Longest in a long time

 

Braska had some kind of weird night. It started yesterday afternoon.  She napped ok at Auntie Rachel’s while I was taking care of some things there.  Then she woke and seemed “off” or not herself.  She had a GREAT day at school yesterday, by all accounts, doing really well with feeding therapy (yay!) and classroom.

We came home about 6 p.m. and she spent the evening very agitated. She didn’t want anything we offered. She acted exceptionally fidgety and had the sad, pouty face a lot.  She would flop on the floor, roll around and whine, then get up and take a few steps before flopping again.  When we would try to hold her, she’d squirm and then slide down off our laps. Everything we asked her about received a “No, not yet,” response with a very pathetic tone.  A few times she was knocking her head against the cabinet in the kitchen while I was there, and then the stove.  She only did this a few times, but I didn’t care for it one bit.

At one point, I was able to distract her with the sight words flashcards that she loves, and she seemed to kind of normalize for a few minutes, but then she returned to the highly agitated state.  She didn’t seem to be in pain, per se, but she was clearly very uncomfortable. 

We tried to put her to bed, but she thrashed around in her bed and would not settle down.  She didn’t cry, but grunted, sort of.  She didn’t grind her teeth, which I found odd, because that is almost constant when she’s tired and not feeling well. After about two hours, I got her up and rocked her, thinking I could help her calm down.  She went to sleep after I had held her pretty snugly and fought her fidgets.  (We do occasionally have to do this, hold her tightly and kind of assist her with turning off for the evening.  I’m sure it’s a sensory thing as well, but it’s usually easily dealt with and over for the night.) She gave up and went to sleep, but as soon as I laid her down, she was awake and upset again.  This happened several times. 

I took her into to my bed, thinking I could lay with her next to me and hold her tight to go to sleep, then she could just stay there instead of being moved.  Unfortunately, that means I do not sleep.  Even when she is sleeping well.  I just hear every breath and sound and wake with all of them.

But she did not sleep well even in our bed.  I tried every kind of pressure on her, including wedging her between me and a very heavy feather pillow.  It was clearly a sensory issue, in my opinion. It was like she could not stand being in her own skin.  She just could not get a moment’s reprieve from whatever was bothering her.  She would sleep for about 15 minutes, and then wake thrashing again for the next 30.  Then more sleep for 15 minutes, and on and on it went.  We even gave her a small dose of melatonin and it did not help one bit.

Several times I tried to take her pulse to see if her heart was racing.  But I literally couldn’t get her to be still long enough to get it.  Her respirations were definitely faster than usual, but not rough or labored.  It was really bizarre. And it just kept on.

I curled up at the end of my side of the bed and tried to sleep, but it just wasn’t gonna happen.  I did get a few little spots of 15 or 30 minutes at a time…not nearly enough.

About 3 a.m., I changed her diaper while she was thrashing and already awake.  (She’s been overflowing diapers at night lately…can’t have that in our bed!) She went back to sleep after some more tight rocking, but it only lasted about 30 minutes. 

She slept a little longer with shorter bouts of agitation as the morning went on.  And when M got up at 6 a.m. to get ready for work, I slipped into his side of the bed to try to sleep.  She woke about 7:30 a.m. and seems ok.  I can’t imagine how that’s possible.  I’m debating whether or not to take her to school.  Can she possibly be worth anything with so little real sleep? 

I feel completely run over.  And it’s a busy day full of must-do items.  I actually have a scared feeling when I consider getting through the whole day.  Strange.

And it bothers me that I have no idea what was going on.   What in the world would cause a reaction like that?  She had no red dye yesterday, which is slightly like what I would have expected with this reaction.  But it’s still different.  I just don’t know what it was.  And it honestly makes me afraid that it will happen again. 

I hope it was a strange one-time occurrence.

Anyone have any thoughts??