*EDITED* Ug. It's Very Early and Someone Is Drilling My Street. Bastards.

*EDITED TO ADD*

I need teachers! Or educational administrators! If you work in the field of education, I need to interview you. Pretty please, with a cherry on top!

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Not having a great morning, I must say. Last couple of nights Tori has been waking up a lot--and doing it in the worst way possible, so that we don't get any sleep. First, she wakes up for her normal middle-of-the-night feeding. She nurses for ten minutes, then falls right back asleep in her crib.

But then she wakes up again within thirty minutes. Lather, rinse, repeat--sometimes up to four times. Both of the last two nights I finally stopped nursing her and just held her while we rocked in the glider, but she fought sleep hard and fast. If I tried to put her in her crib, there was inconsolable crying and shrieking. Awful.

We suspect more fucking teething. Her top left tooth is taking FOREVER to come in; in fact, it's taken so long, a whole extra tooth came in on the bottom while we've been waiting. She's now got three on top and three on the bottom. Has this happened to anyone else? Cause I thought they came in all nice and symmetrical. And if you knew me, I have issues about things being symmetrical (they MUST BE SYMMETRICAL--uneven things make my skin crawl). And, just so you know, it's not the same three on the top and the bottom. She's got two on the top on the right, and one on the left. She's got two on the left on the bottom, and one on the right.

And, oh my god, the teeth, and the nursing. Owee.

Tori isn't biting (well, she did once, about two weeks ago. That would explain that screaming you heard). What she does is suck the nipple through her teeth, so that it scrapes against both the top AND the bottom teeth. Mostly this happens at night; it's like she's too tired to open her mouth fully. I've tried interrupting her latch--which is what I've heard you are supposed to do for biting--but in the middle of the night this does NOT work out well. It leads to much screaming and head shaking and an unwillingness to reattach. And THEN there's what Tori does (heh).

Sometimes I can distract her by stroking her cheek softly, but it's a fine line between distracting her and distracting her too much so she detaches and it's hard to walk that fine line while your nipples are being tortured. Any suggestions would be very, very helpful.

So, anyway. Combine the not sleeping thing with the fact that someone starting drilling the street in front of our house today promptly at 7am, I am not a happy camper. In fact, I am the complete opposite of a happy camper. I'm a crap-ass cranky camper.

But the good news is, I have to write four 750 word articles today. Yee-ha! And now I'm off to buy a baby gulag (something like this, I think) so we can keep our very mobile child out of trouble in the living room. It's the only way I'll get any work done today, since Charlie has to take the car in to the shop (yes, AGAIN. I swear, we'll get a new car before the end of the summer somehow). Fun, fun, fuck.

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Sorry about the length of that last video blog entry. I decided to spare you the one I was going to make of her first haircut. I know, I know. I'm sure my enthusiasm for them will wane over time. Just bear with me through Father's Day, m'kay?

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In case you didn't get enough already of birthday stuff (especially since Tori's actual birthday isn't until Thursday!), here are my photos of Tori's party (and here are the shots of her getting her first haircut). Here are Sarah's much prettier photos. And here is a short video of me torturing my dog by tying the balloon he desperately wants to play with (and by that I mean pop) to his collar. Shot by my friend Sue. And the voice in the background saying how mean it is belongs to my mom. My friends Jim and Mark are the ones trying to reassure her that it's really not that bad.

Comments

[Nicole]

We love that play-yard thing. I got one for our first Christmas to keep my daughter from climbing the tree. Works great out on the lawn too!

Best wishes for a quick end to the construction... it never stops around here.

[ladykuri]

OMG too cute!!! I love the facial expressions during the haircut too, she's so SERIOUS about it!

I'm so sorry about the construction....I think it's perfectly acceptable to go cuss them out ;) Some things just shouldn't be done, and noisy construction at 7 am is very close to the tippy top of that list.

[goodsandwich]

It's normal for teeth to come in in whatever order they please - sorry! Also, ours had a harder time with tops than bottoms.

I'm sure a million people will recommend Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets - they really do help the pain and distress, calming her down so she can get back to sleep. But for the more hard-core nights you're describing, we did not hesitate to break out the infant Tylenol. There is a non-dyed version, and even for half-hippies like us who use medication very sparingly, it was a godsend, for us and for our poor little suffering babe.

[Jenni]

I will spare you from assvice I promise. Although the Baby Whisperer lady has some good advice on this sort of thing..... I don't want to get yelled at lest anyone think I am discouraging breastfeeding, but I would love you to get a full nights rest at some point you poor thing! OK that was sort of assvice, sorry :)

On a more helpful note, try this stuff: http://www.healthibody.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=TEETHA We are having good success with it on our little man, the angriest baby in teething town. That and tylenol are keeping him a happier baby when the rage begins. Painful teeth cutting really is a design flaw in the baby human isn't it!?

[Aurelia]

I'm not sure it's teething if it occurs when she doesn't get to nurse/bite you. I'm wondering if this is the time to send in Charlie?

As in, "here's daddy, no nipples, no biting, but lots of comfort?" He isn't involved in a struggle over anything because she doesn't associate him with milk.

After a few nights of him going in, she may not wake up at all, realizing it's pointless.

