Letter to Baby

My dear Little Man,

You know that Mommy and Daddy love you very much, right? Why else would we cater to your every whim? We carry you around just so you can cruise the house, you have your choice of play things, we'll hold you under your arms so you can "stand" all you want, at a wimper we're at your beck and call, you have bottles of formula to eat to your little tummy's content, clean diapers, clean clothes, and we get up at all hours of night to feed you. Mommy and Daddy are six months deprived of a good night's sleep just so our little baby stays fed and content (and asleep).

So, please be patient with us as we try to figure out what the heck is going on with you. Like this past week when you started throwing fits at 10:00 PM every night because you wanted to play instead of going to sleep. We're trying our best to communicate to you via bedtime routines and pleas of "It's bedtime! Go to sleeeeeeep!" that it is indeed dark outside and the rest of the babies in the world are being sweet little angels and dozing off (for several hours...not 15 minutes).

Or when Mommy wouldn't let you scratch your tummy because she thought you were scratching another eczema spot. It took her a day to figure out that the eczema was really ringworm. Where, oh where, Little One, did you pick up ringworm??? Can you tell me that? Or whisper it Daddy and he'll tell me? Was it daycare? Mommy didn't mean to go borderline psycho on the phone with the on-call nurse when she called to see what to put on your skin. The annoyingly pleasant nurse asked if the ringworm was diagnosed by a doctor or was it a self-diagnosis. Well, if it had been diagnosed by a doctor, I wouldn't have been calling her, because I sure wasn't in the mood to chat. Then she asked how I knew it was ringworm. I told her that I had it before several years ago, but spared her the details that it was on my NECK from a stray kitten I had rescued and that for 3 weeks I went to work with something that looked like a hickey. Then she reminded me that you shouldn't scratch it and that it was contagious. I came really close to using some choice words that she probably couldn't find on her computer, but I really needed to know what to put on your skin so Mommy bit her tongue (almost too hard) and listened to her as she grated on my frazzled few nerves that I had left.

Speaking of daycare, we have tried our best to find a place that will be mindful of your sensitive skin and eating schedule. I have maintained my patience as we have told them over and over and over again to feed you when you're hungry not when it's on their schedule. But Mommy came really close to ringing their smiling little pencil-necks when they sent you home Friday evening after having given you one of their burp rags that was washed in the WRONG detergent. So, you had to fight a red, itchy face all evening. On top of the ringworm patch that was developing on your tummy. No wonder you were fussy!

And then there was that horrible smell you were emitting Friday evening. Mommy scrubbed you up in the bath and got you squeaky clean only to have the smell return. It took two days to figure out that it was an ear infection and not just stinky baby syndrome. And those prunes Mommy fed you Sunday morning didn't help with the whole stinky thing this morning, either.

So, maybe, just maybe, we'll get your ear infection cleared up, your ringworm healed (still in shock over that one), your tummy full, your face clear, and THEN you can sleep. Or you'll just be a lot happier while you're playing at 10:30 at night.

Lots of love and hugs and kisses (but no sharing of skin infections, please),
Mommy