Cotton Gloves
I recovered from my cold just in time to host a wonderful Halloween play date (on Halloween) for my older son's play group. It was great fun...only my son was the only one who didn't want to be in the wonderful costume I made him. Got it on him for a quick photo and then he was ripping it off. Good news is that he wore it out trick-or-treating, so that made it all worth it.
Come Tuesday of this week...my boys both have a cold. Had to cancel a weeks' worth of activities and try and reschedule a few. Seems like I'm always canceling things because one of us is sick. People must wonder how it happens that we're always sick. Nothing worse than listening to the baby try and breathe, and fumble through each breath because he's so congested. He's doing better now, but after another down week I feel like a bad parent due to all of the tv we've been watching. At least it's a lot of PBS. Yeah, doesn't make me feel much better.
I'm just SO tired that I don't have the energy to do anything for more than an hour or so at a time. That and trying to get an active 2 1/2 year old to do anything for more than 15 minutes is a challenge in the first place. We start to color, he gets board. We read a book and before it's over he's on the move. I play with him on the floor (while playing with the baby) and he's in the other room into trouble. He doesn't even really sit still for the tv, thankfully.
I just wish I could crawl into bed and sleep for an entire day. A down day. You know, the ones you used to get when you were sick...before kids. Maybe I'll ask for it for Christmas. And of course, through the back of my mind races the question, "am I so tired from having kids, or is it more related to the Sjogren's?" I know parents are generally tired, and as my baby didn't sleep more than 2 hours at a time until he was 3 months old (and he's still waking at least two times during the night), I know much of the fatigue could be from just general lack of sleep. I look forward to naptime each day...and hope and pray my older son will at least stay in his room. Got 20 minutes three days ago, nothing more since. He's a non-napper now, and although I keep trying to at least have quiet time, he comes into my room, yanks me out of bed, and says he wants to go "downdares." Too cute.
In addition to the fatigue, my mouth is split in the corners again and my hands are extremely dry (cracked and bleeding). My sweet sister loaned me her pair of cotton gloves so I could lube up my hands at night, cover them in the gloves and hope things were better in the morning. I've done that for 4 nights now and I have to admit, they're better in the morning, but by mid-afternoon after the daily chores and diaper changes, they're back to where they were. I'm planning on going to a Sjogren's meeting in my area next Sunday - a dermatologist is going to be speaking about skin problems, so that might be insightful. Helpful, I hope.
I've started losing big clumps of hair in the shower. I know post-pregnancy your body lets go of the hair that built up throughout the pregnancy, but at the back of my mind is the little voice that asks, "is this Sjogren's too?" Probably not, but you never know.
In the meantime, it's time to continue my day and maybe motivate to run a few errands this morning. Get out of the house at least, as we all have a bit of cabin fever.