We're having a winter storm here in Kansas City this week, so our home is turning into a festering cesspool of seasonal illness. Andiclaus and I have been doing pretty well, but Alliclaus is definitely getting the worst of it. Her room is so warm with the heat on that she seems to have developed a bit of a cold (runny nose, on-again off-again low grade fever). Other than the nastiness that is a runny nose on a person who doesn't get the concept of "blow," it hasn't actually been too bad.

Except for the sleep situation.

Alliclaus sucks her thumb. We're not sure when or how it started, but she's pretty attached to it now. It's how she calms herself down and it is, most definitely, how she falls asleep at night. Thanks to thumb-sucking, we haven't been up in the night for months. It's wonderful.

But the runny nose is preventing her from sucking her thumb. So for the past couple of nights, we've been up for hours at a time trying to calm Alliclaus down. She can't nurse, which is really the only weapon in my arsenal, so I'm feeling parentally impotent at this point.

She was so exhausted that she fell asleep without finishing her bedtime bottle tonight, so I'm hopeful that her need for sleep will outweigh her desire to suck her thumb, because I could really use the rest.

Also, if it isn't asking too much, I wouldn't mind a break from the constant nose-wiping.