Sleep & Teeth

The last couple of weeks have been extremely rough in the sleep department. Nate has some good nights, and then some nights where he wakes up every couple of hours. It's been exhausting and I needed to do something about it. So Jaime and I started reading her book, The Baby Whisperer. It profiles your baby and then tells you the best way to deal with your baby based on his type/personality. Nate is a touchy baby. Short version: he's ultra sensitive, flinches at loud sounds, blinks & turns away from bright lights, cries for no reason (usually to say, I've had enough and need some peace and quiet), gets fussy after a number of people have held him, plays on own but needs reassurance that someone he knows is close by, likes to suck a lot, and has difficulty falling asleep. All of these fit Nate to the T. It says that a change in schedule can really throw him off and knowing his cues and cries will help. Babies that are touchy babies love structure and predictability. This is Nate. I know his cues, so that's half the battle. So the last couple of days I've been working on figuring out a good schedule/routine. I've been marking down his sleep times. I've also started pumping and feeding him a few feedings in a bottle. I think we have had a couple of problems that are now being solved. The every 2 hour feedings are now 3-4 hours apart. I think when he ate, he became tired of eating and so would quit before he was really full and so would come back for more later. I put a fast flow nipple on his bottle and now he gets sufficient amount of milk in less time and that seems to keep him satisfied longer. I'm also not so quick to get him from his naps. The morning naps are usually an hour long. Every nap he takes he seems to wake up after an hour, crying. In the afternoon, he would wake crying and then continue to be fussy. So now he still has an hour long nap in the morning, but when he cries in the afternoon I let him cry for a little bit and then he falls back to sleep. He wakes up now in a much better mood. As for the night time wakings, if I know it hasn't been that long since he's eaten, then I let him cry and go back to sleep. So now he might wake up several times during the night, but he usually only gets one feeding. I know he's been teething for awhile, and I think that the nights where he's waking up is due to that. The white spot on the side of his upper gum hasn't changed. That one might take awhile to come through. But yesterday I noticed a white bump coming through on the bottom front, and sure enough you can feel a little tooth. That explains the extreme fussiness the couple of days prior. I thought I would have a couple more months (and a husband at home) before the teething started, but just like everything else that has to do with baby, it can't be controlled. So we roll with it and know that we'll have some good days and not so good days, some long nights, and some better nights. And I know as soon as we get this schedule down, we'll be changing it for a new one.