Teething

I spoke too soon in my post last Monday at midnight (in other words, Sunday night) about the breathable bumper pads taking care of Krissa's waking up more than once in the night off & on these past five weeks. I went to bed after it was published and Krissa woke up every two hours! As I had written, I was trying to get her back to sleeping in her crib for the entire night rather than just 7 of her 11 hrs, but bringing her in with me didn't seem to help, nor did it the next night (Monday night).

So, the good news is that it was easy from Tues night on to not bring her to our room since she was going to wake up either way. But the bad news is that every night since she's been going to bed at 9 pm and sleeping until 1 am, then waking up at 3, 5:30, and then up for good at 8 am. What happened to my phenomenal sleeper????!!!!That is why I never took it for granted that she slept through the night her first three months. I remembered from Logan that babies are always going through phases. They never do the same thing for long. This is both good and bad. It's good when they're going through a phase you're not fond of, but bad if you want them to remain the same forever!

I am thankful that her excellent sleep happened when we were living at my dad's house since it would have added 100 times the stress had she not been sleeping through the night there. God knew I needed a full night's sleep! On the other hand, there's a sort of adrenaline that I got when both of my babies were born. Even though no mother wants or ever feels they have the energy to get up in the night with their newborns, it was like I didn't have to get a full non-interrupted night to feel function-able the next day. However, since my body got used to good nights when Krissa was only one week old, that adrenaline faded much sooner than it did with Logan and so now during the day I feel like what you'd expect when you don't get ideal nights of sleep.

Her napping has changed as well. This week her two naps went from their previous one hour each (meaning she was getting 13 hrs of total sleep a day; recommended for 4 months old thru one year old is 12-14 hrs) to two 15 min naps a day (meaning she's now getting a total of 11.5 hrs of total sleep a day).

Since she is no longer waking up due to her legs and arms getting stuck in her crib bars, my theory is that it's the teething that I also mentioned in my last post which started a week and a half ago. I had a feeling she might have a harder time with teething than Logan since she reacts so dramatically to pain. Not just to her shots back in September (understandable), but little things -- if something touches her a little too roughly it's as if she's been injured.So, this week she's had some fussy-for-what-seems-like-no-reason moments combined with me unable to do anything to calm her down. (On Tuesday it was watching the washing machine that did the trick. . .maybe I've been going about this all wrong.) Then, just as soon as my lack-of-energy-due-to-getting-up-in-the-night makes me feel like giving up on her, suddenly her fussiness stops as quickly as it started and she's back to her happy, sweet natured self.In other words, it's clear it's something from within which makes me feel helpless. BUT, I have noticed that each day this week her fussy time seems to be getting shorter so that makes me think that maybe she is starting to get used to whatever teething feels like. (And she really likes teething rings -- something that Logan never did, go figure.) I think that it's worse when it first starts because babies go from not feeling anything in their mouth to then having some slight pain. But, from what I understand, the pain doesn't really change/get worse unless a tooth is actually coming through. So, that means all of the days until then her pain level should be about the same (since no tooth has come through yet and I'm not expecting it to for another couple of months). I think once babies get used to teething, the pain is so slight that they forget about it. So, I'm hoping she'll soon be sleeping through it, too.Because, she's not like Logan who, when he woke up in the night, stopped crying as soon as I scooped him out of his crib, nursed him for 3 minutes, and put him back in his crib sound asleep. I could stay half asleep myself -- I often kept my eyes partly closed . .it wasn't any different than when you get up in the night to use the bathroom, so it really didn't bother me those 9 months (or 7 since he slept through the night from two months to four months). Krissa, however, continues to cry when I pick her up and sometimes doesn't even want to nurse! So then I have to become fully awake to try and figure out what to do to calm her down. Not fun. One night this week she was up for a full hour. It was her first in her life for being up for more than a few minutes during the night, something that never happened with Logan. So, I might have to start going to bed at 9 pm with her if this doesn't stop soon. :( That is a sad face because if I do that then there goes my only couple of hours to myself.

