I'm exhausted.

[first1]

My 22mo dd has bern waking every 2 hours for the past five days. She has a throat infection and chicken pox. She is crying uncontrollably it's relentless.

She's on nurofen and calpol alternately as advised by the doctor i called out at 4.30am on Thursday. She's also on piriton twice a day. The lack of sleep for all of us is killing.

My dp is working away, her dad is abroad, I have 7500 words of pgce assignments to write within two weeks. My family don't live nearby and all my local friends have kids so can't burden them.

I know I just have to go with it and it'll blow over soon I hope. But I'm just so so tired. It's worse than a newborn. Far worse.

Please mums, cheer me up :-(

Hang in there it will get easier.
Firstly prioritise- I know the assignment is
Hanging over you but stressing about
It will only wind you up. If you Need to
Make out a plan - rough format of the layout etc so you ll feel like you ve something done and it ll
Be ready for you to hit the ground running when things settle.
Secondly - I know you have meds for dd but we found phenargen great - I think you can't use it with piriton and maybe not calpol/ paracetamol. But it really helped dd sleep and knocked the edge off the itch. and when she slept we slept.

Soft easy foods - custard, ice cream, yogurts, mashed potatoes mostly anything they like to keep their blood sugars up and bellies full - this will help keep them in better form (mine are always cranky when food deprived!) and for you too - eat plently of easy snacks to keep your mood and energy up.

Secondly if the throat doesn't improve get her rechecked - ds had c pox and the picked up a viral infection that was of the same family as pox - can't remember the name of it - but it was very painful blisters on the throat and mouth and gums - he had to have strong painkillers and Zovirax type of oral meds - now it was unusual but doc said it was because he was vulnerable after the pox that he picked them up almost sinultanepusly. Obv chat with gp don't go medication from over the counter stuff.
I found regular calamine or
The like application on the spots also helped with the itch. Bit of aveeno oatmeal mositiroser (porridge oats in a sock in the bath meant to be good for the skin irritation and healing too.)
Hope it get s better soon.
On the upside - you won't have to worry when you hear there a pox going about and you ll have it over and done with

What great suggestions thanks! We are currently on our third consecutive viewing of pingu on DVD :)