Phases

Talking to Lani today got me thinking how we value sleep so much more now. When Will was first born (and Lani said the same about Hunter), we couldn't wait for our little guy to wake up, open his eyes, make a funny face, and maybe make some noises at us. With number two, Lani said she's already leaving him alone when he starts to stir a little bit hoping he'll go back to sleep. Sleep is oh, so precious.

Will is just over a year now, and I'm back to not showering until late, late, late in the day on most days. If I don't shower 1st thing in the morning when Hubby is home to watch Will, it isn't going to happen till Will goes down for his nap in the late afternoon. Just when I think we're on a good schedule and I can kind of predict when I can accomplish some things around the house, he throws me a curveball. Lately, it's been teething. Teething is a bear to deal with normally with him. His front 8 teeth came in pairs and made him wake up screaming his face off two or three times a night and he was fussier than usual during the day. Usually, he's a happy-go-lucky kid!

Now we are getting molars. Two of them at the same time, on the bottom. It has been three weeks of unpredictability and major crankiness! For a while, I wasn't sure he was my kid because he was just pissed off all the time. The slightest thing would set him off. Sometimes just looking at him was enough to cause a total meltdown. We had one day last week that was just God awful. Quite possibly the worst day I've had with him since he was a wee-tot and I didn't have the whole feeding/sleeping schedule down yet. I didn't get a chance to shower all day because he napped for 20-25 minutes at a time and was screaming the rest of the time. Pain meds, teething rings, popsicles, Nothing Helped! I was ready to ask for a refund. Where's my receipt? Let's take him back! Then relief came. I think that night he slept through the night for the first time in two weeks. The last couple days have been progressively better and better. Today was great!

It's just interesting how a year ago I was wishing he would sleep for more than 30 minute increments so I could shower, clean up the house a little, and make myself something to eat. Then we had a good run of getting on a fairly regular schedule with 2 or 3 naps and I could still get out of the house because we had the infant carrier car seat and I could plug him in and off we would go. Now we're somewhere between 1 and 2 naps a day. Today, I think he had 3 naps. Teething just really throws everything off. I think he's going through a major growth spurt on top of it all because his 2 of his naps were 2+ hours today. And it seems like every time I do laundry there are less and less pants that get to go back in his drawer because they turn into high waters on him. Hopefully when we are officially down to 1 nap a day, life will get on an easy schedule again. It would be nice to do more than one errand a day ...