What a difference a day makes

"What?! A day? You haven't posted in over a month!"

I hear you. I'll get caught up here over the next few weeks.

But for now, we'll talk about this week.

For at least a month, Ian has been teething molars. His lower right is breaking through in spectacular fashion. It's huge!

Monday night, it was just too much for a little boy to take. He'd had some oragel for the tooth pain during the day, so he's now receptive to the q-tip with gunk on it (until he remembers that I'll be touching his sore gums, then he recoils). Bedtime routine is happy and fine. Then he goes to nurse down. Almost asleep, screaming. Try again. Almost asleep, then more screaming. As he's laying in the guest bed next to me, screaming, he's signing "help" and "hurt" over and over. It was just heartbreaking! Poor guy was in pain and he wanted Mama to fix it. Daddy is a mind reader (or a scream reader, rather) and brought in the oragel. We topped that off with tylenol and a fresh diaper. He finally dozed off close to 11pm and slept soundly until after 4.

Tuesday night, teething tabs before bed and he went down relatively easily and slept (albeit fitfully) until about 4. The gums today look angry, red, and there's a monstrous tooth coming through. I hope this is over with quickly.

I haven't taken many photos lately, but here's a bedtime pic for you, coming to you straight from the loo!!

Today's Fussies...

Today's fussies are brought to you by:

1. The number 9 (9th tooth? We don't see anything aside from white bumps on the sides of the gums and lots of drooling, but there has to be something going on with those teeth!)
2. The letter V (New vocabulary! When I ask if Ian wants "down," he says "dooooww" and today I asked him if he wanted cheese, and he said "cheethe!")
3. Bubble Wrap (TM) (Our new sponsor. See previous post regarding climbing!!)
4. The Morning Walk (Everyone appreciates it.)
5. The Late Morning Nap (Please sleep well!)

Last night, twice Ian needed to ride in the sling (for dinner prep and cleanup). Poor guy just hurts. Here's hoping it's over soon!

Tooth #8

Tooth #8 made an appearance yesterday. The last of the lower lateral incisor. The last of the typical first 8 teeth! Ian wasn't quite as fussy as he was with previous teeth, but the drooly and snotty times happened just after cutting tooth #7. We'll see. Last night was pretty good - only wakeups were at 1 and 5. Teething tabs at bedtime and at 1, but no need for the major painkillers.

We've been emphasizing finger foods that he can feed himself, and it's helped quite a lot - he eats more now! So, a good night sleep and Ian eating more during the day? What does that equal? You bet! Blocked duct. I hope this one goes away quickly. We're working at it.

Uncle Jay stopped by last night to see Ian and have some dinner. He brought chicken and ice cream! If Jay has some pics, I'll add them to this post.

Oldies But Goodies

I've been going back through pics a bit, and thought that leading up to Ian's first birthday I'd highlight the best pics from a particular "era" in Ian's life. 

Birth Day

(I include this one because he reaches for me like this when nursing even now)

Here, he's about a week old. He was so tiny back then!

And now, our "Biggest Boy" has awakened from his nap and is talking to his toys. I'll head up to see him shortly. Yesterday, I wasn't sure what he was doing so I went to check on him. He was sitting up, quietly talking to his white elephant. He insisted on bringing it with him when I got him out of the crib. Sweet boy! We think that teething action is slowing down for now, but we'll see! No fever or extreme fussiness but we do have occasional snottiness and excessive drool. Time will tell.

Calling in Sick

I don't call in sick very often, but I did yesterday. Yesterday, Ian was hit by a fever and you can tell he just hurt. Poor guy. We think it's the teething process, but we're not sure.

He got up in the morning and was a bit warm, then didn't eat much for breakfast and played for a little while, but was fussy. Then he went down for a nap. After his nap, he was pretty warm. He nursed, we changed a diaper. So, he was rested, full, clean diaper. He crawled over to me, stuck out his bottom lip, and crumpled in my lap, crying. I felt so bad for him. We gave him some acetaminophen and it took quite a while for the fever to come down. Maybe an hour or a bit more. For that time, he sat in my lap or in the sling and comfort-nursed. Finally, later in the afternoon he felt a bit better. He was able to hang out in the living room and play a bit and he didn't have to be held all of the time.

