Rough Night for Teething

It was a rough night for us. I think my baby's teething. He cried a lot yesterday and woke up A LOT last night. I thought his sleeping would actually get better because the past 2 nights, I've been able to put him down awake. It's something short of a miracle actually. I was trying out a new thing the past 2 nights. I do the normal bedtime routine: bath, book, bottle.. Previously I would give him the bottle when he was propped up in his crib (I use the word crib loosely, more on this at another post) so after finishing the bottle and he's all drowsy, I just pop his pacifier in, lay him on his side and he goes to sleep. The past 2 nights, I give him his bottle while he's in my arms. I burp him and then put him down and I turn on his projection mobile (Fisher-Price Precious Planet 2-in-1 Projection Mobile) without the mobile part (he's too old for that). The images are projected onto our ceiling. It's a pretty cool light show. Within 20 minutes (that's the auto turn-off time of the mobile), he's asleep. Sounds so easy, right? But the past 2 nights, he has been waking up a lot. He doesn't sleep through the night yet, normally I put him down at 7:30pm, then he wakes up at 1am, 3:30am, and 7-8am. But last night, he woke up at 11:30pm and every 1-2 hours after that, and he wouldn't sleep from 2-4am. There goes the theory: put them down awake and they learn to self-soothe. But I guess it's because something is wrong, his cries sound like he's in pain so I really think he's teething.

I tried to give him teething gel last night and I guess it stopped his crying for a bit. I tried it on myself too and the thing feels exactly like what they give you at the dentist's office to numb you before a big injection. The numbness didn't last for long though. I also gave him a pacifier cooled in the ref. That seemed to work too, but really, no cure lasts forever. All I can do is hold my baby and tell him everything's gonna be all right.

When we woke up at 9:45am (we needed our sleep haha), everything seems better. He didn't wake up crying and he played by himself. I hope for all our sakes that he feels better today.

Remind me to blog about how we were able to put him down for the night easier. That's a whole other story.