New Teeth...A Painful Experience For the Whole Family!

Sorry it's been so long...life is just busy. Alex is getting some more teeth. Two more, on the top. And he has not let any of us forget it. We went from a lovely, sleeping all night big boy right back to a one-month-old little baby. He's up at least 3 times a night. If I go in to comfort him, rock him, pat his back, etc he knows it's me and will be soothed by nothing but nursing. So, Dan tries to put him to sleep at least once a night so that I am not completely nuts in the morning, but sometimes that doesn't work, and the magic of Mommy is all that will help.

This is not good. I think that some how we are equiped with some extra adrenaline back in the beginning. Waking up every couple of hours somehow becomes OK with a newborn, and we are able to stumble through the day on very little shut-eye. At 8 months, though, I am quite a lunatic after these nights. And while I am now running on a sleep deficiency, Alex doesn't seem to be bothered at all by the fact that he is sleeping in ridiculous little 3 hour chunks. He is still up by 7, ready for his day to start.

Dan has been a real sweetie, taking care of Alex for an hour or two in the morning, until it's actually time for me to need to get up. Thank you, thank you Dan.

In happier news...Alex and I went to the beach today with our playgroup. We went to Ala Moana, which has a wonderful little inlet area, protected by a jetty, so the waves are very gentle. The decline is also very slow into the water, so you can sit down and hold a baby very nicely in your lap, never having to lift him up for waves. This is a nice combination. Usually to sit, you can't be in the water or you'll be overrun with waves all the time. Or, you have to go out a ways and have to stand, balance a baby, and generally be more anxious about dropping him. Plus, standing in the water is not very entertaining to a baby. Today, we sat with our legs in the water, hands in the sand, and just enjoyed the day. I discovered that if Alex has a toy to chew on, he is much less likely to try to eat handfuls of sand. A good discovery, indeed!