Dear Teething Monster

Dear Teething Monster,
Go Away!  That's right, I'm done being nice about it.  I want my sweet little boy back.  Take all your baggage and hit the bricks.

We are done with the sleepless nights.  Maxx wakes up in the middle of the night and just cries and cries.  Nothing I do comforts him and that breaks my heart.  Sometimes it is so bad that he will even go on a nursing strike.  Which that in turn scares me because with breast feeding I am constantly wondering if he is getting enough to eat.  (it's the lack of confidence in your ability to breast that you don't hear about)

I am sick of the drippy nose.  It's constantly running to the point it must be in competition with his drooling.  It doesn't help that his intense hatred of the nose suction bulb turns Maxx into a rabid Tasmanian devil at just the sight of it.  He'll instantly start spinning and swiping at my hands as soon as he sees it coming.  It's become a two man job to wrestle him down to safely suction his nose without any mishaps of him knocking it out of his nose only to make it poke him in the eye.

Everyone is frustrated with the mood swings.  It's been like living with a little bi-polar cave person.  One minute he is happily playing the next he's tossing toys and yelling or even worse having a complete kiddie meltdown.

Drooling, ugh you can keep the non stop drooling. My poor little man has to endure multiple outfit changes a day due to the constant stream of drool from his face.  I've tried bibs, but when he spends the entire time screaming and trying to rip it off only managing to get angrier when he pulls himself over instead of tearing off the bib.

This is so much worse to deal with teething without our magical Hyland's Teething tablets.  OK, so they aren't really magic, but in this house they are pretty close.  I was depressed to find out about the recall.  It's not that they were unsafe or harming anyone they didn't have consistent amounts per pill when they were spot testing.  To keep quality control at a high level they did a voluntary self recall.  I received a coupon in the mail for $7 worth of their products.

The Unwilling Night Owl

Early to bed and early to rise. That was my motto. Since having kids... It's changed a LOT and not willingly.
I now find myself struggling to fall asleep and once I do get to sleep it's even harder to stay asleep.

I've tried warm milk... ::GAG:: I don't like that stuff when it's cold.. it's so much worse when warm.  Counting sheep til I lost count and am really tempted to poke my eye out with a  spork.  List making to slow or even stop the thoughts that swirl through my head constantly. Mostly to do lists... As a stay at home mom to 4 kids I can always think of something that needs doing.  Warm baths seem to energize me and a shower is much worse.  What am I to do?

I catch myself spending all day yawning, but then I get to take very few naps.  The slightest noise disturbs my sleep or as my husband says, "You startle awake from a mouse fart."  Some days I can sleep in until 10 am. At the same time can it really be considered sleeping in if you aren't asleep but instead are pretending in the hopes you can trick yourself into falling back asleep?

As I type this I realize there are many factors to why I can't sleep.  I'm sure there are more but there are some that are a constant cause in my insomnia battle.

Having a new baby in the house I wake throughout the night and constantly check on him.  Maxx is exclusively breast-fed and seems to go from one growth spurt to the next with very little time between.

If only that were all that kept me from sleep.

My husband has a job that his schedule flip-flops throughout the year. Most the year he is working from 2 P.M. to 10 P.M.  but during the summer and winter school breaks from school he works 4 A.M. to Noon.  Throughout the year I stay up and wait for him because I can't sleep without him next to me.  Then during the flipped schedule I have a tough time falling asleep because he's already comfortably in bed snoring away once I finally get the house settled to bed.

With Maxx teething lately he's been up hourly throughout the night.  His constant need to soothe nurse has me worn out.  To make matters worse he's started refusing his pacifier lately.  So I have become the pacifier unless I prefer a little angry person yelling at me.  If it wasn't for Hyland's Teething tablets I would have run away to join a circus by now.  Some parents say they don't work for their children.  I pity those poor souls.  In our house they are miracle pills. My son just has to see the bottle and he perks up and opens his mouth ready for a dose.  My daughter did this too when she was little and teething viciously.

Maybe one day I will be the early bird catching her worm again.  For now I will be the content mama night owl off to obsessively check her flock "one last time".  Let's all hope I get more sleep soon or I am gonna be one nutty mama.

And for those that argue that Hyland's Teething tablets can't safe if they have Belladonna in it.. Please read this very informative post explaining their safety from a great natural mama site.

Everything Birth ~ The Safety of Hyland's Teething Tablets