Gideon ate our sleep

[andrewducker]

About a month ago Gideon started sleeping badly.

That isn't that unusual. He regularly has a couple of nights in a row where he wakes up a lot. Can be related to all sorts of things.

But it went on. And on. He was fine during the day, so we eventually worked out that it was because he was lying down. He has a history of ear infections - at one point he was getting one every time he got a cold. So we thought it might be one of those. But he wasn't complaining at all during the day, and when we checked some guidance they indicated that normally kids will recover from an ear infection in a few days all by themselves.

And so we kept figuring that, soon, he would just recover by himself. And it wasn't worth antibiotics, because our experience of Gideon with antibiotics is that he will fight like a tiger, and then spit them all over us, making the entire experience pointless.

And then, finally, on Monday, we decided that we couldn't go on being woken up hourly every night. And so I phoned the doctor at 8:30 (once the kids were in nursery), and discovered that all of their appointments for the day were gone. So on Tuesday I phoned them at 8:00, got put straight into a call queue, got through within 5 minutes, and was given an appointment for 9:10.

Jane took him in (our arrangement is that she tends to do Gideon things and I tend to do Sophia things, although it's now much easier for me to do Gideon things too), and the doctor said "Very mild inflammation around his ear, here's some Amoxicillin".

That night, with some trepidation, we gave him a dose, with the promise of a sweet afterwards. And he took the medicine, swallowed it, and grabbed the sweet out of my hands. And has been really really easy to dose ever since.

And then, two days later, last night, he only woke up twice in the night, fed briefly, and went back over near-instantly.

I don't feel like a real human being yet. I'm going to need a few nights of this first. But the last few days I have been in pieces*, and I am so looking forward to feeling recovered.


*On Thursday I wondered where an Amazon parcel was. And checked the site, where it said "Oh, we delivered that yesterday, here's a picture of it on your porch." And I worried about people stealing it from the porch, and whether the builders had moved it somewhere, and what could have happened to it, and whether I should complain to Amazon. And then I found it on my office floor, and remembered that it *had arrived the previous day* and that I'd opened it, and tried it on, and shown it to Jane. And then that part of my memories had simply detached itself and floated away into the ether.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I'm so glad you're on this. My brother had major ear issues which got missed and it left him not able to hear in school where they also failed to pick up on it.

[andrewducker]

I'm glad we're there now. I feel bad that we didn't get there sooner.

[marymac]

Ultan did something similar with his teeth, we had some hellish nights and then it seemed to click that calpol helped and the fuss died down considerably. He's only actually started sleeping through the last month, and I haven't got the best of it because I don't sleep well in heat, but even so I can FEEL my brain unsludging itself.

[andrewducker]

*hug*
I'm glad it's getting better

[aldabra]

Yes. K didn't sleep for more than three hours at a time for eighteen months, and I couldn't speak in sentences. I got parts of my brain randomly kicking back in for about five years after that. Like colour vision; something in my head had clearly decided colour vision was a dispensible luxury and stopped supporting it unless I was doing something specifically colour-related, and I didn't notice until it switched back on.

I should not have been doing data analysis in the immediate aftermath of that state. I didn't have enough simultaneous synapses to marshall. Every now and then things got markedly easier, in a way that felt like another synapse coming back online so I could keep track of more state in my head. I still don't think I'm completely right, but I am way way more functional than I was when she was little. (I don't think it is in the interests of parents or children or employers to make people work through that. So, whose interest is it in? Landlords.)

[azurelunatic]

It's amazing what the brain can do! Amazing for being able to survive appalling conditions, and also kind of horrifying. I'm glad you're getting things coming back.

[andrewducker]

*hug*

I'm sorry things got that bad. I'm glad you're recovering!

(As my own landlord, I don't feel like it's in my own interests :⁠-⁠) )

[aldabra]

(I think you're collateral damage in a system which isn't set up for the benefit of the people within it.)

[channelpenguin]

I never had kids. But I wake multiple times in the night myself for random amounts of time for no reason and always have. I does not seem to affect me at all (unless the wake periods are much lomnger than usual and I still get up early), I am just like that. When I used to sail, I could do 3 hours on 3 hours off all day and night every day indefinitely. Felt fab, actually.

I guess I would be ok with kids compared with folks who are badly affected by interrupted sleep - life is unfair, lol.

My cat is pretty good, but I still semi-hear him bringing in and playing with rodents and moths and stuff.

[andrewducker]

3 hours in a row sounds luxurious!

[channelpenguin]

I bet it does! I hope you achieve that or better soon!

[azurelunatic]

I'm glad Gideon is doing better! And glad that you're getting better sleep now.

[andrewducker]

Thank you!