Teething

My daughter's first tooth came through the day before she turned 8 months old. She had been an angel that week - even slept all night long twice (the only two times she ever has). I smugly thought that this would be a breeze. Clearly I jinxed myself.

2 days later she was clearly not feeling well. 99.9 temp, fussy, and worst of all waking up crying every 1-2 hours overnight.

2 1/2 weeks later she is still waking ALL. NIGHT. LONG. Last night she slept a 3 hour stretch finally which was miraculous. I've tried Tylenol or Motrin. before bed and in the middle of the night to no avail. We've tried orajel and homeopathic gel. Finally I broke down and bought a Baltic amber teething necklace. She has had it on for 24 hours so far--I hope it makes a difference.

Way to increase sperm quality?

Must. Buy. Walnuts!

http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2012/08/19/walnuts-improve-sperm-health-study-shows/

8 months

Pipsqueak turned 8 months yesterday...and celebrated by getting her very first tooth the day before!  Yay!!!!!

Her sleep habits have been AMAZING lately.  She is sleeping 8 hours in a row without waking at all at night.  Naps have all been independent and from 1-3 hours.  I feel like we have turned a corner (KNOCK ON WOOD!).

Now if we could just get her into the crib...she is totally hooked on our bed.  I joke that we will just keep her with us forever and if we ever have a second baby he or she will use the crib.  Haha.  Probably true though :-)

We have a lot to look forward to...a trip to CA in Sept for DH's work, a tip to FL and Disneyworld in April with my bro-in-law, sis-in-law and 2 nieces,  holiday plans with both of our families, and obviously just enjoying our little ball of energy.

xoxo

Preliminary information gathering

We are in the preliminary stages of talking about when we may try IVF again. First we both obviously want to get retested and make sure nothing has gotten worse. Hopefully hubby still has a few swimmers and hopefully my FSH didn't go up...it was randomly high during our IVF cycle, like 11.7 or something. It really stressed me out but then we got 19 eggs retrieved so who knows.

Question - how long after weaning should I wait to a.) get my hormone levels rechecked and b.) start IVF again?

We plan on weaning after her first birthday, so Januaryish. I kinda would like to jump back in and try IVF in March but hubby thinks that is too soon and I guess I concur. We are planning a Disneyworld vacay with family in April so maybe after that, June/July.

Good God it makes me nervous even thinking about it. In my heart of hearts I don't think it will work (I didn't the first time either). But somehow not trying doesn't feel right. If we try and fail then we at least gave it a go.

Please tell me that 7 months is a normal time for a growth spurt? Last few nights she has been eating several times. Last night:
Fed at 9:30
Fed at 12
Fed at 2
Fed at 6:30
Not ok.

And oh dear lord this heat. Will it ever end?!?!

Luckily we leave for vacation to Washington state tomorrow - high 59 there today! Woohoo!!

Sleep update (thank you)

First off thanks to everyone for sounding off on sleep. I knew that everyone probably struggles with this at some point (and if you don't then count your blessings!) and would have some perspective.

One comment really hit home - that there are very few teenagers waking up crying in the night. Thank you Brandy!!! This really lightened my load somehow. I mean, we all figure it out. My mom co-slept and breast fed me until I was 3 (such a rebel in the early 80s! Hi mom!) and she said I then transitioned to my big girl bed and falling asleep on my own. Now I will probably wean pipsqueak sometime soon after her first birthday and try to move her to her crib soon thereafter.


In the meantime I want my little girl to start to learn some self-soothing techniques. One thing I read about is a transitional item? Like a soothie or blankie? Last night we slept in bed together with her stuffed frog in between us. By morning she had tossed it aside and was snuggled up against my back. Lol she loves to snuggle!

But some progress people. First off I did not rock her or embrace her to help her drift off. I put her far away from me in the bed (we have guardrails up) and I turned away from her. She had her paci, her frog and was covered up with a sheet. (holy hell it's hot here!!). She got herself to sleep! She talked to herself, kicked around a little, and then I heard her furiously sucking on the paci. 10 minutes later I use my iPhone light to spy on her and she was sound asleep! Maybe this is no big deal to some but I felt a victory!

We are gonna give her a few days off from the crib. I realized that she has almost never slept in her crib before this week and we let her cry twice in it now. So she is associating her crib with scary and aloneness. In a few days I will restart safe naps there. And maybe let her play in it wide awake? It's got to be a positive experience.

I feel guilty that we tried CIO. This parenting thing is hard!

I did realize one very big positive about having a baby with no strict nap/bed schedule : we can take her to concerts! July 3 we took her to an outdoor Dark Star Orchestra concert. She LOVED it! Total hippie this one! She danced in our arms, hummed along and then fell asleep on her daddy with no drama. We stayed til 11:30! 

Advice please!

Sleep - besides the reflux (which seems to be under control thank the Lord) this has been our biggest frustration.

Pipsqueak has never liked sleeping alone.  From day one she never slept longer than an hour or so when laid down by herself.  When we roomed in at the hospital she cried in her little plastic bassinet almost constantly.  At home we used a bassinet, a pack and play, and tried a snuggle nest (BIG WASTE OF $50!).  By the end of 2 weeks I was so sleep deprived I was falling asleep in the rocking chair with her in my arms.  So I brought her to our bed.  My husband was against it but I HAD TO GET SOME SLEEP.  And it has worked mostly.  Breast feeding is much more convenient when you have your baby right there.

Naps have always been a struggle.  She will nap for 2-3 hours if you hold her, but put her down (while she is sound asleep mind you) and you get anywhere from 5 to (rarely) 45 minutes.  So for many months I resigned myself to holding her while she slept.  This is ok but prevents me from getting anything done.

She absolutely cannot self soothe at all.

We tried cry it out a couple nights ago.  I never thought I would try it but we are getting desperate.  Every 10 minutes we went in and stroked her head, replaced the paci, told her we were there and quietly stepped out.  She was in her crib, snug as a baug, fed, burped, dry, and in a dark room.

SHE WAS PISSED.

She screamed almost every single minute and after an hour and a half we gave up.

Just now I let her cry for a half hour trying to get her down for a nap and she screamed the whole time.

I am not attempting sleep training to try to get her to sleep through the night (although I just read a blog of quads sleeping 12 hours straight at 4 months and damn near killed myself out of jealousy) i just want her to gain some self soothing practice.  I mean DAMN.

Any ideas??  The Dr Sears advice is get them completely asleep before you lay them down.  I've tried it.  She is completely out and limp limbed and everything and still she wakes up minutes later screaming.  I've tried CIO and all it seems to do is traumatize her.  Last evening we let her kinda sorta cry some but every time she woke my husband would stand by her crib, stroke her hair, and kinda help her soothe back down.  He repeated this like 8 times in an hour.

She is waking now every day at like 5:45am.  She used to sleep til 11am.  She still refuses to go to sleep (even in our arms usually) before 9 or 10.  So only like 8 hours at night (and also waking up 2-3 times to nurse in the night).  Then yesterday I refused to let her nap anywhere but her crib.  She probably cumulatively got only an hour of sleep ALL DAY after only 8 no- consecutive hours of sleep at night.  THIS IS NOT HEALTHY!

ALL ADVICE WELCOME!!!!!!