Refuse to Snooze

I haven't been posting much because I've basically been sleeping whenever I can.  Last month we seemed to be settling into a good sleep routine, but really it was a fleeting moment of peace before the great upheaval.  Sigh.

Once upon a time, Thumper was a newborn, who slept in few-hour bursts but regularly.  I could put him down at night, awake, and he'd quietly fall asleep within a few minutes.  Similarly, for naps I'd pop him in the swing and he'd be out like a light.

To think I was so worried about transitioning him into a full-sized crib for night sleeping.  That went fairly smoothly, though somehow we seem to have fallen into a routine where I hang out with him and nurse him to sleep at night, then transfer him to the crib.  Not even sure how that happened.  I feel vaguely tricked.  So much for putting him down drowsy.

But I don't even really care at this point, because I do enjoy the time holding him.  You know how some cats are "lap cats" and others act like you're trying to trap them in a bag?  Thumper's the baby equivalent of the latter, most of the time.  But at night he relaxes and it's sweet.

Unfortunately, naps are a different matter.  Oh, they'd be great if he could stay in his swing 'til he starts school, but his feet are already resting on the cushioned rim of the seat and he'll only get bigger.  So I thought I'd begin the process of transitioning him to napping in the crib.  By "transitioning" I mean he's actually only slept a few times and the rest of the time I wimp out and he eventually winds up in the swing.  I tell myself it's a slow process and at least he's enjoying playing in his crib, but really I have no idea what I'm doing and the whole thing takes so. much. longer.

That would still only be an annoyance if he were getting good sleep at night.  However, a string of milestones (rolling over!  Working on sitting up! I swear he's already working on crawling!) means that while he goes down relatively easily, he pops up a few hours later.  Some nights (like last night) he only wakes up twice.  Other nights it's much more than that.

Then yesterday was the worst.  First he was awake seemingly every hour overnight.  Then every time I put him down for a nap - regardless of venue - he'd be about to drift off or sleeping for a few minutes, then spring awake screaming.  I'd keep him up for a little bit, change him, feed him, whatever, then try again, only to have the same thing happen.  This went on for about four hours, until he finally passed out with me holding him.

Then it happened.  I felt a tickling in my throat.  Oh no!  I have semi-regular allergies and lately a little nasal drip has led to coughing fits.  If he's asleep I make a mad dash to the bathroom, so I can close the door and hack to my heart's content.  I tried swallowing, making a gentle cough in my throat, to no avail.  My nose was starting to run.  I made an executive decision: dump him in the crib on the way to the bathroom and hope he stayed asleep.

I was halfway to the crib when everything failed at once.  Thumper startled awake, started crying.  Almost simultaneously I burst into coughs.  Which then scared the baby.  Which then led to more crying.

I finished hacking, hustled back to the couch and miraculously Thumper fell right back asleep on me.  Where he stayed for two hours.  You can bet I wasn't moving for anything.

This behavior, though, was so unlike him that I checked his temperature (no fever) and aimlessly googled getting a six-month-old to sleep.  One site helpfully mentioned he might be teething.

Teething.  Immediately I felt like an idiot.  Just the day before we'd finally felt the ridge of his first tooth breaking through.  And earlier on the crying day (pre-cry) I noticed that when he laughed I could actually see the tooth now.  Of course.  Just another stop on the milestone train that also happened to disrupt sleep.

The rest of the night he was fine, albeit a bit subdued.  That night he slept a "normal" amount, only getting up twice.  I feel like a new woman.  And while today's first nap did end suddenly in tears after about 10 minutes (just long enough for him to then be all "I'VE POWERNAPPED WHERE'S THE PARTY") I put him down again later and he's been sleeping for over an hour.

Regardless, I feel like we can handle this teething thing.  Just, oh, about twenty more teeth to go.

someone must be chopping onions in here