Seriously more teeth?

Don't I deserve a break? Sam has had a runny nose since last Wednesday. No fever, or coughing just a lot of snot. It has caused some trouble sleeping (what doesn't?) but since it didn't seem to bother her too much I figured she just had a little cold and it would pass. It hasn't so this morning my MIL took her to the doctor. She still isn't running a fever and doesn't seem fazed in the least bit - not nearly as grossed out as her mother is but I am attributing that to the fact that she doesn't have to look at it. She's fine. Saline drops and an elevated bed were prescribed. This all thrilled me. I was 99% sure they were going to say that but I wanted to make sure we weren't working on an ear infection. Good news.

Bad news - she is on the verge of 2 more teeth cutting. Like right now. Keep your fingers crossed I make it through this week. Remember the last bout of teething? I do. KC leaves for a business trip tomorrow so it will be me and Sam and her two new teeth...

See how innocent she looks here..... We don't look quite this cute at 2am.

What Could Be Worse?

I'm sure there is a long list of things that could be worse, and are in fact worse then what I am about to write...BUT none of them have happened to me in my 29 years so this is at the top of my list.

Holding your child at 2am while she screams uncontrollably. A guttural cry that if you ever have to hear again you feel like you might go deaf. And you sob as a result. That's my worst, and that's where I was at 2am this morning.

I HATE TEETHING. We have tried, and continue to try Motrin, Tylenol, Baby Orajel, and those homeopathic teething tablets. Everything seems to work for awhile and then we are miserable again. She is holding up pretty good during the day and even at dinner last night she wasn't too bad. Just wanted to be held and not much interest in eating. She is still nursing, so I am assuming that she is getting enough nutrients that she is not dehydrated. She peed through her diaper last night so I think we're ok. (TMI?) Why can't this other tooth cut? RIGHT NOW.

I think the baby gods are thinking "well, you have had it pretty good the last 7 months and we haven't thrown you too many problems since that whole weight thing right at the beginning. You seem to be getting a little cocky about this parenting gig. Let's throw a wrench in there for you." Now picture me making an obscene gesture at the baby gods.

Side note: if you are wondering I don't have make-up on today either and the circles under my eyes are much, much worse. The whole nap in the car thing has not yet been ruled out for this morning. I am supposed to get a pedicure at lunch today. I wonder of the little old lady will be offended if I fall asleep in the chair?

My mom will be here today. She'll have all the answers.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

We'll start with the bad...


After 7+ months Peanut had her first fever last night. While I was thankful that we lasted this long without one her sad little face and glazed over eyes almost did me in. We sat at dinner with Pop (part of the good news) and just snuggled and watched. I know doctors say that teething will not give them a fever but I'm not sure what else to attribute it to? When we woke up at 4:15 AM the fever was gone and it was still gone this morning. I am positive of this because I took her temperature 6 times in 20 minutes.


That leads us to the ugly...


There are 2 parts to the ugly - first the fact that we were awake at 4:15 this morning and would not go back to sleep until after 5am, a mere 60 minutes before Mom has to get up to go to work. Since KC is on vacation today you would assume that he would have taken care of her. Except for the fact that she screamed like we were torturing her unless I was holding her. Seriously, screamed like... (I'm actually at a loss for words at this point). There really isn't a good way to describe how she screamed other than the fact that it was awful and I couldn't take it so I held her.

The second part of the ugly is me this morning. I am so tired. I have ridiculous circles under my eyes and no make-up becuase I couldn't muster up the strenght to put it on, or care enough about wearing it. Since she also screamed while I took a shower, combed my hair, and got dressed I had to minimize my time away from her. At least when she was a newborn and sleeping in short bursts I didn't have to go to work. I am considering sneaking out to my car and sleeping. The only thing stopping me is the fact that gas costs $4 a gallon and it would cost me $12 to take a nap. Well, that and the fear of losing my job.


I don't want to leave you with the thought that all is bad here in our corner of the world so onto the good news...


Our Pop arrived last night. Yea!!! Even though Pop still lives up in PA he has seen Sam every month since she arrived. We have a special corner of heart just dedicated to our Pop. Here is Pop doing story time before bed last night.

