No sleep for me....dd sick or separation anxiety??

[shannon S]

I don't know where to begin.  Everything was going so well until both dd and I got sick.
For the last four nights dd has had my husband and I up all night.  She has been sick with a cold and a fever and so we've been giving her lots of cuddles and letting her fall asleep in our arms. Bad I know but it was all we could do to make her comfortable.  Now when we try to get her back into her crib she wakes and cries again and we just can't settle her in the crib.  I can't do pu/pd because I am so exhausted. I"ve had less than 3 hours sleep each night.  Now I think she is waking out of habit and it takes hours before we can get her back in the crib.  I was letting her sleep a lot during the day because she was so sick.   
I don't even know what my questions are.
Should we still wake lo and keep her on a routine when she is sick?
I thought maybe she slept too much during the day and that is why we couldn't get her back to sleep at night.

I'm also worried however that I've caused some separation anxiety....to make a long story short.  I was at a friends a week ago and we both got so sick (food poisoning) that we couldn't look after the kids.  I had no choice but to leave my lo with my firends mother in law.  (She was okay, played with her friend, and had her usual difficult time getting to sleep). She was really clingy the next day.
Then a few days later she came down with a cold and we've been holding her lots to get her to sleep.

So you see, I'm not sure if she is frightened that I will leave her again, ... if she is sleeping too much, or if it is just because she has to learn to sooth herself all over again.

Any help is appreciated.  I'm feeling so guilty over what happened but also so frustrated because she was finally starting to fall asleep on her own.  I don't know if I can go through the whole process for a month again.  Heck, I don't  even know if I can get through the next few nights with no sleep.
shannon

[deb]

Oh, you poor dear! I'm in a similar boat, so you have my sympathy, if it's any help.

I finally broke down and took Natalie to the doctor today. Turns out that after I've taken her how many times b/c she was pulling at her ears but didn't have an ear infection, THIS time that she left her ears alone, she DID have one! Good thing I took her! Now we're all on antibiotics, as I also have a sinus infection I had to acknowledge and I didn't want to pass it back to her, and Josie is on them too, much to my chagrin. (She and I have been on a special diet to combat intestinal yeast and this is likely to set us WAAAAAY back! )

Anyway, you might want to consider getting your LO checked to make sure things haven't gotten any more sinister. I would let her sleep a LOT while she's sick, but not so long that it dusturbs her night sleep (says the mom whose toddler has been waking almost EVERY NIGHT for the past week for 3 hours b/c baby thinks bedtime is naptime ), but if it turns out that she needs stronger/different meds, then it's probably time to help her get over this once and for all.

Also, might she be teething on top of all this? Nat is pushing out 1-year molars now and it's not helping.

Gotta go to bed before she wakes up so I can at least get a spot of sleep. *yawn*

Hugs,