on only 3 hours total from last night). I start to imagine I'm hearing him cry which only keeps me awake longer and stresses me to no end. Praying for sweet sleep tonight for everyone. Especially since the husband has to go back to work tomorrow.

Oh and one other downside to having no sleep last night...I missed out on making some homemade cinnamon rolls (a Pinterest recipe). I had the dough rising in the fridge all night and just didn't have the gumption to even look at the recipe this morning. Perhaps I'll complete the dish tomorrow pending previously said desired sleep.

So it's off to bed.

Merry Christmas and Goodnight.