Now it's ok to giggle a little when you read the end of that sentence. Personally I am cracking up. Why? Because I know that story time was not followed by bedtime. Bedtime came a few hours after story time. And even then we can't really call it bedtime, more like nap time since it was just a few brief hours.

And more good news...

Mom-mom and Auntie Kara arrive tomorrow! Yea for Mom and Peanut!!! They will be amazed at how much Sam has changed. I have to be honest. It will also be fabulous to have 4 more eyes to watch our little demon. Her newest obsession is playing with the computer cord. Before you call child services know that we don't let her play with it we just catch her after she already has it in her hands.

One last thought...THANK GOD IT'S THURSDAY....

It can't get any worse, right???

There are some pretty disgusting descriptions in this post so if you are eating or just don't want to read about someone else's gross day - stop now.

I have said that no less than 10 times since yesterday at 5pm. I got home from work early, so excited to be able to put a load of laundry in before going to my MIL's house for dinner. KC stayed over by work to play in the work softball league. I was greeted at the door by one of our labs - not a good sign. Apparently they had broken down the gate during the day and done god knows what. There was no evidence of any wrongdoing so I am hoping for the best (and keeping my fingers crossed that I don't discover something a week or two down the road).

Then I walk into the kitchen. And into a puddle of water. The freezer door is open about a foot. Unless the dogs learned how to open a freezer door (in which case I am calling David Letterman immediately) KC or I must have left it open that morning. Within 5 minutes Loni (MIL) comes over with Sam and we start to clean up the disaster that is now my kitchen. KC's first question was "There wasn't too much breast milk (aka liquid gold) in there, right?" The large supply of frozen breast milk is in the freezer in the garage. So I only lost about 10 bags. But if you have ever pumped you know how painful losing even 10 bags is. While I fed Sam and started cooking the 4 packages of veggies, a pound of chicken, and 2 pork tenderloins (the things that couldn't be savaged and were not too disgusting to throw out) Loni actually cleaned the freezer. Now our freezer is bright, shiny, and clean like the day we bought it. Seriously, my MIL rocks.

Unfortunately the whole time this is going on Sam is not herself. She is really clingy, and always seems like she is on the verge of crying. Emily said that she didn't really want to play with the other kids she just wanted to be held all day. I am wondering if her teeth are bothering her. She is eating ok thought so who the heck knows what is going on.

After KC gets home we put Sam to bed. She doesn't go down easy though. By 11pm she is sleeping in our bed again. We would get her down and then she would wake up screaming. The hardest part for me is that even when I was holding her she was crying. We blamed it on teething and then we blamed it on the prunes she has had the last 2 nights so really we don't have freaking clue what we are doing or why our daughter is miserable. (Yea - mother of the year!)

This morning I wake up thinking today will be a good day. It has to be better than last night. Sam is still pretty subdued, just laying down talking to herself while we get ready. Usually she is all over the place, playing with toys, trying to crawl off the bed. I leave our room to let the dogs out and can't find Raja. I am looking everywhere and then I open the door to Sam's room (pretty much the only no dog room in our house). Usually the dogs are really good about not going into her room. When we are playing in their they usually hang out in the doorway but not crossing into the room. I guess the door was left open when we got Sam to come sleep with us and Raja decided to make herself at home in Sam's glider, her white, chenille glider. Not too bad, just get rid of the dog hair. But one of her paws was bleeding so now there is a bit of blood on the edge of the chair. I almost lost my mind. Needless to say Raja is spending today in the laundry room. We're done right? Bad evening, bad morning, day has to get better, right???

Sam's is sitting in her highchair waiting for us to get our act together, get lunch packed, pack her bag with bottles, etc and get out the door. I can tell she is pooping so I pick her up to change her diaper before we leave. Here is the disgusting part. Not only has she pooped through her diaper but it is dripping down her leg, into the chair on the floor. There is also a huge amount in her high chair. It was the most disgusting thing she has done so far BY A MILE. You can only imagine the scene, I am holding her about a foot away from my body trying not to get poop on my clothes while trying to get her to the changing table where KC has laid a trash bag down for her but trying not to get poop on her carpet. If I wasn't so panicked about the whole thing it would have been hysterical. We ended up taking everything off of her and taking her into the bathtub where I hosed her down while KC held her up. Note to self: Prunes are off the list of acceptable foods in our house.

