Rough Patch

I already mentioned your early onset of Terrible Twos. But it seemed to escalate quickly once you turned 15 months old. In late August, we hit a rough patch that made me actually consider offering you up on the black market. (OK, not really, but I sure felt like it at the time!)

One evening in August, I noticed some strange spots on your hands that looked like water blisters. You had them on both hands, and I had no idea what caused them. Your dad and I guessed that you had gotten into some ants at daycare. The next morning, I asked the Director Brenda about your spots. She immediately knew the cause: Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Say what? Apparently it’s a virus that is common among young children. (You know it’s bad when your child catches things you’ve never even heard of before.)

Unfortunately, this was 2 days before you were scheduled for surgery to get ear tubes to stop the incessant ear infections you’d been battling since you were 6 months old. The doctor postponed your surgery and we hoped to reschedule the following month. The next day, you came down with a fever of 102, so it was back to the doctor. This time you were diagnosed with double ear infections, AGAIN. The doctor stressed that we needed to schedule your surgery soon, because you just weren’t responding to antibiotics. Duh.

After missing almost an entire week of daycare, you were recovering but not quickly enough. Your brothers came over that weekend, and Collin had to visit the doctor for possible strep throat or mono. By the time I got home from work that evening, I was feeling miserable with some kind of sinus infection. Your Dad was also feeling sick with a stomach virus of some sort. So between the 5 of us, we were in pretty bad shape. We spent the following Saturday doing nothing but sleeping, taking shifts to watch you, and lounging around the house. By Saturday evening, Collin had developed blisters on his hands, so he likely caught the Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus, too!

Right around this time, your Dad and I noticed a significant shift in your behavior. Despite your periodic temper tantrum once you reached age 1, you were still a fairly happy, go-lucky toddler. But all of a sudden, we started to notice relentless whining during the day and increased tantrums when you didn’t get your way. Another change was that you began to have difficulty taking your naps during the day, which had never been a problem before. There were several days toward the end of the month when you cried for up to 2 whole hours when we put you down for your nap. At first we thought you were just not feeling well from all the illnesses going around. But it continued to worsen.

In the first week of September, we had the worst day yet. We rescheduled your ear surgery for Thursday, Sept. 6. So on the 4th, I picked you up from daycare for your pre-op visit and drove straight to the doctor’s office, which was about an hour’s drive up north. Right around that time, a bad thunderstorm swept through the area causing heavy rain and street flooding. I was inching my way north on the HOV lane, and the entire time you were in the backseat screaming and crying. By the time we arrived at the doctor, my nerves were shot. You were cleared for surgery, and then we headed back home. Only I couldn’t get you into your car seat. I realize that you are 1 and I am 31, but honestly I was using all my strength to push you down into the seat and you were STILL overpowering me. Tough little booger. By the time I got you into your seat, you were MAD and I was soaked from all the rain. You reached out and slapped me hard with your little hand. And I admit, I grabbed it and slapped it right back. For the first time during your tantrum, you actually cried real tears. I hated the way it made me feel to hit you, despite how frustrated I was. (Right then I vowed not to do that again. It wouldn’t teach you anything productive, anyway.)

You cried and screamed the entire way home as we stopped at the pharmacy and then stopped to get dinner. When we got home, I gave you some food thinking it would calm you down, but you continued to fuss and fight, even throwing down the food I gave you. It truly seemed NOTHING would placate you at this point.

At the same time that you were pitching a fit at home, I began to receive urgent calls from the office about some work I needed to do. I tried to conduct conversations by phone, but you were crying and screaming so loud that no one could hear me or talk to me. At one point, I was so distraught that I put you in time out and I went and shut myself in the Laundry room just so I could finish my phone calls. But before I could finish, you came and started banging on the door for me to get out.

That was it. I had reached my breaking point. I decided that you needed a true time out in your crib. I went upstairs, changed your diaper (you were wiggling and fighting so much that you almost fell off the ottoman/changing area several times), and put you in the crib. You were extremely angry with this and continued to scream and cry. But finally, you fell asleep after 10 minutes or so. You must have worn yourself out with all the screaming and fighting, because you continued sleeping from that point (5:30 p.m.) until we woke you for school the next morning.

The interesting thing about your behavior during this time is that you only acted this way for us, Mom and Dad. At daycare, the ladies said you were happy all day and never cried. I spoke to everyone I knew and tried to figure out what was causing your screaming fits and what I could do to prevent them. The daycare Director Brenda alluded to the old myth that toddlers start throwing tantrums when there is a pregnancy in the family. Thank goodness she was wrong!