Momma Katie's Random Thoughts: Where Are The Teeth????

Well, the day that we took Shannon to the doctor, she screamed for hours on end, regardless of the Tylenol, Orajel, and teething tablets we gave her. The one thing that helped was frozen fruit in the mesh feeder thingie:

She immediately stopped crying and was fine for the rest of the day. We can SEE the tops of the teeth, but can't quite feel them. I have no idea if they stopped coming up and are just sitting there below the surface, or if her gums are swollen enough to continue to cover them up enough that we can't touch them. And she's pretty adept at not letting us touch them. It's been so long, I am assuming that they haven't popped out yet. Yay...

She has been driving us insane lately. She refuses to sleep. She falls asleep later & later each night, and wakes earlier & earlier each morning. For example, only a month ago, she would fall asleep at 6pm, then a few weeks ago, it was 7 pm, and lately, it's been more like 8 or 8:30 (except for last night, which was more like 7 again! Halleluia!) Mornings started at 7:30, then 7, then 6, then 5:30, and now 5 am. What is going on? And she will take one LONG nap, and 2 30-minute ones duging the day. Oy! I'm about to resign myself to just waking up at 5 am for the rest of my life, no matter when I go to bed.

I've heard tales of an 8-month sleep regression. I thought it was an urban legend. It's real. And it's scarier than any monster or chainsaw-weilding psychopath (note to self: if this sleep regression thing goes on much longer, I will be the chainsaw-weilding psychopath).

I think it also has a lot to do with her development. I've noticed that the books are true; when children reach certain developmental milestones, they tend to have some sort of break-down in the basic necessities, ie sleeping and eating. She is currently learning to crawl. She's getting amazingly good at standing while holding only to our fingers, and is even starting to take steps toward Daddy while Mommy holds her hands. She is also learning to scoot forward on her tummy, which is HUGE. So, the crappy sleeping is to be expected, I suppose, but I was really hoping to avoid it. Bah.

So, what I'm trying to do for her crappy nappies (er, short naps... not dirty dipes) is to distract her long enough to prolong her awake time to 3 hours, rather than 2 hours, in hopes of getting her to sleep a tad bit longer. Supposedly, she can do it. Even Dr. Sears says she can. So we'll see.

Today is a nice day, so we spent about an hour outside on towels in our bikinis, taking in our daily dose of Vitamin D.