(Warning... the probably contains TMI discussing discomfort while urinating, and contains frank medical terms vis a vis "peeing" and "pooping". Read at your own risk)
This weekend, Diana was picked up early Saturday morning by some friends, and left for a bachelorette spa weekend, not to return until Sunday. This would be the longest time that I would be in sole charge. It's not really that big a deal… Diana has been in sole charge for most of the summer, but it was a first for me.
The morning started off fine. We headed to the Wild Animal Park, and Allie's favorite, Dino Mountain. After the dinosaurs, we heard commotion at the nearby elephant enclosure, where we caught a glimpse of the elusive "5 legged" elephant. Soon enough, we headed home for lunch and naptime.
About this point in time, things started heading south. Allie was tired and cranky, and getting pretty unhappy. In order to try to make her happier, I started doing the things she was requesting (like getting her out of her crib, sitting with her in the rocking chair, etc). The problem, though, was that none of these requests seemed to satisfy her, and instead led to even more requests, again, none of which made her happy. I finally came to the conclusion that I was being played for a fool, and told her in no uncertain terms that it was time for her nap, and left her to fend for herself. Within 10 minutes she was crashed out. Not bad. I looked forward to a nice long nap on her part, and a happier kid when she woke up.
No such luck. An hour later, she woke up crying and still pissed. I tired a few tricks to get her to calm down, but when nothing work, just let her have some time to herself to cool down, which worked out well. When she was more her normal self, we got ready to head to the park for the afternoon. I got her up on the toilet to pee before we left, and she started crying. This was unusual, because normally she'd to an impressive pee and be pretty proud of herself. This time, she let out a little squirt, cried, and said "itchy!" and insisted she it was a "little pee" and she was "all done".
We headed to the park, but my mind was racing. What if she had some infection? This was totally unusual behavior. She had had a slight unexplained fever on the previous Monday, but that was almost a week ago. So after playing at the park, I took her to the bathroom there to try again, and the same episode played out. Fuck.
Back at home, I try to inspect her parts, but she's really anxious and flinches as if she's in pain. Sure she's got some sort of UTI, I call Diana and leave a message. I call the doctors office, and get through to their urgent care answering service. While I'm hold, the call waiting beeps, and then my cell phone rings. I know it's Diana, but I don't answer because now I'm talking to the nurse. She listens to my story (I'm disproportionately worried and anxious at this point), and wants me to try some things before I have her seen by a doctor. She recommends a bath with baking soda, a little baby Tylenol, and to try to get Allie to pee if at all possible.
I listen to Diana's voicemail. She's calling from her friends phone, and hasn't hear MY message. So I call her back and fill her in on the details. We didn't think she needed to come back or anything… She was up in Smell-A without a car, so if she wanted to come back, it would mean getting a ride with someone else.
As I'm filling up the bath, I get a call from the after hours support guys at work. There is a problem with some software thing. This is about the last thing I need at this point in time. Luckily, it was something I could diagnose over the phone and no action was required.
In the bath, Allie was able to stand up and pee and with lots of coaxing, get it all out, still with lots of discomfort.
It was still about an hour before her bedtime, so we went on an adventure to the grocery store for dinner for me, some more milk, and Diana thought some cranberry juice might help, too. In spite of all her discomfort on the toilet, aside from that, Allie is an absolute angel. I teach her the word "adventure", and we have an "adventure" to the store. She's dressed in her jammies, and riding in the cart pointing out balloons and watermelon and everything else she recognizes. Such a sweetie.
After we got home, she pooped, so I changed her diaper, and noticed it was wet as well. So that was good news.
Bedtime all goes well. I'm still totally concerned, though, that she'll wake up crying, be burning up with a fever, and unable to pee. I had previously talked about having friends come over that night, but cancelled those plans because I'm totally worn out. Dinner, a little Maker's Mark, and the first half of the Chargers preseason game go down easy, and off to bed.
Allie woke up once at 10:30pm. I gave her a little more Tylenol, and told her to lie down, and she went right back to sleep, and I didn't hear from her again until 7am. Nice.
The morning was great. She seemed to be feeling ok. We went to the toilet, though, and again she was anxious and said she was all done without actually going, and wanted her diaper back. I said "let's play a fun game!" and put her diaper in the toilet, and asked if she could pee ON her diaper. She hopped up and unleashed a monster piss all over the diaper without any further complaint. Good news, but what the hell?
We head to Legoland and had a great time. Once at the park, we go to the toilet and the exact same scenario plays out. I'm not really concerned about an infection anymore, but wondering if she has some topical abrasion or rash, or maybe just staging a little revolution against potty-training? In any case, I get a call from my cell phone from "Home", which thankfully means that Diana is back. We head home, and my tenure of being a single-parent is over.
It certainly didn't go the way I expected it to or hoped, but in retrospect, it was very educational and satisfying. It's weird, but I could actually feel myself thinking differently, knowing that Diana wasn't around to take care of all the little things, like snacks and sunscreen and making sure we have our zoo membership cards before we leave.
