Sleep update

Nick has been inexplicably waking up several times a night for the past couple of weeks. He would go down around 8 or 8:30 as usual, but around 10:30 he would wake up and be so upset that I couldn't get him back down. Todd would come in his room, pick him up, and rock him in the glider until he passed back out. Typically then he would sleep for a couple more hours, but wake up around 2:30am, 3:30am, 4:30am, 5:30am...you get the picture. Naturally this made me jealous that Todd has that all-encompassing "calm daddy" gene that I do not possess.

Regardless, for a while, I chalked it up to teething. He's drooling like a mastiff, and chewing on stuff as if everything he picks up tastes delicious (which seriously, how good can that rubber Sofie giraffe REALLY taste? She's reminiscent of a dog toy...for real, she makes Whinnie go INSANE. I digress...)

We constantly put our fingers in his mouth, feeling his gums for ridged teeth trying to pop through, but haven't felt anything. I pry his mouth open, which he protests VERY loudly, but I can't seem to see any sign of a real tooth trying to break free.

After about two weeks of wake-ups, on Sunday night, he went to bed as usual, and slept straight through until about 6:20am. On Monday night, it was the same deal. And then last night, he went down easily and even slept in a bit, not waking up until 7:00am (which granted made us a bit late to daycare, so he fussed the whole way there because he was starving for breakfast).

I'm seriously trying to figure out if there ever were teeth in there that were bothering him, or if it was something else. He's still drooling on everything (and everyone)...and anything he can get in his mouth to chew on quickly becomes a new favorite toy. But the sleeping has gotten better! (knock on wood).

A few factors I've considered are that for a while, I was putting him to bed in regular pj's - no covered hands. I know I discussed this being an issue a while back, but I thought we had gotten past it. The past several nights I've put him back in the nightgowns with the hand covers...so maybe it's a combination of having warmer hands, and not being able to claw his eyes out that has calmed his sleeping habits?

I've also been better about letting him signal when he's done with his nightly bottle. He doesn't give me the thumbs up and say "ok ma, I'm dunzo", but he will either fall asleep or squirm and arch his back like he's going to hurl if I pump anymore milk into his tiny stomach. I used to take this as a sign of a big burp, let him rip a good one, and then shove the bottle back in his mouth because I was convinced that he still needed to be getting his full 28-32oz of formula a day. But I took a step back and realized that he's getting a ton of food between his breakfast, lunch, and dinner solids, plus bottles, and perhaps -- just maybe -- he was so full it was making his tummy hurt at night.

So I don't know if there really are any little teeth in that mouth of his causing him middle of the night distress...or if it's the fact that he can no longer rake his finger nails across his forehead...or if it's just that he's finally not overstuffed and wanting to vomit at 3am...but regardless I'm so proud of our good little sleeper!

Now if only someone could convince me to turn off terrible MTV reruns and Food Network competitions so that I could go to bed when Nick does, then maybe I would be as happy as Nick is when we get up at 6:30am. On a Saturday. Darn you summer TV line-ups!