Tuesday, December 16, 2008

My Mom Asks Moxie

As I'm typing this morning, snow is falling outside. J decided to work from home today, due to the snow tying up traffic along his commute route, which means that I got to brush my teeth before 9 AM! Yay!

Yesterday was rough. After going to bed late (J at 11, me at 1), Evie woke us up for a 3 AM feeding for the first time in who knows how long. (Yes, I am aware that I have no basis to complain here, I'm just stating facts.) Then she got me up for the day at 6 AM and refused to nap anywhere but in my arms. She's been bad about this...as a newborn she happily napped in her Boppy, but after a few weeks it no longer worked and she would wake up right after we put her in it. Then she seemed to like napping in her moses basket in the family room, but now refuses to stay asleep in there for longer than 5 minutes. For the past few weeks I've had success transitioning her from my arms to her swing for a nap, but in the past 3 days she's rejecting that as well. Argh! I would start putting her in her crib, but that doesn't work because her nursery is the "lightest" room in the house and it wakes her up. The computer room is much darker during the day because it faces west, so she sleeps better in here, if I can figure out a new baby apparatus that she'll tolerate. Any suggestions? She likes sleeping in my chair:

But she's started working on rolling over in the past few days, so this is not a safe option unless I'm right there monitoring her (i.e. no laundry, dishes, taking Phoebe out to poop...)

Yesterday, I repeat, was rough. She refused to be set down anywhere, until I finally got her sleeping in her swing for a few minutes around 10:45 AM. As she slept, I quickly took the opportunity to heat up my lunch and chat with my mom on the phone. Evie woke up to find me doing three things she hates: eating, talking on the phone and NOT HOLDING HER. She started crying hysterically. It had only been two hours since she'd eaten at 9 AM (she's been on a 3 hour schedule pretty happily for the past several weeks), so I tried to comfort her with a diaper change (which she generally loves) and some rocking and singing. Meanwhile I'd hung up with my mom and my lunch was only 1/5 eaten and sat on the counter getting cold. She just kept crying, more and more hysterically, with big gulping sobs and tears streaming down her face. Nothing worked! Her diaper was dry, I was holding her, I tried pacifiers, rocking, bouncing, patting, jiggling...argh! Finally at 11:30 I gave up and decided she must be having a growth spurt and actually be hungry, so I set her down in her swing to wail like a siren while I went into the kitchen to make her bottle. I came back in, picked her up and sat down at the computer to read blogs while I fed her (I know, everyone says I'm supposed to talk to her and sing to her while I feed her, but she has always ignored people who are feeding her, preferring to stare off into space as she sucks). I pulled up Bloglines and noticed that Ask Moxie had a new post up.

Please be patient as I now go off on a tangent...

Evie's had this t-shirt for a few weeks. Moxie has had some big stuff going on in her life and I wanted to support her by buying a couple of things from her cafepress.com store, because I love her blog so much (the other shirt I bought is the "Rock Me" one shown in this post). I've been waiting for the right post to show off her new t-shirt, and this is it.

...tangent is over.

Anyhow, the post yesterday was about teething, something that I thought I didn't need to think about for another couple of months. Boy, was I wrong. As I read the post and the comments that followed (Ask Moxie is one of those blogs where the comments are as good as or better than the original post), I was struck that Evie is experiencing almost every symptom:
  • drooling (past 10 days or so, before that everything that came out of her mouth was white)
  • eating hands (she's been doing this more persistently lately)
  • rash when she poops (and a never-seen-since-hospital 2 poops in a row yesterday)
  • sleep interruption (well, how about sleep pickiness?)
  • eye boogers
  • inconsolable screaming

So, yesterday I quickly washed up all of Evie's teething toys and popped them into the refrigerator. The verdict: likes the Super Soothie, kinda; still prefers her regular Soothies; sorta likes the Sassy Teething Butterfly; maybe likes her water-filled teething ring.; still thinks her hands taste better. On order: RaZberry Teether, Vibrating Teether and Sophie, based on recommendations from Moxie's commenters.

She doesn't have red gums yet, but a few commenters on Moxie's post said their babies had teeth by 4 months, and the pain starts way before teeth appear. BUT other commenters said their babies started showing teething signs at 3 or 4 months and didn't have any teeth until later than average (6 months is average for first tooth). So we could be dealing with this new Evie for months and months and months. Great. Are any of Evie's contemporaries (Declan, Payton, Snippet) showing any of the same symptoms, by any chance? Am I just imagining this? I can attribute everything but the drooling to other causes, if I think about it. OK, let me ask you this, Ashley, Diana and Deanna, when you lift your son high in the air over your head and wiggle him to make him smile (everyone does that, right?*) does he drip drool onto the floor, your hair and onto your face? Evie does, every single time. She's still spitting up, but now it is more watery and soaks through her bibs, getting the neck of her shirt wet. Almost every time I change her shirt now it has a wet neck. And I'm constantly wiping drool off of her chin. She loves that, you can imagine.

*but only in the hour before she eats, because otherwise it would be spit up on the floor, in the hair, etc.

Thanks, Moxie, for helping explain my Rough Monday.

15 comments:

  1. Hmmm. I had no clue you were talking about teething until further down the post. Can our sweet little munchkins possibly be teething already?? The only symptom I can see of the ones you listed is the drool. He's completely out of control on the drool issue. Yes, it does drip down when we do "airplane". I swear I thought teething was more like 6 mos! Hmm. I have 1 soother so I need to check out some of your recommendations so I can get more and be ready. I hope whatever teeth she might be working on pop through so you can get a break! I was stressed just reading your post! Sorry I wasn't much help!

