You have GOT to be kidding me

This past week has been rough. I haven't felt like this since the weeks after D was born. My guess is it's combination of a lot of things-- Zach being away for 5 days, leaving me alone with D 24/7 for the longest stretch of time yet; D being super fussy thanks to what I assume are new teeth coming in; my period coming back meaning my hormones may be all whacky all over again.

Yesterday was one of the worst days. Zach stayed home in the morning, and everything was pretty calm. Then he went to work, and around 3:30pm D started getting fussy... and spent the next 4-5 hours screaming off and on. I gave him Tylenol twice, tried taking him on a walk (didn't even make it outside the gate), barely got him to take 1 decent nap in a span of 6 hours. He finally went to bed at 9pm, both of us exhausted and near tears. Brief moments of happiness and smiles from D help restore me a little, but I am feeling my energy and patience reserves dipping to low levels.

Zach has been planning to come home early this afternoon. I've been very much looking forward to getting just a bit of a break, letting him take D for a while while I napped, or read, or did anything at all that didn't involve trying to soothe a crying baby.

Last night D had a dirty diaper that had small traces of fresh, red blood in the poop. IT was 6pm, too late to call the pediatrician's office, so I looked up some info online and figured that it wasn't an emergency, I'd just call in the morning to see about it getting checked out. Early this morning he had 2 normal poops, but then about an hour ago had another one with some blood in it. So I called, and they said that unfortunately our dr couldn't fit us in today, but he felt that this needs to get checked out so he suggested that we take D to the children's hospital to get it looked at there.

And so, this afternoon, when Zach comes home from work, during the time I had hoped to get a much-needed break, we will instead be once again taking D to the hospital. I wonder at what point do they start to recognize us by sight when they see us walk in?

I don't know what to think of all this. Looking at the usual causes for bloody poops, I know it's not from a diaper rash, and he hasn't been constipated. It could be from a milk protein allergy, but would that show up so late? (I've been eating plenty of dairy the whole time that I've been breastfeeding him) It could be from his little system finally showing signs of stress from having taken antibiotics for the past 6 weeks (which we finally were able to stop a day or 2 ago). And of course it makes me question yet again why he's been so difficult lately-- I thought it was teething, but might he be feeling bad b/c of something else? What are they gonna do at the hospital? What will they check, and how long will it take? Are we gonna have to stay for hours, overnight, days? Hopefully not, but since he's still so little they always seem to be on the cautious side (which is good, obviously) and I just don't know what that will mean. I guess we'll find out.

I should go get dressed while the little one is still sleeping. Who knows what the rest of the day will bring.