Adventures in Teething and Sleep Deprivation

I haven't blogged for a while, mostly because T is teething and I'm too tired to hang out on the computer after work. We worked so hard on our bedtime routine and it really seemed to be working. T was consistently sleeping 5-6 hours for his first stretch and even gave us 7 a couple of times and 8 once! I was chipper and well rested and thought things were headed totally in the right direction. My bliss ended when T's gums started to swell.

I thought it was just going to be a couple of teeth, but I found a couple of teeth had broken the gums last Monday and there is still no end in sight. He has two full bottom teeth from a couple of months ago, and one little nubby tooth on the bottom and one on the top. There are at least 3 more hugely swollen bumps in his top gums. He doesn't like it when I poke around to investigate so I can't say for sure how many are working their way through, but if they are coming in somewhat symmetrically I'm expecting six more before he's done with this round. I complain about my discomfort, but obviously he's got the real raw end of the deal. On top of teeth boring through his gums, he's also got a very runny nose. The congestion and/or pain had him up every hour from 7:30-10:30 and then he screamed intermittently from 10:30 - 11:30 while we tried to calm him and sooth him back to sleep. It's very unusual for him not to go right back to sleep with a little help. Exhausted from the ordeal, he slept for four hours. It's only like this when he's truly miserable. We're going on three weeks of misery and sleep deprivation and I'm starting to wonder if it will ever end. We're still carrying out our standard bed time routine, but we've abandoned the middle of the night "no cry" sleep training and just do what it takes to make him feel better. Poor kiddo.

Despite his growing pains, he really is a trouper. In general he's only slightly irritable with occasional break downs like last night. He still smiles and laughs plenty and has started clapping his hands. Last week he started making a really excited sound - a long intake of breath that sounds like he's just seen or experienced the coolest thing ever. Sometimes he follows this sound with clapping. It's so fun to see him communicate with something more than tears and laughter. Here are some of the things he's doing

• Clapping and making sounds to show excitement
  
• Rubbing his fist across his sore gums
  
• Pushing things away when he doesn't want them
  
• feeding himself really well with a spoon when we load it for him
  
• handing the spoon back for more (sometimes)
  
• reaching to be picked up or to go to the other parent
  
• responding to his name
  
• responding briefly to the the command "no touch"
  
• crawling like a pro and pulling up on everything
  

Yesterday I carried him with me to open the sliding door so we could get some air circulating in the house. As I started to walk back to the kitchen T started to whimper and I realized he thought I was going to take him outside, so I did. We played on the grass until The Scoot got home. When T saw The Scoot way at the other end of the yard he immediately started whimpering and crawling for him. The Scoot met him half way - it was so cute!

Sometimes T doesn't know which parent he wants. I'll pick him up and he'll reach for The Scoot ... then he'll reach back for me. Sometimes we hug him at the same time and sometimes we pass him back and forth really fast which makes him laugh. When he's in pain he reaches back and forth because he thinks one of us can fix it and when we can't he wants to try the other one... again. We hate not being able to fix it.

Flips and Giggles

These are some old videos that I didn't find the time to post when they were fresh, but they are too fun to leave behind forever.

Flips ... Circus Baby laughs again!


Wax paper ... the funniest thing in the world.

The 'A' says aaaaaaaaaaaaa!
My original design in apple green minky with felt.
More to come ...

The Blog of Eternal Stench and other woes

Oh goody! I created my own Bog of Eternal Stench ... read - a diaper pail FULL of water and stinky dirty diapers ripening for days (at least four) in our un-air-conditioned bathroom. Said pail has a lid and either doesn't emit an obvious odor when closed... or I have become oblivious to it. This is my excuse for letting it ripen so long. I simply forgot the stinkies were there waiting to be washed.

Last night, after a long day at work I longed to make dinner, eat, do T's bedtime routine, and crash on the couch, but first I had to put the diapers in the washing machine. I grabbed the 'wet' diapers (mostly dry by now) from the pail in T's room and grabbed the bog of eternal stench from the bathroom and headed down the hall for the washing machine. Scarcely had I stepped from the bathroom and onto the broad expanse of hall carpet when the handle of the of the stinky pail freed itself from its receptacle, dumping about of gallon (literally) of swampy bog water and diapers all over the carpet (and splashing all over me in the process). I'm pretty sure I screamed.

Why do all my best stories revolve around poo?

The Scoot juggled T and heated up leftovers while I got the diaper laundry started, sopped up the mess with several towels, and took a shower. After dinner he rented a carpet cleaner at Home Depot and cleaned the hallway while I put T to bed. I did eventually make it to the couch at 8:30pm ... just and hour before bed time. We watched about half of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We'll finish it tonight ... baring any more unforeseen catastrophes.

As for the other woes ... we all have colds ... the T, The Scoot, and I. On top of that two children in T's class have been diagnosed with Coxsackie (hand, foot, and mouth disease). They originally thought it was chickenpox, but one was Confirmed coxsackie. The incubation period is 3-6 days. I just hope T (and the rest of us) get over the cold before Coxsackie strikes. I think the poor boy spends at least as much time sick as he does well. At least he's usually a good sport about being ill.

Grass Hopper

Hopping through the grass with Mom! 7/21/2011


Hopping Down the Hall with Oma! 7/22/2011


I saw T crawl for the first time on Monday July 25th. It was morning, before daycare and he crawled three "steps". On Tuesday they counted 12 "steps" at daycare. He's crawled a little every day since then. Yay! Although he's finally decided to crawl, he's also decided that its a lot of work and he only does it to reach what he wants and then he plonks back down onto his cute little bottom.

T likes to do things his own way. Apparently walking is too mundane so he's decided to hop instead. I'd like to point out that we don't own a jumper, a walker or any other baby containing device where he can jump on his own. It's all us and it's a lot of exercise for everyone involved. We love it!

Slam that Chameleon!

It's not just the Chameleon - it's any board book that makes a cool slamming sound.


We're working on T's bedtime routine. I don't want to jinx my sleep tonight by saying it's helping, but I think it might be. We're working on putting him to bed awake. Neither of us like the idea of letting him cry it out, so we're trying methods from the "No Cry Sleep Solution." We read and/or sing to T after putting him in his crib until he goes to sleep. If he's having a tough time, we add some back patting and rubbing, but I'm working on getting father from the crib.

We had a little challenge last week when he learned to sit up on his own and kept "practicing" in the crib at bed time and in the middle of the night, but he's learned to lay back down again for the most part ... or else he gets drowsy and face plants. I can't believe it took us this long, but we finally put the crib on it's lowest setting. T is able to pull to his knees (and every once in a while his feet) from sitting, so now that he can get from his stomach/back to a sitting position on his own we had to make the change.

T has slept for 5+ hours in a row for three days!!!! Technically, that's sleeping through the night. Woohoo! He sometimes even follows that 5 hours by another 4. Unheard of. I've been sleep deprived for so long that 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep is huge! I really hope he continues to sleep for 5 hours at least once a night and that we can eventually stretch that 5 to 6 ... and 7 ... and 8 ...

Hugs

T recently started giving hugs! It's soooooooo much fun to have him actually squeeze back.