Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Applause is NOT Appropriate

So Liam has been teething the past week and a half. The runny nose that accompanies new pearly whites caused so much drainage for him that a cold resulted from the teething. Luckily Rose had him all last week since Shari had Christmas company in town and needed a break. Rose spoiled him and they had such a good time together even though Liam was under the weather.

Liam's 5th tooth broke through on Saturday or Sunday. So I thought we were over the hump of hard core teething for another little while. His nasty cough hasn't eased and neither has the drainage coming out of his cute button nose.

Two Frustrating things:
1.
My house, myself, Liam's toys, Liam's clothes are all being slimed during his waking hours. Slime is everywhere! It's frustrating for him to get his nose wiped over and over and it's frustrating for me to have to keep torturing him.

So the slime is a combo of nose drippings and drool. Weaning Liam from the pacifier was a good idea until the puddles restarted. I keep that binky in to reduce the slime factor lately. Why he needs a binky to help him swallow the added saliva... I have no idea, but it works.

2.
His sleep schedule was looking bright before a week and a half ago. He made it to 5:30am and 6:30am with no feedings. Now he's back to the newborn stage. I HATE THAT! It's a lot of work to get a tiny boy trained to sleep correctly AND THEN to have it all go to pot because of pain and being miserable just isn't fair! To him or to the mama!
That being said, last night was a monster of a night! I actually made my way up the stairs at the early hour of 11pm to hit the hay (unheard of for me). I took the first step upstairs and heard Liam start to fuss. DANG IT!

I spent the longest 60 minutes comforting my crying baby while NOT picking him up. I knew he wasn't hungry, I new he wasn't in pain either. So I thought it would be fine to start the sleep training process again. There were 4 occasions where I thought I was in the clear to lay my weary head on a pillow... He was asleep, he was gone, he wasn't doing those recover-from-crying hiccups anymore... So I would quietly make my way out or even just think about leaving the room those 4 times and his head would pop back up and start the process again. At midnight I was too exhausted to verbally comfort him anymore. I had to pick him up and nurse him to sleep. Then repeat this every 2 hours until 7:30am.

He sat up in his crib at 7:30am, and when he saw me, he sat there and clapped his tiny hands over and over... At the time, that didn't amuse me as cute as it was. Applause didn't seem appropriate for the occasion. What seemed appropriate was more sleep...

At least he took a morning nap today... Naps have gotten screwed up too lately.

Why oh why oh why?

15 comments:

longdistancegrandma said...

That little report reminded me that there were times when you and Heidi were both cutting teeth at the same time or one right after the other. Teething is a good reason to spread the years out between babies. He still looks adorable.

Katie said...

Poor little guy! I don't know about spreading teething years out---when my twins were teething it seemed like one was always miserable and I got no rest or they were both miserable at the same time and I got no rest...but when it's over it's over, and I don't have to worry about a new baby teething. Honestly I think that in a lot of ways my first baby was harder than the twins just because I was learning how to mother.

Tori :) said...

That picture is classic!!

Nicole said...

Poor little man! i hate that teething stuff. It's not fun. If it makes you feel any better our naps have been messed up too and we are WAY passed teething! Hope he feels better.

OhTheJoys said...

Poor little guy! I hope he feels better soon!

Nicole said...

Poor guy! What a picture :) All i can say is i hope it passes soon. Eli has been in an almost constant state of this for 2 months cuz of molar teething and I have no real words of wisdom other than good luck...try to get through it cuz i know (I HOPE) it will pass eventually!

Robin said...

Hang in there and try not to rip out your hair!

Suzanne said...

Just keep hanging on and hopefully you'll get some sleep soon! :)

Ashley said...

what's the deal with the slow teething??? little bit just got her 5th tooth on Christmas day (see today's long overdue post).

try to teach him to blow his nose. that has alleviated a lot of our stress on the nose wiping front. little bit has a cold again (yippee) and since she has learned to blow her nose, she doesn't fuss nearly as much. she thinks it is fun/funny to do it. i don't know how we taught her to do it either so i'm no help there at all but if you can do it by some grace of God, maybe it'll help. email me if you need to vent. i went through the night wakings for many many many months so i totally understand! loves and hugs!

Anonymous said...

that last picture just says it all
! I know how you feel, Sierra is off her schedule to, but I can't complain because she slept 12-14 hours straight before the past few weeks.

Anonymous said...

Poor thing! Neither of my kids fussed much w/ teeth..thank goodness! BUT! We did have to pull one of my daughters extremely loose teeth the other night. Talk about some serious drama. It was so loose I was afraid she would choke on it in her sleep. (worrier here) I'm pretty sure it was just as traumatic for me as it was for her.

Good luck with the sleeping issue. My son was like that. He got up every 2 hours for a LONG time. Just wanted to nurse & go back to sleep. He was still not sleeping totally through the night even by a year old. There is always something that seems to disrupt their progress. Teeth, colds, whatever it may be. Frustrating isn't it? Good luck with it all..it will get better soon.

Rachelle said...

He's adorable! Teething is so not fun! Sleep schedules are hard too. How old is Liam again? He may be getting ready to drop a nap and go to one nap a day.

Juliet said...

Ack! Not fun at all. >.< I hope you get a good night's sleep soon.
As far as the teething goes, have you tried Hyland's teething tablet? They worked wonderfully for William!

asiangard said...

I was going to second the teething tablets! They worked well for Kai-Li. As far as the runny nose though...I have no advice, Kai-Li has had a runny nose for about four months straight!!

Kristen said...

Poor little baby! And poor Mom!! I can so feel your pain on the sleeping thing! Feisty has just finally in the past couple of months learned to sleep all the way through the night. I don't even like saying that for fear that I'll jinx it. Watch....tonight she won't sleep. I hope you sleep better tonight and hope the slime goes away for both of your sakes!