Last night, Ian got another dose of acetaminophen around 3am. He slept well until about 7, then I snuggled with him until he wanted to get up about 8:30 or so. He had a decent little diaper rash today, too. Probably from all of the snot he's ingested. Today was much better. He still had his moments and needed more comfort than normal, but he was markedly happier today.

We hope he's in great shape for the trip, or at least much better than yesterday!

Later!

Ian says: "I'm going to go cruise the hallway for a while now. Bye."

Did you know that nice walks in the neighborhood make for better naps? Not in the stroller anymore - there's way too much that's interesting to see out there. But when we get back? Mmmmm. Naptime.

I think that Ian was "off" from eating because of this new tooth. He was signing for food today! He'd sign "more" (all fingertips together), and we figured out that he wants food. I think. We plopped him into the high chair and fed him and he was happy, so we think that's what it is. And he was near the kitchen. He's really good at signing "all done" when it's needed, and he's working on the mechanics of the "potty" and "milk" signs. He's close to getting those!

Toys

How did the toys multiply so much? We have great toys for Ian, and we have neighbors, friends, and family to thank for that. Here's a picture where the mat is relatively intact (his favorite thing lately is to rip it to shreds).

Here you can see "Reginald the Hedgehog" (Reggie the Hedgie for short). I'll get a proper picture of him soon. I think he's going to be left relatively unstuffed and be more of a puppet. He has a hole that needs to be repaired and he needs to be felted just a bit more. I'm so happy with him.

But there are lots of toys! For our sanity, I think maybe we'll box up some of them and put them away. That way we can rotate them and when we bring them out they'll be fresh, interesting, and new. And we won't have so many tripping hazards in the living room!

See the basket? That's the toy bin. He likes to empty it. I think chaos theory applies to children. They tend toward entropy!

PS: Tooth Number 7 has made an appearance! His lower left lateral incisor. Say that 7 times fast!
And: Ian's newest big skill is backing down off of the bed in his room. He's a pro at it. Sometimes he still topples a little bit, but usually when he's a bit clumsy with a big diaper and jammies on, or there's a blanket in the way. I need to get video.

Switching things up

Just when you think you've got things figured out (or screwed everything up), Ian goes switching it up. Last night we thought that the camping trip had completely hosed any "sleep training" we had managed. During our trip, he was nursed at every peep and slept with us. The last few nights he hasn't slept more than a few hours at a stretch. But last night, we gave him some ibuprofen in the event that pain was keeping him up. He then slept for 5 hours straight. Poor fella. Teething again? He was so rested that today he only took one 2 hour nap. No other naps. We'll see what tonight holds in store.

Snow is melting. It's warm in town. The park was fun the other day. Hopefully more visits to the park in the very near future!

Wow, teething.

Teething is just off the hook the last few days! Snotty, low fever, phlegm-y cough. We'd thought it was a lower lateral incisor a bit ago, and there's a tad of a bump there, but none of the gums are really swollen right now. There's a bump at the first molar on the bottom, but we're just not sure what those teeth are trying to accomplish. These are the same symptoms he had a few weeks ago when he got those 4 top ones at the same time. Maybe the top ones are advancing more? We don't know. He's happy otherwise, though, and gets a bit irate only when he's not gotten enough naps, or is hungry, or isn't moving at high speed. Tall orders!

I think two things have turned a corner, however. The sleep - he's regularly sleeping at least one 4 hour-ish chunk each night. That is wonderful. We seem to have a few more hours in the day that we don't need to spend resting. And nursing. He's serious about it again. He's been distractiboy for over 4 months, but now he's spaced out nursing sessions (dropped a daytime feeding, I think, as well as a bazillion night-time feedings) and when he wants to nurse, he pays attention and gets the job done, instead of farting around. To some extent, of course - if the cat or dog or dad come into the room, all bets are off.  What has caused these changes? Maturity? Did he hear the doctor when he said that Ian was "probably getting more than he needs to eat?" (although he said he wouldn't change anything). Did Mommy hear that and doesn't offer nursing as often? Your guess is as good as mine. Either way, we like it.