On the bright side, Logan's continued to be an extra sweetheart. We played outside for the first time at our new house on Tuesday because it was a nice day out (our snow from the week before all melted). The dogs enjoyed it, too. (By the way, Bella can hold her urine again so our potty pads have been clean every morning and every time we return from an outing!)The night that Krissa was up for that hour seemed rougher than the others and so I wanted to keep sleeping when Logan got up at 8 am the next morning. I have discovered the best thing about a three-and-a-half-year-old (okay not really the best, LOL) -- Logan just played until I got up at 10:30 am! Another morning I wasn't up right away, either (Joe got his breakfast before he left for work) but I was awake and I heard one of his toys start making LOUD music. I wasn't going to say anything because I was just happy to be able to be lying still in bed, but Logan shut my door and said, "I'm sorry, Mom, that was loud, I won't do that again." AWE!

On Wed eve after Joe came home I went to the grocery store for only the third time since we moved into our new house. The other two times were with both kids and it's just so hard to fit much into the cart with Krissa's carseat (her's is too big to fit on the seat like some moms do) and I always have to go so fast because I want to make it through the store with both kids behaving well, so it was nice to be able to just take my time and fill my cart high and full!

On Thursday, my mom came over to watch Krissa so that I could do my non-grocery shopping (I finally framed Krissa's professional newborn photos and hung them on the wall). Logan went with me and we had a really nice time together. We went to the Target here for the first time and I was really impressed. The area (West Glen) was so fancy and nice; I think I might go to Target for my groceries from now on since I just don't care for the Hy-Vee here. Krissa did well without me (two hours) so that was a relief! That evening I put away her play gyms since it had been 6 weeks since she had wanted to play with them. :(On Friday Logan and I made chocolate chip cookies and he helped me clean the house until my stepdad came over to help put another shelf in my laundry room and then Logan went with him for his night at Papa and KayKay's. Joe picked up PF Chang's for supper which was incredibly yummy -- definitely our choice for Chinese from now on since we live so close to the restaurant. Afterward, we watched our ISU Cyclones football team beat the #2 team in the nation! It was a historical moment!

Historical in the world of Krissa was that she can stand unassisted for 5 seconds. (Joe stands her up and then lets go.) Logan could do this holding on to a table indefinitely about a week from now. (https://picasaweb.google.com/102165795535522252470/August2008#5381055687732150002)

Today, Saturday, Joe picked up a pizza from Northern Lights, a carry-out and delivery place only in Iowa and Missouri. We'd never tried them before but they sent me some coupons because they're only 3 min away and they were excellent. It doesn't matter that we don't like Godfather's here because we've had no problem finding new favorite pizza places! The day went too fast -- before we knew it, it was time to pick up Logan from my parents' house.

Tomorrow, Sunday, is Logan's first day of Sunday School! Which means I better get to bed because we have to go to the early service, as we were invited to Joe's mom's house for lunch and to watch the Bears game.

Anyway, at least breastfeeding is still going easily. Three years ago, my post at this stage with Logan was all about Needing To Build Up My Milk Supply Again, which was stressful. As I read the next post, Rough Week (written what would be this exact week), I was amazed that it sounded nearly identical to this past week with Krissa. Logan didn't want to nap at all (although he was sleeping well at night), he wanted to nurse non-stop (Krissa has been nursing more lately as well), wouldn't let Joe and I go out to eat anymore, had to be involved in everything, acted figidy throughout the day, favored his left side (so does Krissa, but since Logan is right handed, this time I'm not thinking much of it), and wanted more attention. Not to mention, I was wondering if Logan was teething.

That is pretty amazing -- and reassuring. At least I am not by myself this time; this week with Logan Joe went on a trip with his mom and sisters for 4 days.

I had ended that post with the sad news that my grandmother (stepdad's mom) had breast cancer. This time I am happy to end my post by saying that she has been cancer-free for the past three years.