Life with eczema

I'm assuming everyone here knows what eczema is, if not, I will do my best to describe it to you. Eczema is a nasty little skin problem. It is caused by god-knows-what and cured by god-knows-what. My two year old has it. He was born with it. It goes all over his face to his body, his back to his tummy, his hands to his feet. It is not fatal. But from all this lack of sleep, I would think otherwise.

I would like to think that this is only a phase, one that he has yet to out-grow, or so I was told. These nights have left us no choice but to cry it out and pray that he falls asleep despite the itchiness. I feel so helpless because all I can do is try and make him as comfortable as he can be. And that requires multiple things at once.

A typical eczema attack occurs mostly at an ungodly hour when parents have finally fallen approximately 30 minutes into thier sleep. The itchy two year old then cries out of uneasiness. He looks around and wakes up which ever parent that responds to his wails. The half-awake parent scoops him up in their arms and asks what he needs. The two year old starts making this list of "need" in his head while simultaneously whining. The now awake-parent starts telling him to calm down. Two-year-old manages to say "scratch back, scratch back, scratch back", and so super-parent-back-scratcher does the job. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to put the two-year-old back to sleep.

"Zaki, what do you want?"
"Huwaaaaaaaahuhuhu... lotion. Lotion here."
Points at his back.

An hour under this attack, no body has yet found any sleep.

"Wanna take medicine?"
"Meh-cine"
Gives some Benadryl and water.
Falls asleep but gets uncomfortable again.
"Music! Music!"
Turns on some music.
"Dance! Carry!"
Picks up two-year-old and bounces on our stability ball to rock him to sleep.

An hour after that hour, we finally found some peace and try to place the two-year-old back in bed.

"Huwaaaaahuhuh.. no no no! No down!"

And we're back to the start again.

I don't know how to explain eczema, except that it makes me hold on to coffee for dear life. He lacks sleep and is easily irritated by everything. Being two-years-old and struggling with sleep, he has meltdowns over the littlest things. He throws tantrums every other hour. This certain situation is starting to shape his personality and I'm not liking it one bit. God is putting my patience to test these days (or weeks months). We lack sleep. We're zombified and tired all day. I don't get anything done. I can't cook, clean, wash, write, or even rest. This eczema journey we're on is definitely a big challenge for us. I'm still praying for a miracle.

Anyone in on the same journey as us? We need a little cheering up around here.