and then there were none

Almost two weeks ago Will developed a horrible case of strep throat. Jason took him to urgent care on a Saturday morning and they put him on antibiotics. On Monday he was still running a pretty high fever so back to the doctor they went. At that time, our pediatrician decided to treat Drew as well because of the close quarters and the fever he had been running.
Drew as you may all know is a thumb-sucking extradodaire and we washed his hands like crazy. We also covered him up in germex if we couldn't get to him with actual soap and water. Everything from under the sun is going around here right now:strep, stomach bug, flu, chicken pox, a fever virus that last 7-10 days, you name it I don't want it. Anyways, we are sanitizing that kids hands like crazy. About the same time Drew stops sleeping at night. He starts waking up every single night between 12 and 2 am screaming at the top of his lungs. If we get him and bring him to bed with us there is a fifty percent chance he will go back to sleep. If we leave him up there hoping he will go back to sleep on his own he just screams. Jason and I are baffled. This is the same kid who has slept completely through the night since he was about 8 weeks old. What in the world is going on?? It has to be a lot worse than teeth. He also stops napping and just screams for the entire two hours. Regardless of what we do, he just yells and screams. We have tried everything and the screaming continues. After 8 days of not napping he is pretty grumpy and falling asleep at school during lunch. Jason and I almost feel like we have a newborn.
We're eating breakfast on Monday morning and look over at Drew. Usually when he is finished eating, he sits sucking his thumb and twirling his hair. It really is the cutest thing ever. There he sits with his hand on his chin just sitting there waiting. Jason tells me to look at Drew. He's not sucking his thumb and he hasn't been for days. He's just sitting there with his hand on his chin in his highchair. Waiting patiently like he's been doing it every day for the past 19 months. What?! This is a baby that was literally born sucking his thumb. And he quit? Overnight? We are baffled and a few days later Jason applies some germex and accidentally gets some in his mouth. Drew quit sucking his thumb because germex tastes absolutely horrible.
On Tuesday night Drew wakes up screaming again around 1. We are used to and usually wait him out a little bit hoping he will fall back asleep. The kid doesn't nap and we are exhausted. The screams get louder and all of a sudden we hear a huge crash. Drew has thrown himself over the side of the crib, opened the door and is coming down the stairs. Ugh. Let me tell you this night is getting better. Jason and I discussed what are best option was and we decided to turn our crib into a toddler bed. No more baby beds at our house. Drew went right up tonight, got in his big boy bed and even put all his stuffed animals inside his bed. A huge difference from last night and the nights before when he gets mad and throws them out. I kissed him goodnight and shut the door. He did come crying at the door for a few minutes and then he went and got back in the bed. Thank goodness naptimes are the most brutal parts of the retraining him to sleep again.