Short-lived sleep phenomenon

The blessed 1-2 hour naps are a thing of the past. I don't know if that was just a short-lived burst of sleepiness or what. But I don't think I changed anything - she's just back to her 1/2 hour routine - even when sleeping in our bed. Boo that. I was so enjoying my happy, sleep-filled little girl. And the time that her longer naps afforded me to get other things done around the house.

And we have also entered the "official" teething arena. Whatever I thought teething was before (chewing on things constantly, short bursts of irritability), this trumps it and trumps it some more. She's grumpy. She's constantly got her finger(s) in her mouth. She wants to chew on anything and everything (the colder the better). She won't (can't) nurse without some numbing oral gel first. And she won't let me touch her mouth as I am constantly checking to see if *finally* something has broken through yet. It hasn't. And all that does is make her cry.

I was up to her room 6 times by 2am last night. Oral gel before the binkie reinsertion. Back rubs until fully asleep for a distressed little girl. Nursing far more often than normal as this seems to chill her out.

By 2am though, I was dying (and my shaking legs felt like they were going to fall off), so we kicked Daddy out of bed and brought Maddie in (oh - the injustice of it all). Whatever, don't feel too sorry for him - he got to sleep the rest of the night uninterrupted in the guest room. And Maddie continued to wake up every hour crying - but at least she was within arms reach, not down the hall, and she was (slightly) easier to calm back down to sleep.

We continue with the grumpiness today and I expect the non-sleeping will continue until those little bottom teeth finally break through. God, I hope this is the final stage of what has felt like months on end of teething ... I mean really, this stage can't last that long, right??

xxoo.S

PS - have finally figured out how to download our videos to the computer - which means we will be posting some vids of our little girl soon (and more often)...