Jadens Journey

Jaden never used a pacifier. Not even when we desperately tried to get him to use one, hoping it would help soothe him to sleep. He also never used teethers. No matter how many times we try to show him that he can chew on them to alleviate his teething pain, he just looks at us like we’re absolutely crazy for putting something in his mouth that isn’t meant for eating.

I guess in some ways it is a blessing since he (most of the time) doesn’t stick anything in his mouth that’s not meant to be there (except for the occasional sock fuzz, for some reason. Eeeeew!). Add that we won’t have the difficult job of taking the binky away from him when it is time and overall, it may have been a decent trade-off. 

Imagine my surprise yesterday when, as I turned around after taking the laundry out of the machine, I saw Jaden popping a pacifier in his mouth. 

We never threw the pacifiers out, even though he didn’t use them as they were intended. We kept them around because he played with them. They were one of his favorite ‘toys’ when he was still rolling around on the floor, hardly sitting up on his own. He liked to pass one from one hand to the other, shake it a few times to make it go click-click-click, then pass it to the other hand and repeat. So the two pacifiers that came in the one package that we bought have been around since day one.

So it was kind of humorous to see him walking around with a pacifier in his mouth. I assume it is because he’s teething those darn eye teeth (“canines” as Neville corrected) and maybe it was helping him with the discomfort. Regardless, it was a funny sight since I’ve never seen him with one in his mouth.I was somehow quick enough to find my camera and take a couple of pictures. Hopefully you’ll giggle as much as I did.

Everything else, Pictures pacifier, Pictures, teething

My Mom keeps telling me “Don’t worry – after this set of teeth come in you’ll have a break for a few months” – but I have heard it 3 times so far in the last three consecutive teething instances.

Jaden’s final two first year molars are just finishing up pushing through the gums, and now we have one of his eye teeth coming in. I assume the others are going to be quick to follow.

We had just had a night or two of good rest when the whole shebang started again. It took me 40 minutes to get the little guy to settle in for a nap, because he hates to sleep when he’s teething. On Monday night he was up until 10:30, when at last pure exhaustion knocked him out. 

Can’t they invent something better for teething than just those teething tablets and orajel? They don’t seem to work for long on Jaden. If he’s exhausted enough, they’ll give him enough relief to help him fall asleep, but he tosses and turns and every few hours wakes up, ostensibly in pain from the teeth.

Thankfully there are only 8 more baby teeth to go.  I’m sure you’re saying “thank you!” as well since you’re probably sick of this chronicle by now. 

On a more entertaining note: we had a great weekend (except for the lack of sleep – LOL) at Grandma and Grandpa’s. I’ll post pictures soon.

Everything else teething

Of all the necessary experiences of being a toddler, I’m guessing teething has to be the most painful. Of all the necessary experiences of being a parent to a toddler, I’m starting to think teething takes the cake.

I think that Jaden knows when his Daddy is away for the weekend. He somehow manages to go through all types of issues on the nights that Daddy is not here. Last night (we think) it was a combination of teething and stomach problems. He would sleep anywhere from two minutes at a time, to maybe, in a lucky spurt, 20 minutes. I also believe that he has a harder time sleeping anyway when his Daddy is not home.

It takes me a while to get back to sleep once he wakes me up and I help coax him back to sleep, so the 20 minute wake-ups were the worst. I would just about get to the point where I was dozing off when I would hear the plea for assistance coming from his crib. He has a difficult time falling asleep by himself when he does not feel well, whether it be the hives, or congestion, a cold, a rash, or one-year molars breaking through. So the night began… and ended, the same way.

Grandma Di and Grandpa stayed with me over the weekend to help with Jaden, thank God, otherwise by now I’d probably be writing this from inside an asylum. Around 2:30 a.m. I asked Grandma Di to come sleep in the room with us, so I’d be able to put Jaden in bed between us and not have to worry about him falling out if I dozed too heavily. Usually putting him in bed with us helps him sleep a little better when he isn’t feeling well. It worked to some extent — his sleep periods stretched to an hour. Small blessings can be wonderful.

It was such a rough night that I was tempted to bring him downstairs and stay up with him all night… but from the endless number of books on “how to get your toddler to sleep through the night”, I know it is counter-productive to make him overtired. I just kept wishing the night would be over. Whether I slept or not, I didn’t care. I just wanted it to be over. I felt awful that I couldn’t soothe him enough so that he could sleep for longer periods of time, and also awful for Grandma and me for our tireless efforts that all seemed for naught.

Finally, morning came. He managed to sleep until 7:00 a.m., which was a blessing in itself since he was up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.

I feel like all I write about it sleep issues. I guess it is just about what I write about all the time, since it is the majority of the problems we have here. Jaden is such a happy baby. He smiles easily. He loves to play. He is so darn smart it can be scary at times. He giggles at Mr. Noodle and the Wiggles. He knows what he wants, and he figures out ways to communicate it to us (although sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between one ‘iiiiaaah’ and another). So, ultimately it is really sad to watch him when he’s in pain or uncomfortable. I guess that’s part of why I write about the sleep problems so often.

As far as the stomach problems, we gave him some prunes today with his lunch and dinner, and let’s just say that I’ve had to change at least four full diapers since 3:00 this afternoon. My guess is that the stomach problems are resolved.

On another note… we saw the allergist on Friday. They tested Jaden for a dozen or so allergens, and believe it or not — no allergies!! So why all the hives? Evidently you can have chronic hives in which there is no one irritant – just about anything can flare them up – the cold, the heat, getting upset — you name it. Knowing this fact doesn’t help us much with eliminating the hives altogether (by eliminating the ‘allergens’) but it makes a lot of sense now why he would get the hives at times. For example, one breakout occurred in Arizona when we went hiking. We had Jaden in the Kelty backpack, and the day turned out warmer than we expected. The heat and being packed into the backpack probably caused the outbreak.

On the brighter side of things, we started to re-introduce foods that we had stopped giving him (wheat, bread, corn, etc.). We will still introduce them one by one, but at least we have a greater variety of foods to feed him now, and we won’t have to worry about accidentally giving him the hives again.

If only there were a simple fix for the teething.

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else sleep deprivation, teething