7 days. That is my maximum really. 7 days without Mason is like an eternity in Mommy years (quoted from Anne). By 5 days it was too long. I was in a real funk. In jammies, staring at the tv (I don't even like tv) and my body felt like dead weight. Sure the other contributing factors (job loss and a family death within 2 days of each other) had an impact as well but not having my baby boy with me while visiting family over the holidays was just a bit too much.
So Mom and I took a 8 hour round trip to pick up my baby boy. Drove 1.5 hrs to Nanaimo, 1.40 hr ferry to Vancouver, 2.40 hr ferry back to Nanaimo (with less than 10 mins in between + the ferry was late almost an hour) and the drive back 2 hrs (rainy weather). We left at 12:15 and got back late with a sleepy kid in the back seat. He woke just enough to say hi to his Papa and then off to bed he went. Upon picking him up from Clayton, I was told that Mason had pink eye (also known as conjunctivitis) and gave me some eye drops to administer. This was Mason's first experience with the red eye, goopy eye medical condition. It's quite common among germ sharing toddlers. Mason's cousins had it first and now Masey has it. Fun times :) From reading the article it appears there are two different types of pink eye and Mason seems to have the Bacterial version as his eyes are more goopy than pink.
So needless to say Mason was a bit on the sick side (along with a cough and sneezes) when he arrived. We had a fun day playing and ended the night early because he showed signs of being extra tired during the day. So into bed he went at 7:15pm. I was in the next room watching tv with my Mom and could hear Masey every hour or so whimpering. He wasn't awake but was having bad dreams I assumed. I headed to bed around 11pm.
A few hours later, the hall light is suddenly on and I'm annoyed cause it woke Mason and he ends up in my bed for some Mama and Masey cuddles. I don't like sleeping with Mason as he kicks and fidgets with his hands/blankets and it's hard for me to get a good sleep. I also don't like sleeping with my back to him so I'm stuck in the same position all night.
In the middle of my slumber, Mason sits up and says 'booger'. So I instinctively run my finger under his nose expecting him to be runny nosed and plugged solid only to find a dry face. So I tell him to go back to sleep, which he does for a few mins and then it's right back to sitting and 'booger'. Clearly I'm confused and wondering what else 'booger' could mean. I put my hand on his back and he's cooking, I'm sure he's got a near fever so I strip him down to the diaper and get him changed from his full sleeper to t-shirt and shorts. While looking at his face I realize that his right eye is closed. He says 'booger'. OMG. Mason's eye is glued shut with eye goop. I walk past my parents room to find them both awake and watching tv.
Me - "What time is it?? and why are you awake"
Parents - "3:30am, didn't you hear the doorbell?"
Apparently not. Sometime when the hall light went on, was after the doorbell was run repeatedly, by the police. According to them a young female assaulted another young female right in front of our house! We didn't hear anything and I certainly didn't because I was in the back bedroom with the white noise machine on (for Mason). Well I hope they find the deranged female that did it and the victim is okay. I'm assuming they knew each other as my Parents have lived on this street over 30 years and it's not in the hood!
So back to Mason. I took him into the bathroom to free his poor eyelid which was a bit of a chore as the mucous was really dry. About 10 minutes later he could see and back to bed we went. Back to bed,not to sleep. I felt a bit weird that an assault happened outside our house and I found it difficult to relax. Mason seemed to drift off so I turned over and for the next 15 mins his little legs ran up and down my back (and into my waistband of my jammie bottoms, which I found quite amusing) and over my hip and back. I decided to sing him a song and when I sang the last chorus he said 'yayyyy' and clapped his hands. LOL. Finally he went to sleep and so did I.
What a night!