Worst Day Ever...with a happy ending

I've had very few "worst days" ever in my life.  The first worst day I can remember happened when I was about 9 or 10.  My whole family went down to the Dominican Republic to spend time with my mom's family.  My 3 stepbrothers came along for the ride, including my evil (back then...we're great friends now) stepbrother, George.  George is only 2 years older than me, so throughout our entire childhood, we were at each others' throats.  One particular night, we were at my grandma's farm house in a small town in the DR (small enough that the electricity goes out every, single night and you have to sleep in beds with mosquito nets).  In my room there stood a crib, the very same crib I used to sleep in when I was little.  Since I was only like 4 foot something and weighed maybe 60 lbs, I climbed into it with my little brother.  We put the mosquito net over it and lied down.  George came over, looked into the crib through the mosquito netting and started laughing at us.  I got inexplicably mad and, before I knew it, my hand shot up and hit him in the face.  Seriously, not even a second passed before George hit me back right smack in the middle of my face.  Hard.  Worst Day Ever #1.

Worst Day Ever #2 involved kissing Ashley Bryant's ex-boyfriend in junior high school.  She got so mad at me and yelled at me in the hallway at school that that afternoon, I begged my mom to let me switch schools. 

Worst Day Ever #3 was in college.  My roommate Annie and I put it down on our calendar as the worst day ever, but I can't remember why.  It was probably a mixture of it raining and having to go to work (we worked delivering mail at the Hiram College Service Center) and there not being any Sloppy Joes at the Miller cafeteria for dinner that night. 

Worst Day Ever #4 was actually my entire year of law school.

Worst Day Ever #5 was yesterday.  Desmond would not stop crying the whole day...sun up to sun down.  He had to fart and poop so badly but had such a difficult time passing it.  When he would fart or poop, he would be content for about a half hour before he started wailing again.  No amount of comfort nursing or swaying and rocking would soothe him.  It killed me to see him in so much pain.  I tried everything I could: we went on two walks together and he still wouldn't fall asleep.  The only nap he took was 30 minutes long.  Barely long enough for me to do some laundry, wash the dishes, and take a shower.  I tried bouncing around the house, doing his toot exercises (making fart sounds while I press his knees up towards and into his abdomen), and swinging him upside down.  Nothing worked.  At about his 3 o'clock feeding, I made a panic call to my mother who chewed me out for being a wimp.  I swear to God she thinks that I'm the cause of his crying... "What are you doing to my baby?" she asks me :)

I counted down the minutes until Billy came home so that he could take over.  Billy usually gets home at around 6:30, but because of the stupid circus and the PETA demonstrators that come along with it, he didn't get home until after 7.  Because I nap with Desmond a lot during the day, I'm usually awake with him until his 2 or 3am feeding, which works well for me, if he naps.  Since he didn't nap all day, I went to bed last night at 11.  Billy took over taking care of Desmond and came in at around midnight to let me feed him.  After I did, Billy took him back and went into the living room to work on his essays. 

I heard Desmond crying and woke up from what I thought was about an hour and a half nap.  I looked over at the clock on the night table and it said 6:45.  I rubbed my eyes and looked again and realized that I had slept for roughly 6 continuous hours, 7.5 if you count my nap before my midnight feeding.  "Holy Shit!" I yelled.  As soon as I did, Billy walked through the door, bleary-eyed.  He had fallen asleep wearing Desmond on the couch.  He had stayed out there all night with the dogs to let me sleep as much as possible.  I fed Desmond and he stayed up for about an hour and then we slept from 7:30 in the morning until about 10:30.  This has by far been the longest I've slept without waking up to pee, or because my hips hurt, or to feed Desmond in, oh, like 8 or 9 months.  It was absolutely heaven and seriously the best gift ever.  Billy, you are by far the best boyfriend I have EVER had.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for hanging out with The Little Demon last night.  I will try my hardest this next week to be so super nice to you :)  Honestly, I appreciate it so much.

Today, there's a new bounce to my step and I'm a transformed woman.  It's AMAZING how much better I feel after a good night's sleep.  Small victories, my friends, small victories.