I wanted to blog this yesterday...

...but exhaustion got in the way!

My day started off with me leaving SR's school crying.  Call it lack of sleep (pregnancy wakes me SEVERAL times a night) and hormones and stress, or call it one of her teachers really upset me for no reason.

First of all, SR is in a wonderful daycare - I have been mostly thrilled with her care, with a few exceptions (bruising in her legs that I wrote about was dealt with positively, along with other issues that have surfaced).  One of her teachers has been working at this centre for 7 years.  She is a lovely lady.  She is also a woman who had a career in her native country but is not able to practise that career in Canada - this is unfortunate b/c I have heard that she was a scientist and is now in a field (child care) completely unrelated to her field.  She has grown children, and she is in school part time in the Early Childhood Education field, so she is trying to better herself in this new career that she is in.  But she is not my favourites of SR's teachers.

When I pick SR up each day, she insists that I stay to play for a little while...so I observe a lot.  This teacher is quick to raise her voice at the toddlers.  She jumps to conclusions when there is a "battle" over a toy and makes assumptions over which 2 year old started it.  She has made several comments to SR in front of me that I have quickly said were not true - "SR, your mommy is leaving and you are staying here." - when I am trying to get SR to finally pack it up and leave.  I always say, "No, mommy is not leaving you.  I am waiting for you." Or something along those lines.  I don't threaten her or pretend.  That's just not how I parent.

There's the background information so you can understand my story:

SR had a restless sleep Thursday night/Friday morning...I wasn't sure why, but there was quite a bit of moaning in the night.  When she woke up she told me she bit her tongue.  I'm such a giving mommy - if I kiss her knee when there's an ouchie, I certainly can kiss her tongue (NEVER KISS A TONGUE THAT HAS BEEN CLAIMED TO HAVE BEEN BIT!!!).  I did look at her tongue first, and there was a little tiny mark on the tip that looked like a little bite.

We got to her school and her big news to tell all her teachers was that she bit her tongue.  I should have clued in that she doesn't normally linger over things like this and it was probably bothering her a lot, but she also likes to share everything these days.  She went from teacher to teacher to say "I bit my tongue."  This particular teacher didn't hear her, and I always like SR to feel validated or that she's not being ignored and what she says is important.  So I said, to the particular teacher, "SR is telling you she bit her tongue."  Her response to me was something like this:

"Mommy, you worry too much.  The only one you should worry about now is the new baby on the way.  SR is too sensitive to every little thing.  She also knows what every child is doing all the time."

Call me sensitive but I left and cried the whole way to school and then again when I saw a colleague who would get it.  I also texted another mom from the classroom b/c she's had her issues with comments from this teacher before.

First of all, I wasn't worrying at all over a bit tongue.  Secondly, I will never only worry about one child over the other and SR is here now, and the baby is still growing (rapidly) in my uterus.  Third of all, SR is not sensitive.  In fact, she rarely cries, and is always smiling and happy.  She will ask for a kiss and a hug if she gets a boo boo and then will say "I'm all better now."  Yes, she is very aware of the other children - and I'm so glad about that.  She has chosen her "friends" to be the children who are not aggressive and do not pull toys or hit or bite or push.  She knows every sesame character on every child's diaper at any given time - hope she doesn't make a habit of looking at children's underwear as she grows up ;)  She is sensitive in the way that at the Paediatrician yesterday (I'll get to that), she kicked me in the face while being examined, but after stroked my face and said on her own, "I'm sorry I kicked you in the face, mommy."  So if that's sensitive, then I'm fine with that.

I'M THE ONE WHO IS SENSITIVE!!!

Anyway, at 3:45 I got a phone call from the centre saying SR didn't sleep or eat.  Two clues that something is wrong.  SR always eats unless something is wrong.  And SR always sleeps (2 hours) unless something is wrong.  Why did they wait so long to call me?  And not only did she not eat or sleep, she also had blisters on her tongue - guess it wasn't a bit tongue after all.

At that time I couldn't get a ped appointment - but the message said the colleague of our Ped would be in Sat. and Sun.  The girl who works the reception at the end of the day on Friday is the daughter of my parents' friends.  My mom called her dad and asked if he could call her cell to get us in before they closed.  The girl asked the doctor and he agreed, so we luckily got to see SR's paediatrician immediately!

He said it "might" be a mild case of Hand Foot and Mouth disease and she could go back to school Monday if there was no fever.  The daycare also told me that as long as there was no fever she could be there.

To the teacher - I wasn't worrying at all - but look, I should have been worried and you made me question my judgement and made me feel bad about my wonderful little girl and it turned out to be something more than just a bit tongue after all.

Last night was brutal.  SR wouldn't eat or drink.  I take that back...she did eat vanilla frozen yogurt - it numbed her tongue I think - and then she would take a couple of bites of random types of food.  The night was terrible - around midnight when the Tylenol wore off and I wanted to give her advil...she was hysterical!!!  We calmed down in my bed watching Treehouse (tv station with 24/7 baby/toddler/preschool TV shows) for about an hour.

This morning was much the same.  No food or drink and blisters on her tongue.  But as the day went on, the blisters started to go away...and now there are no visible blisters.  She's still crying about her tongue and I think she's scared to eat or drink.  She did eat a lot more vanilla frozen yogurt - and I have not brushed her teeth in two days - I'm scared it will hurt her.  I did also introduce her to freezies, which she eventually trusted me enough to take.  And after the Advil kicked in before bed, she did eat some berries and drank her milk.

Yesterday she said to me, "mommy, why did you hurt my tongue?'  I said, "I didn't hurt your tongue."  She asked if my parents hurt her tongue, and I told her they didn't either.  So she said, "Who hurt my tongue, mommy?"  Poor girl.  But it amazes me how articulate she is at 29 months.  These sentences are not exaggerations either.

Now she has a hoarse voice...not sure what's going on.  I'll see how she is tomorrow.  If she's still not eating, I'm going to take Monday off work.  Here's hoping she sleeps through the night...I need some sleep!

Three and a half weeks until Baby comes!!!!