Answered Prayers

So for the last three days my daughter has been having a difficult time sleeping through the night, mostly because she is teething. I suffer from insomnia, have for years, but because of her lack of sleep it has resulted in me being even more sleep-deprived than usual.

On Tuesday evening Kadence fell asleep about 9:20 pm. I was thrilled that I also was sleepy, and so I took us both to bed with the happy thought that we might both get on a better sleeping schedule. I looked at the clock on my night stand, saw it was 9:30 pm, and fell asleep shortly. At 10:39 pm Kadee woke up crying. I tried to see what was wrong, the normal checks: diaper wet/dirty, hungry, thirsty, etc. None of those. I also gave her some infant medicine to help with her pain from teething. After about 10 - 15 minutes I was able to comfort her and she fell back asleep. I thought all was well. I was wrong because she continued to do this routine every hour, for hours.

Despite the many times I prayed for help in understanding what was wrong so I could help her, I did not feel inspired as to what the problem was and I started to get frustrated and angry. I was so tired and frustrated... frustrated that I couldn't figure out what the problem was, and why she was so restless and sad. I am ashamed to admit this, but I blew up at her. I yelled at her, told her I was leaving her alone, and went into the living room. I just felt like I needed to be out of her presence or I would hurt her.

Then I started yelling and complaining at Heavenly Father. Yeah, I do that. I guess I am weird since I talk to him like he is right there, next to me. So I'm telling him that it is all his fault that I yelled at Kadence and that I was feeling the way I was feeling, it was his fault that she was feeling the way that she has been feeling.

"If only you would have answered my prayers to ler her feel peaceful and fall asleep, Father, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't be sad and crying, I wouldn't be mad and crying. I've been praying and asking you for your help! This is all your fault for not answering my prayers!"

After a few minutes I humbled myself and repented. I told Heavenly Father how sorry I was for speaking to him like that and asked him to please forgive me. I also asked him to forgive me of yelling at Kadence. Then I went and picked up my sweet little baby girl, and held her and comforted her. She was still crying, I was still crying. I kept apologizing to her, telling her how sorry I was. We both calmed down after a while. Then I read her favorite book to her that Sister Grace Sorensen gave her.

After reading the book to her a couple of times, I checked to see if her diaper needed changing. It was about 5:00 am by this time. So as I took off her jammies, I looked at her toes. I check for fuzzies between her toes occasionally. Probably weird to some folks, but I've done this since she was born. As I checked for fuzzies on her left foot and pulled at some bits of string I saw curled up under her middle toe, I found that Kadee began to scream. I stopped immediately, looking more closely.

To my surprise there was a hair (probably mine) wrapped around her middle toe, along with a small piece of string. It was wrapped extremely tight and it looked like her flesh was indented nearly to the bone! At first I thought she was bleeding, too, and this alarmed me, until I inspected further and saw that it was a small piece of red fuzz. I had tried pulling and that just made her cry, so I went looking for nail clippers with the idea that I could just clip it off. No such luck! :( With how she was wiggling and struggling to get away I was afraid that I would cut her. I kept trying to soothe her, telling her that I was not trying to hurt her, but trying to help her. Finally, I just tugged at it until it broke and I was able to take it off of her toe.

Her toe looked almost purple before I got her toe free. The indent was there for a while, even during the next day, though not as bad as when it was wrapped with the hair and string. As soon as it was free you could see the blood circulating and starting to look so much better. The relief that Kadence felt was immediate from how she reacted. She stopped crying, just whimpered a bit, and I kept hugging her and telling her how mommy fixed it. I showed her toe to her and told her how it was all better. She would look at her toe and then me and then hug me, over and over. It was sweet. She is so very, very sweet.

I immediately said a prayer out loud to Father for us, thanking him for inspiring me to check her toes, knowing she could have lost her toe because of the lack of circulation that had been going on; thanking him for actually answering my prayers, just not in the way I had expected. Kadee just listened quietly as I prayed as if she was agreeing with what I was saying.

I am so grateful to know that Father in Heaven answers prayers. I think about people who don't have the gospel and who don't have faith, and just feel so utterly thankful that I do! I mean, how many mothers would think to look at their child's toes to find out what was ailing them? I'll tell you what, though, after that experience you can bet that from now on I will be paying even more attention to those baby toes. :)

Afterwards I cuddled with her as I watched NBC news for a while. She fell asleep shortly and did not wake up again until I woke her up around noon. So I know that it was the pain in her toe that had been bothering her. I also know without a doubt that Heavenly Father inspired me to check her toes and answered my prayer on how to help my baby girl.