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  2. I'm a huge childcare research buff so feel free to ask me anything! Yes, teething symptoms can start months before the teeth come.

    As far as putting her down to sleep-yes this is just something she'll have to get used to.

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  3. she's so cute in that ask moxie shirt! makes me miss having an infant around SOOOO MUCH! wish i could help in the teething dept but i was fortunate to not have experienced any of that with my twins. believe it or not, they sailed right through it! hope your sweet baby will get through it ok.

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  4. Hi there. I just found your blog and am curious about your history of endometriosis. What grade was it? What issues you've had with it. What relief you have found from it if any. If you are open to sharing I would be interested in hearing how you have dealt with the endometrial cysts and everything else!

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  5. Ahhh teething. Teething I feel can be a catch all for a lot of things. The drool is a sign, and the rest of it could be a lot of things. It honestly sounds like she might be going through a growth spurt or even a developmental change to me. I know my kids always have interrupted sleeping when something big is about to change (crawling, walking, talking, etc.) Not that she'd be up for those big things, but you get the idea.

    Anyway, yes the drool is annoying but it does go away eventually. I fell in love with the plastic backed bibs during Butterfly's major drooling stage.

    And as Yaya said, getting put down is something she'll just have to get used to. You and her BOTH. It's very tough. I found Butterfly did best on my bed or with my shirt I wore the day before. Put her down drowsy at the same time every day, and just walk away. Yes she will scream. You will probably cry and scream right with her. I did a lot of dishes during this time. Of course, you do have to do what's best for you and her, but know it's easier the sooner you do this. (With Butterfly I didn't start sleep training her until she was almost a year, it took MONTHS for her to settle down at night. With the boys, about a week and I started them at 3 months.)

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  6. Hi! Hey, she sounds like Eli when he was that age. He NEVER took naps for longer than a few minutes unless I was wearing him or holding him. Much different than his brother who slept whenever I needed him to or it was time to. Eli never even napped in the car. I don't believe in letting babies "scream it out" - it teaches them nothing- if they are crying at this age, they need something. They don't cry because they are spoiled... that comes later. She is probably just needing a little TLC right now and she wants her mommy. Congrats- that's you :)I know it's frustrating, it drove me crazy... but I always kept this phrase in my head, "This too shall pass!" -Jennifer

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  7. I'm soooooo glad you posted this! Jake and I were beginning to think we were crazy! Snippet has suddenly begun to drip drool constantly and engages in major LOUD hand-sucking. (I'm talking super-slurpy, hear-him-from-another-room LOUD!) The worst, though, has been the inconsolable screaming, complete with actual, big, streaming tears. It turns Jake and I into helpless jello. When he gets going on one of these jags, he refuses to nurse, and no amount of bouncing or singing calms him. He will just quite suddenly stop crying, as strangely as he began. We were wondering if it might be teething, even though we haven't seen any little white buds popping through, and he's only 2.5 months old. Are we crazy here? (FYI: My baby niece (who is now 5 months old) started teething at 3 months, according to my SIL.)

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  8. +Ashley, I'm glad to hear Declan is drooling but doesn't have the other crap...hopefully that bodes well for Evie and makes yesterday just a crappy day! :)

    +Yaya, hi huge childcare research buff, I'm a huge pregnancy and childbirth research buff :)

    + Wait Another Year, seriously, twins sailed right through it? Are you sure you weren't just too sleepy to notice? :)

    + Guera!, I have a post titled "Rewind" back in July that might interest you, and a post in March titled "How We Got Here." In short, my endo was stage III at my first surgery and stage I at my second surgery. For more details shoot me an e-mail because I try to keep the gore off of the website whenever possible...we endo ladies know how TMI it can get.

    +Safire, I'm almost with you on the growth spurt thing, because she's been fussing for food every 2-2.5 hours today, but then tonight had another of her inconsolable phases, and her hand chewing is getting more vigorous, so I still can't decide...

    +Jennifer, you are so right, this too shall pass...except that the women on Ask Moxie are freaking me out that she might be teething from now until she start grade school. :) J tried her back in the boppy this afternoon and she slept for 20 minutes, woohoo! So maybe we'll be able to outwit, outplay and outlast her :)

    +Ms. X, today J was home, so that made it much better, thanks! I even managed to take a long, hot shower this evening while he bounced and jiggled during one of her fits, so now we're even :)

    +Deanna, sent you an e-mail...but yeah, on Ask Moxie a few people claimed their babies started teething symptoms as early as 6 weeks, 2 months, etc., because the symptoms can start weeks before the teeth appear. Evie doesn't have any buds, either, and she did not appreciate me checking for them! :P

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  9. Elizabeth drooled like crazy for months before she got any teeth. Hope today is better for you! :)

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  10. Thanks for all your great X-mas ideas (on my blog), Karen! You're right, it isn't too late. I can get a little melodramatic at times :)
    Anne

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  11. Congrats on your little one! She is adorable!

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  12. After 4 kids, I still have no advice for getting them to sleep. You have a cute little thing keeping you awake though!

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  13. my daugher would only sleep in her carseat that was placed in the bassinet part of the pack and play with the vibrating function turn on for the first 5 months of her life. thats where she felt more secure i guess. i love your blog and reading and seeing pictures of Evie.
    blessings to you
    jennifer

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  14. Eric did the same thing and didn't get his first tooth until around 5 months, so hang in there! Some babies deal with this differently than others. And she may be better for her other teeth, like molars.

    Poor babies... it must really hurt to get teeth coming in. Glad none of us remember... :-)

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