Finally, we get everything in the car and are heading to Emily's. Late for work and really sick of the day and it is only 7:45am. About half way there Sam lets out a cry and then we hear the puke. We pull over to see that she has thrown up all down the front of herself. It's on the car seat, her outfit, the toy she was playing with, lovely disgusting sweet potatoes and corn from the night before.

Could this all be from teething? I have taken her temperature twice in the last day and each time she was fine. She did give Emily a big smile when we got there so I am hoping that she is feeling better.

And I am really, really hoping that this day gets better.

A Very Bad, No Good Day

Last night was a continuation of the bedtime issues. I swear when I walked in to her room for the 50th time last night she looked at me and "Hell no, I won't go!" or maybe that was the sheer exhaustion. In the bedtime struggle she has shown to be unbelievably stubborn. We have had this issue before but stubborn and mobile is getting to be a challenge. At 10:30pm last night I went on Amazon and placed the order for the books (while holding my whimpering, exhausted baby under my arms like a football). It has already shipped and should arrive on Monday. If Sam doesn't right herself over the next 2 nights while I am gone we will have some work to do next week.

Yes, I said "over the next 2 nights while I am gone". I leave this morning for a work trip and don't get home until Saturday night. I have had one overnight away from Sam back in April. That trip (also for work) only lasted about 36 hours from good-bye smooch to hello smooch). This one will probably clock in at about 60 hours. Saying good-bye this morning was awful. Just for me, because poor Sam has no idea that her mother is abandoning her for the next two days.

Send good thoughts KC's way. Since he is without the boob (works like a charm every time) he is at a clear disadvantage. He does have Grandma home now so between the 2 of them Sam will have a great time. She may not even notice that I am gone...

I am sure I will update when I return home. After giving my daughter about a thousand and one kisses.

We no longer believe in bedtime

At first Sam was a pretty good sleeper. From 2 months to 4 months we would sleep for a solid 7-9 hours a night. I thought I was in heaven. Smugly, I figured I was one of the lucky ones. And then we took the swaddle off. Sam loved being swaddled from birth. We used a hospital blanket and then discovered the Swaddler (which I think is the BEST thing in the world besides TIVO and Weight Watchers). Swaddling for dummies - I loved it. Then she rolled over.

Our pediatrician told us that since she rolled over we needed to take the swaddle off since she might roll over in her sleep and would be stuck (picture upside down turtle here). The first night was hell. We woke up every 45 minutes or so. The fact that KC was out of town on business made this night that much more fun. We didn't wake up every 45 minutes for too long. About 4 nights after we started the no swaddle routine we were doing much better but not as good as before. It's never been the same.

3 months later our sleeping is still hit or miss. I am bringing this up because last night was awful. Awful as in "are you kidding me kid? You're freakin' 7 months old. Aren't you over this by now?!" Every night it could be a great night (2 nights this weekend we went down so easy and then slept until 6am - 10 hours) or a horrific night.

We/I do almost every single thing they tell you not to do - she falls asleep nursing or rocking, if she cries we go get her, and when we are really desperate, like last night, she sleeps in our bed. Sleeping in our bed is something I hate. But offered a choice between no sleep and some sleep, even at the price of our bed, I will take some sleep.

We tried to let her cry. The first night we really just left her alone and watched the clock she cried so hard that when I went in after 5 minutes - actually 4 and a half - she was hoarse from crying so hard. And of course that made me cry. I just couldn't do it. So, I am not sure Ferber is the answer for me. But I don't know what is the answer either.

Suggestions are welcomed (please, please help me). Suggestions other than "stop doing all of the things you know you shouldn't do" are welcomed. I can beat myself up on my own.

What stinks the most? Not knowing. Not knowing how to fix it or how well she will sleep that night. This is the same problem I had with the third trimester of my pregnancy. I can't stand not being able to put it on a list or make up a schedule or put it on the calendar. I am the person who makes up an excel spreadsheet for EVERYTHING and then emails it to everyone so we are all on the same page. I have standard packing lists saved on my computer, schedules for when we go home to visit to make sure we have enough time to do everything, a notebook with me at all times to make sure I don't forget anything. Reading this I sound like the least fun person ever. KC is lucky to be married to me, isn't he?