Sleep-Deprivation Induced Paranoia

Has anyone else noticed how terrible I am at blogging consistently? I promise it's not because I have nothing to say-- quite the opposite. Sometimes I sit down to write and there's just so much that I want to put down but don't know where to start that I end up saying, "Aw, hang it all! I'll blog later...."

Yesterday morning I came in the house and Timmy said he thought there might be a new baby. Does that ever happen to you?

Anyway, I ran down to the nursery and did a quick headcount, and there appeared to be the correct number of bobble-heads, so I came back to give Timmy a hard time about it (all in good fun, of course...). A few minutes later I went back down to the nursery for something and one of the nannies handed me a baby I didn't recognize.

Whoops.

Making a mental note to eat my words, I took a look at Gladys. She's allegedly five months old and has a decent amount of baby fat, but her records (written in pencil in a small notebook by month, but not by date) show that she has lost a couple of ounces over the last 2-3 months. Her skin is wrinkled from dehydration, and she refuses to take a bottle.  Her Aunt said they had been feeding her porridge for the last two weeks since her mother fell ill. I finally got her to take some milk by dripping it into her mouth with a spoon. Yesterday she took about 25mL every hour or two, one painstaking drop at a time. She was running a pretty nasty fever, but it broke last night. She went to sleep about 10pm and would wake up screaming about every hour. She refused milk all night. I haven't gotten anything down her since 10pm yesterday. She's with the nannies now; I'm going to try and sleep for an hour and then try again.

I think her problem is both that she can't/won't suck a bottle and that her belly hurts.  When she woke up in the night, she would scream and arch her back in obvious discomfort, and she is incredibly gassy for a child who isn't even swallowing anything.  She does not act like she is hungry at all.

Please, take a moment now and pray for Gladys.  Pray that her body will accept the milk that she needs. Pray that she will feel hungry and want the food. We're treating her for Malaria. Please pray also for wisdom on our part as we care for her. Send up a prayer for my little Kindergarteners too-- I didn't see them at all after morning school time yesterday because I was working with the baby. Johnny came and found me yesterday evening, told me he missed me, and promised to pray for Gladys. 

She is a precious little thing. Every few hours, when she is awake and feeling alright, she'll let out a little chuckle.  She likes to be sang to and bounced, and placing her on her stomach puts her to sleep almost instantly if she's tired. The cat is rather fond of her as well. All night long Chai went back and forth from me on the couch to the little baby bed. Gladys would start whimpering in her sleep, then Chai would curl up purring at the small of her back and Gladys would calm down. 

In other news, we've started bringing the babies up to the main house for a little while every evening again. This is usually a normal part of the schedule, but schedules have been pretty crazy over the last couple of weeks due to illnesses, arrivals, departures, visas, etc. Thursday evening, I discovered something really interesting about Ephraim. First of all, he laughs like an old man. Second, he fits perfectly in my arms. I wouldn't think anything of it if I hadn't noticed that Jack too fits perfectly in my arms.  So does Gladys.  I smell a conspiracy.  The true cunning of the culprit is that these babies are all different shapes and sizes. Ingenius. I need to hold all of the other babies for extended periods of time in the next day or so to see if they too have been sucked into this scheme. It's like my arms were made to hold these children.

I think maybe they were.

I'm okay with that.

Thanks for walking with me on this journey.
May every step bring Him glory.