I Will Call Her Oscar

the grouch, that is. Yep, today has been a very tough day. My sweet Samantha has not been all that sweet. Obviously, SOMETHING is wrong, but I sure haven't been able to figure out what it is. Instead, I have been privileged to listen to her scream until she chokes at least 4 times today. All the while, I am trying everything to figure out what is wrong and what she wants. And NOTHING works.

Mid afternoon, I went to Jennifer's house (they were back for the weekend) and told her that I was auctioning the baby off for the afternoon. She came over and managed to get Samantha to drink 2 ounces of milk. Up until the point, since 7:30am, I had only gotten her to drink 3 ounces. So I was very grateful. Plus Samantha showed her happy side again AND went down for a nap for Jennifer. Woohoo!

During dinner, she refused to drink anything, she spit everything I put in her mouth out and she wouldn't even take her favorite puffy stars anymore. Just more and more screaming. I finally called Jennifer, and asked her to come use her magic touch on Samantha. Jennifer was able to get Samantha to stop screaming, but even she couldn't get her to eat. So she took Samantha to her house for about 45 minutes to allow Brent and me to eat dinner in peace. And Jason worked the magic getting her to eat some and drink some. Yeah for friends and neighbors!!!

Going to bed was more of the same. Screaming her head off even while just sitting in my lap. I tried reading her stories, I tried singing and I tried giving her her paci and her teething ring. None of it worked. I tried teething tablets. Nope, that didn't work. It was over 30 minutes and she was still screaming, and making herself choke on all the drainage. She got very angry about me giving her Tylenol and tried to refuse to take it, so I had to hold her mouth shut until she swallowed. She refused to nurse and refused her bottle.

I finally put her sitting up in my bed so that I could pump, and then she finally stopped screaming. I don't know if it was what she wanted or she had been hurting too much and the Tylenol finally kicked in, but I am grateful that she is now sleeping mostly peacefully (still coughing some from the drainage) and I desperately hope that tomorrow is better. If not, I hope the babysitter doesn't quit, cuz I was sure tempted to myself today.