Whoever came up with lactose-free milk is genius!

Gosh - this week has been so lllllloooooooooonnnnnnnnggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's only Thursday. Seriously!

Monday, Big D got home from his overnight shift and The Monster had a fever. So he took her to the doctor. She definitely had a little stomach bug, but she's also got three molars breaking through simultaneously (OUCH!), thus providing incentive to not eat. Great. So our concern is hydration. The only thing the child would do is drink milk and eat those little sugar-filled Gerber yogurt melts. So what happens when you only drink milk for a day or two? Yup - the runs. Thus increasing our concern for dehydration.

Tuesday, Big D watched The Monster despite only 4 hours of sleep. She still only drank milk. He did lots of laundry. I picked up more diapers on the way home (I absolutely despise buying diapers from the grocery store... way too expensive) and some more yogurt melts and some yo baby yogurts.

Wednesday, Big D watched her again after 4 hours of sleep. Days like these go like this: I wake up and prepare for The Monster to get up (extra clothes easily on hand, make sure there are plenty of diapers and wipes available, and get out the gas mask to deal with her diapers - kidding). Then we hang out until Big D gets home at about 9 or 9:30. Then I run out the door to work. But I have to leave work at 3:30 or 4:00 (depending on if a trip to the grocery store for supplies is needed), so that Big D has time to get ready before leaving at 5:45 in the afternoon for his shift. So my hours on Tuesday and Wednesday were not good. Which means I'm going to have to go into work all day Saturday. But that's okay. I'm lucky I have a flexible "job" right now. (On a quick side note, I was watching the NBC Evening News last night, and they did a story on things like this - they are called "survival jobs," jobs that the unemployed take at a pay cut along with a major hit to self esteem.)

I'm telling you - this has been a hard week.

So all of a sudden, yesterday afternoon, I had an idea: Lactaid! Am I an idiot for not thinking of this earlier or a genius for coming up with it at all? Who knows. So I had Big D call the doctor and ask if we could give The Monster lactose free milk. The nurse was like, "uh - yeah...." Feeling quite sheepish, I picked up two half gallons on my way home: one for home and one for school. So basically, this child has had diarrhea for two or three days longer than she needed to because I didn't think of lactose free milk. I'm assuming that a day or two of this will allow her stomach to rebalance from the stomach flu, and then I can reintroduce real milk over the weekend.

So last night, I put her to bed and said a prayer that she has solid poopies (something I never thought I'd do before having a kid). This morning, I gave her a cup of milk, put her down to play, and waited. And it happened - she had a poopie, and it was solid! YAY!!!! I quickly packed her up and took her to school. You know how I drop her off with a muffin and a yogurt or cheese? Well, we're out of muffins, because I've been too tired to make any. And it's not like she's eating them anyway. So I sent her to school with about 20 of those Gerber yogurt melts. Not my proudest parenting moment, but the child needs to eat. I'm hoping that the chaser of Motrin I gave her with her milk will keep her teething pain under control so that she'll eat some other food. It hasn't helped over the past few days, but I think that seeing the other kids eat will make her eat again. And if not, there's a half gallon of lactose free milk in the school's fridge.

I have to say that I'm exhausted. I hate to see her sick. It's been a stressful week. And now I'm feeling a bit under the weather. And Big D hasn't gotten much sleep at all over the last few nights (none this past night, actually), so I know he's really exhausted. All this made me lose my positive vibe yesterday. I sent Margaret some really whiney messages (sorry!). But today Optimistic Annie is back.

Yesterday was the six year anniversary of my first date with Big D. Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!