Also, I think that the difficulties in putting him down at night are easing as well. Last night he was put down asleep, promptly woke up (as usual), and put himself back to sleep. Our next step will be putting him down more drowsy.

Ian says, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a water dish to raid."

New Stuff

• New Sleep Spreadsheet. Totally Nerdy. See link at right. You can now see sleep progress along with us! 
• New Work. Big job in New York. Need a New License!
• New Tooth. Wow! Ian is not even inordinately fussy. But we can see a little white spot at his right lower lateral incisor. That's #7!
• New Knitting Group. We need to get our knitting group here going some more. But there's one that has formed in KJ, every Wednesday at lunch, kid friendly and generally friendly. Formed on Ravelry. Ask me for details if you're nearby.
• New snow. Boo. At least it's melting quickly.
• New Recipe. Inspired by this, my non-dairy pizza last night involved hummus, spinach, tomatoes, and onions. Really good. And lunch today, too. What!? I didn't eat it all in one sitting. Two sittings, technically.

• New Energy. Spring is around the corner, there's work to do, Ian is so excited about his newest skills, and it just feels good to have accomplished a new spreadsheet too. 
• New Pictures.

"Dude. You've got something on your chin."

"No, I don't. I can't see it."

"Where?"

Teeth: Moving Fast!

Forgot to mention. There are two new teeth as of this morning!


You can't see them here. But you can see how rapidly those upper teeth have moved in! The upper lateral incisors are the new ones, and were completely cut through this morning. I don't see more on the horizon, but of course we never know!

Nose Detective

Today was possibly the onset of ... something. Massively runny nose (wipe it every 5 minutes type of huge runny nose), drooly, slight fever (99.1). The best 3 cluprits I can see:

1. Teething
2. Reaction to some food
3. Illness of sorts

Now, I don't think it's an illness because neither John nor I show any signs of anything, and we really haven't been out much at all. We've just been to the grocery store and out and about maybe twice this week.

Those are good teething symptoms, but not usual ones for him, and there are swollen tooth areas next to the new teeth. When we asked that all of his teeth come in at once and get it over with, this is not what we had in mind. Here's a chart, btw, of primary teeth, so you can see. 



He got the lower central incisors around Christmas time. The upper central incisors a little over a week ago. We're noticing the upper and lower lateral incisors looking different, and the canine upper and lower are definitely there under the gums, but don't seem to be currently progressing. 

I think it may be a reaction to some food. We had curry rice the other day (he had a few grains, but he did eat some). This was made without the shrimp and basil, but with finely chopped beet greens, and a fraction of the onion that was in the recipe. We like this recipe, it's the 2nd time we've made it, and the first time Ian had some. But it was several days ago, I think. At least 3 days ago, maybe 4. Last night it was spaghetti, and he had that, with the sauce. He's had spaghetti sauce in smaller amounts before with no ill effect. I can't think of anything else that he hasn't had before, with the exception of peas. He's definitely eating more food lately though.

I'm sure tomorrow will tell the culprit. Or the next day. For tonight, we gave him teething tabs. That didn't help for too long, but he was tired, as well. We did the 1-2 knockout punch bedtime. Ibuprofen, warm bath, nice jammies, nurse down and he's out. We did elevate the crib mattress, so he doesn't get too stuffed up, and we'll see how tonight is. Poor little fella. We'll keep you 'posted'!

Teef

See those teeth?

Their upper counterparts have been making life miserable for poor Ian for 2 weeks. We keep thinking it's over, they're through, but then find out that they're halfway cut or some such thing. The 2nd one of those top teeth is finally almost done, we hope. Makes for a cranky boy, and a hair trigger on the crying.

Shortly, it'll be back to this.