The Deal

Pizza Freakouts

Josh:

The doorbell rang and Nate went to get it, coming back with the pizza while I handled Lexi, who had woken up to the sound and was in a mood again. Once she settled down, I took her to the table, where she immediately freaked out the second she saw the pizza and tried to make a run for it. Key word here is tried. But before she could, I firmly held her to me, preventing her from being able to run off, much to her dismay. Still, this didn't seem to stop her from trying. She continued kicking and screaming as I continued holding her, never once letting go. This was the problem with dealing with a very sleepy and cranky Lexi. Reason and logic don't work on her when she's like this and she basically starts acting like a small child, which makes this whole thing way harder than it would have been anyway.

"Shhh... Lexi, it's okay... you're okay just breathe," I softly spoke to her, trying to get her to calm down enough to where she would at least listen without screaming and getting angry.

"No! Let me go!" she screamed
as she continued fighting against my hold, trying to break free, but having no such luck.

Finally, I decided to abandon the idea of getting her calm enough to listen to reason and decided to go with plan B: force feeding. It kills me everytime to have to do that, but I can't have her continue destroying herself like this. It's bad enough I lost my parents, I can't lose her too. I'll die before I let anything happen to her.

I gave Nick the look, signaling I needed backup, and he brought over a slice to where we were sitting and kneeled down in front of Lexi before trying to get her to calm down enough to eat without it being a choking hazard. After about five minutes, I knew she wasn't going to calm down like this. So I picked her up, carrying her to her room, taking a seat on the bed, holding her in my arms. Evidently to her, this was a signal to put up an even bigger fight, as she took this as an opportunity to start hitting me. I let her do this for a while before grabbing both her arms and holding them to her sides until she stopped resisting my hold. She continued trying to get out of my hold as I held her to me, knowing better than to let her go now. At this point, her anger and crankiness had turned into a full blown meltdown, which she couldn't handle. She completely broke down in my arms as I held her, quietly shushing her every now and then.

She was tired and upset, which were never a good combination and usually made calming her down a lot harder. Soon, her wailing subsided and turned into soft sniffles. She did that thing again where she gets worked up to the point where she ends up having an anxiety attack. She shook in my hold, struggling to steady her breathing and starting to get all worked up again.

Immediately, I shushed her, gently pushing her head to rest against my chest, knowing that that always calmed her down.

"Joshhh.. make it stoppp!" she sobbed out.

"Shhh... it's okay Lexi. You're okay. I'm right here. Just take a deep breath for me okay?"

"I can't," she whimpered.

"It's okay, just focus on my voice," I softly spoke to her, softly singing the song mom used to sing to her when she was little and was upset.

Soon enough, she was calm and half asleep.

"Let's go down now, yeah?"

She tiredly nodded, nuzzling into me more. With that, I got up and carried her like a small child downstairs, where we were met by surprise visitors...