Just a Funk

Sunday and Monday night Tate woke up screaming, and I mean screaming and hollering around 10pm after being put in his crib around 720pm, and asleep by 745pm.  At first there were just a few whimpers, but that quickly escalated into the full on blood-curdling screams.  I went upstairs to see just what was wrong...had he dropped his hippo?  could he not find one of the 15 pacifiers I had strewn about his crib?  was an appendage stuck in one of the crib slats?  did he hit his head and have a bloody nose?  


None of the above.


I wondered if he was having night terrors :(  I picked him to try to calm him, and he flailed about mercilessly.  I got him his hippo and a pacifier which he gratefully clutched, but managed to wail and cry around the pacifier hanging out of his mouth.  I walked with him, rocked with him, sang into his ear and finally laid down in my bed with him.  After about 8-10 minutes he calmed down and fell asleep and slept through the night.


Monday night was a repeat of Sunday night, though 15 minutes later.  


To make matters worse Monday morning though he woke up smiling and wanting to read his books as is his usual he had a fit when he came downstairs for breakfast.  Now this boy loves Cheerios, loves them. He has 2 bowls almost every morning along with a fruit, usually a banana, and a cup of plain yogurt.  I had his cereal all ready in his bowl, milk poured into it and he started crying and whimpering before he made it down the stairs.  The crying continued for 30 minutes.  I put him in his newly assigned seat at the dining room table as we've made the move from the highchair to a regular chair as of last week.  (I added a 'heightner' to the bottom of the chair).  He was beyond displeased.  Finally after 30 minutes I had to get him dressed for daycare, so I could get on to work.  He was still crying, with the beloved hippo AND pacifier. I held him and sang to him with some relief, but he just starting sobbing after a few minutes.   I ended up putting the cheerios in a plastic baggie for him to hold and eat out of and voila! Happiness.  We finally made it out the door 20 minutes late.  But once we got to school, the tears started again.  And these were the big, so unhappy and so very sad Mommy is leaving me here tears.  It was awful.  Nothing worked to help him, not sitting at the table eating yogurt melts, not going on to his classroom and playing with his friends.  Nothing.  The assistant director ended up holding him, so I could leave.  My heart was aching.  (when I picked him up they told me it took about 10 minutes, but he did calm down).  Needless to say I was late to work.


After Monday night's meltdown, Tuesday morning was a disaster as well.  I don't know what was wrong with my breakfast presentation.  But it was wrong.  I quickly put the Cheerios in a baggie and that seemed to help, but he still had lots of tears when left at daycare.  Again, I just wanted to run back inside, grab my precious boy and go back home and cuddle and snuggle with him all day.


Thankfully, Tuesday, Wednesday and so far tonight were uneventful.  He went down without a fuss, playing in his crib for about 30 minutes before drifting off to sleep.  Wednesday morning was better, but we still want the Cheerios in a baggie.


But Wednesday lunchtime was another story.  I got a call from the school around 11:15am.  My heart plummeted as soon as Lety told me it was Tate's school on line 1.  Those are 3 words you never want to hear as a working parent in the middle of the day...It's (insert your child's name here) school.  It was the director calling to tell me Tate's teacher asked her to call me because Tate was beside himself not wanting to eat his lunch.  He was refusing to sit down at all and was just crying and crying hard.  That day I had not packed his usual 'side dishes'.  He has always had a side of cottage cheese and fruit with his main meal.  I packed him a yogurt in place of the cottage cheese yesterday to switch things up.  Obviously not a good idea for my child.  They seemed to think he was upset about the empty spot on his tray.  Luckily I had left a little baggie of some puffs in his backpack and I told them to put those in the spot.  


He sat down and ate every last morsel once his lunch was presented in a manner which suited him.


He's been in a funk.  That's what his godmother, my dear friend Shelley, would say.  He's in a funk.  She always said that when her kids were acting 'weird' or outside their realm of normal they were going through something that put them in a funk.  She always tells me to give it time and he should figure it out.  


Sure enough it seems as though he has.  He's sleeping now and has been since 740pm.  This morning breakfast was only met with tears for about 2 minutes, and daycare drop-off was a breeze.  I pray this funk is over.  


Oh, and yes he had cottage cheese in his lunch today.

That's not the face of a kid in a funk, now is it?!