Terrible Teeth

Long time, no post. That's because Tyler has kept me more than busy with parenthood. Where to begin?

First of all, we are working on good sleep habits in our household. After much sleep regression (to the point where Ty man was waking 3 or 4... or 5 times to eat in the middle of the night) I begged our pediatrician for the key to sleeping success. His first question was "How does he get to sleep at night?" to which I answered in a guilty voice "...I nurse him to sleep." and he said "Well, there's your problem!"

Apparently, Tyler goes to bed nursing, so when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he can't get back to sleep without nursing again. Makes sense. The answer? The cry-it-out method. Torture for momma and baby. Okay, not really, but the first few days were rough! We're using the Ferber method, which in essence is putting baby down drowsy but awake, and if he fusses, let him fuss 5 minutes. Then I go in, check on him and tell him it's ok, then back out. I let him fuss 10 minutes and go back in and check again. Then 15 minutes. And so on.

The first night Tyler cried through the 5 minute, 10 minute and 15 minute cycles. He was still going strong and had those big eyes so full of tears, so I caved and popped him right on the boob. Hah. The next night was the same thing. BUT the third night he cried through the 5 and 10 minutes cycles, but was asleep by about five minutes into the 15 minute cycle. The fourth night he fussed less than 5 minutes and was asleep. So it DOES work. And he started waking only twice during the night. He even had one night where he slept 7.5 straight.

However, teething is terrible and has messed us all up! Tyler's bottom 2 front teeth are just SO close to coming through. The gums had flattened out a couple weeks ago, got rough, and now are swollen and it really looks like those bad boys want to make their entrance! And my poor child has been slobbering like crazy and chewing on EVERYTHING. He'll grab onto my finger and do a little head bob and dive to put it in his mouth... it's actually pretty entertaining. We've discovered that he really loves chewing on a frozen wash cloth, and it tends to keep him happy for about 10 minutes or so (at least long enough for me to inhale my breakfast!). But these past couple nights have been just terrible with the teeth. Poor kid will NOT sleep longer than an hour straight and we've just kept him cuddled up in bed with us so we can comfort him without having to get up 10 times in the middle of the night (bad habit, we know, but desperate times...). Even nursing him in the middle of the night isn't doing the trick, and it used to be my never-fails insta-back-to-sleep trick. sigh. And getting him to go to sleep in the first place has become a multi-hour ordeal. Tonight has actually gone much better (he was asleep by 9 pm after about 20 minutes of crying-it-out), but I'm not holding my breath that he'll stay asleep for long. Let's hope for the best.

Everyday teaches me something new with parenting. I told Jordon I think our next kid will be a breeze because now I know all the stupid things I SHOULDN'T do and all the tricks of the trade (so far that is). Soon I'll be able to author the Jordon Tyler Jr. Handbook and Instruction Manual. Until then I'm still trying to draft out the first few chapters...