I know it's not really something to brag about… as I said, Diana and other parents all over the world do this all the time every day, but I'm sure they, like me, felt encouraged and empowered the first time they did it all on their own. That said, I'm glad Diana's home. :)
This weekend, Diana was picked up early Saturday morning by some friends, and left for a bachelorette spa weekend, not to return until Sunday. This would be the longest time that I would be in sole charge. It's not really that big a deal… Diana has been in sole charge for most of the summer, but it was a first for me.
The morning started off fine. We headed to the Wild Animal Park, and Allie's favorite, Dino Mountain. After the dinosaurs, we heard commotion at the nearby elephant enclosure, where we caught a glimpse of the elusive "5 legged" elephant. Soon enough, we headed home for lunch and naptime.
About this point in time, things started heading south. Allie was tired and cranky, and getting pretty unhappy. In order to try to make her happier, I started doing the things she was requesting (like getting her out of her crib, sitting with her in the rocking chair, etc). The problem, though, was that none of these requests seemed to satisfy her, and instead led to even more requests, again, none of which made her happy. I finally came to the conclusion that I was being played for a fool, and told her in no uncertain terms that it was time for her nap, and left her to fend for herself. Within 10 minutes she was crashed out. Not bad. I looked forward to a nice long nap on her part, and a happier kid when she woke up.
No such luck. An hour later, she woke up crying and still pissed. I tired a few tricks to get her to calm down, but when nothing work, just let her have some time to herself to cool down, which worked out well. When she was more her normal self, we got ready to head to the park for the afternoon. I got her up on the toilet to pee before we left, and she started crying. This was unusual, because normally she'd to an impressive pee and be pretty proud of herself. This time, she let out a little squirt, cried, and said "itchy!" and insisted she it was a "little pee" and she was "all done".
We headed to the park, but my mind was racing. What if she had some infection? This was totally unusual behavior. She had had a slight unexplained fever on the previous Monday, but that was almost a week ago. So after playing at the park, I took her to the bathroom there to try again, and the same episode played out. Fuck.
Back at home, I try to inspect her parts, but she's really anxious and flinches as if she's in pain. Sure she's got some sort of UTI, I call Diana and leave a message. I call the doctors office, and get through to their urgent care answering service. While I'm hold, the call waiting beeps, and then my cell phone rings. I know it's Diana, but I don't answer because now I'm talking to the nurse. She listens to my story (I'm disproportionately worried and anxious at this point), and wants me to try some things before I have her seen by a doctor. She recommends a bath with baking soda, a little baby Tylenol, and to try to get Allie to pee if at all possible.
I listen to Diana's voicemail. She's calling from her friends phone, and hasn't hear MY message. So I call her back and fill her in on the details. We didn't think she needed to come back or anything… She was up in Smell-A without a car, so if she wanted to come back, it would mean getting a ride with someone else.
As I'm filling up the bath, I get a call from the after hours support guys at work. There is a problem with some software thing. This is about the last thing I need at this point in time. Luckily, it was something I could diagnose over the phone and no action was required.
In the bath, Allie was able to stand up and pee and with lots of coaxing, get it all out, still with lots of discomfort.
It was still about an hour before her bedtime, so we went on an adventure to the grocery store for dinner for me, some more milk, and Diana thought some cranberry juice might help, too. In spite of all her discomfort on the toilet, aside from that, Allie is an absolute angel. I teach her the word "adventure", and we have an "adventure" to the store. She's dressed in her jammies, and riding in the cart pointing out balloons and watermelon and everything else she recognizes. Such a sweetie.
After we got home, she pooped, so I changed her diaper, and noticed it was wet as well. So that was good news.
Bedtime all goes well. I'm still totally concerned, though, that she'll wake up crying, be burning up with a fever, and unable to pee. I had previously talked about having friends come over that night, but cancelled those plans because I'm totally worn out. Dinner, a little Maker's Mark, and the first half of the Chargers preseason game go down easy, and off to bed.
Allie woke up once at 10:30pm. I gave her a little more Tylenol, and told her to lie down, and she went right back to sleep, and I didn't hear from her again until 7am. Nice.
The morning was great. She seemed to be feeling ok. We went to the toilet, though, and again she was anxious and said she was all done without actually going, and wanted her diaper back. I said "let's play a fun game!" and put her diaper in the toilet, and asked if she could pee ON her diaper. She hopped up and unleashed a monster piss all over the diaper without any further complaint. Good news, but what the hell?
We head to Legoland and had a great time. Once at the park, we go to the toilet and the exact same scenario plays out. I'm not really concerned about an infection anymore, but wondering if she has some topical abrasion or rash, or maybe just staging a little revolution against potty-training? In any case, I get a call from my cell phone from "Home", which thankfully means that Diana is back. We head home, and my tenure of being a single-parent is over.
It certainly didn't go the way I expected it to or hoped, but in retrospect, it was very educational and satisfying. It's weird, but I could actually feel myself thinking differently, knowing that Diana wasn't around to take care of all the little things, like snacks and sunscreen and making sure we have our zoo membership cards before we leave.
I know it's not really something to brag about… as I said, Diana and other parents all over the world do this all the time every day, but I'm sure they, like me, felt encouraged and empowered the first time they did it all on their own. That said, I'm glad Diana's home. :)
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