[vilde]

This helped for me when my son started biting while nursing: Saying "no" very firmly, then removing him from the breast. I let him reattach after maybe thirty seconds, but I would repeat it if he bit again. It only took a couple of days for him to get the message.

[kim]

Cecily, I just emailed you. I have one of those baby jail thingies in the pile to go out the door. It's all yours if you want it. Check your gmail

kim

[maggie]

Teeth are erratic. Baby jails are great. Keep in mind that at some point you should cut out the middle of the night feeding - it's hard to do, though. At some point, I started going in to rock her back to sleep when I'd nursed before - she didn't like it one bit and kept grabbing at me, but within a week, she was sleeping through that prior feeding time.

[Kristin]

Symmetrical: not so much. The Boy got one snaggle-fang on top, and then waited a while before getting some more to balance them out. And the molars have been alternating side to side and top to bottom. I do enjoy the snaggletooth pictures we have now...but I also relate about the feeling that things should be symmetrical. I was the kid who stepped on a sidewalk crack with my left foot, and then had to make sure I stepped on one with my right foot, to even it out. The same applied to the lines on the floor in malls, grocery stores, you name it. I must have driven my mother nuts when we had to walk anywhere together, what with my starting and stopping, big steps and little steps, all so my feet would hit the right line at the right time. And the really sad things is...I kind of still like it that way.

Hang in there.... (Baby Motrin has been a godsend: works a little faster than Tylenol, and lasts a bit longer, although Tylenol is very helpful too.)

[maureen]

"Baby gulag." You crack me up.

My parents use the same Superyard... for the dog. She likes it, though. I would plan on keeping it set up and just lifting her in and out because it's a pain to open and close (and it can be really painful when you close your fingers in it).

[Amanda]

I get the same sucking through the teeth thing too and I always re-latch her, even if it means waking her up and/or pissing her off. It's just not behavior I want to encourage. I'm also pretty strict with my "nurse or get off the tit" rule. I want to nurse for at least another year, so I protect my nipples as much as possible.

My advice isn't about that though, it's about the gulag. Instead of putting HER in the gulag, put everything you don't want her to touch in there and let her roam the living room. If she's anything like my kids, it'll take her exactly 90 seconds to realize she's trapped in there and then she'll attempt to break your eardrums until you let her out. If she doesn't freak out in there, you have a totally MAGIC BABY.

We kept our TV cabinet and every breakable item we owned in that gulag for almost 3 years. Worked like a charm. Good luck!

[Liza]

OMG the new masthead the new look SQUEEEEEEE...and yay for more words, I like your writing (although miss Tori in video is...squeeee) I love it all! Baby gulag. I never used one as a first-time mom, and could've saved the giant noggin so many jolts and bruises! Third one lives in baby Alcatraz.

[Whitney]

My kids never had teeth come in symmetrically. Drove me crazy. Oh, and with mine.....the night-waking was usually the only indication of an ear infection--no fever, no ear-pulling, nothing else to show for it. Took me about 6 infections to find that out! Hopefully Tori's is just teeth.

[LB]

My own guy (whose first birthday is today!!!) only does that painful nursing thing while teething. Just when I think I am about to lose it, the tooth will pop and he will be back to normal. Same with the night waking/screaming. Luckily, we are nearly done with teeth - he has all incisors, 3 molars and 1 of his eye teeth already. But it's been a long painful process getting them.

[Mary]

Let me start by saying I'm not a fan of CIO at all at all at all. And I know some people do it and it works for them (including my best friend and her 2 kids), for me and my kids it doesn't work. But I am a fan of everyone getting a decent night's sleep! My #2 baby slept sidecarred to my bed until he was 10 months, and then I put him in his own crib in his own room (had #3 coming). When I was about to go insane from being pregnant and getting up 3 times a night to nurse him back to sleep I finally had to stop. I would go in his room (again, no CIO in my house), at first I would pick him up and rock him back to sleep. Even this (sans feedings) cut down the number of wakings. After a while I stopped picking him up, only hugs and back rubs, etc. He really hated this at first, but after about a week he realized he wasn't getting picked up so he settled down more quickly. Now if he wakes at night (not very often) DH or I only have to go in and cover him back up, say it's still time for sleepies, etc and he goes right back to sleep. He's 19 months now.
I would have had DH go in when I was trying to cut out those night feedings, but although he's an awesome dad, he sucks at night (sleep through a hurricane, anyone??), so this wasn't an option for me.
At 1 yr, she really doesn't need the night feedings. And although it's hard to give them up (sometimes for mommy, too), everyone has got to sleep!
As for the scraping teeth thing- sometimes when a tooth is coming in, the suction created by nursing is painful. They will want to nurse because they associate it so strongly to comforting, but when it hurts their little mouths sometimes they do the scraping thing. Not that that helps you to get her to stop, but it explains why she may be doing it.
I use a baby jail like that one around one of my parrot's cages, to keep little fingers out of it. It works great to keep him OUT of things. Not sure how contented he would be IN it, though.

[Ally]

Jamie did the same scraping thing. I found the positioning advice here:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/biting.html#scraping

helped a bit. You just have to remember to readjust throughout the feeding. Not easy to do in the middle of the night!

[the boxing octopus]

have you ruled out an ear infection?

[Nancy]

my gal's got 3 on top(one taking it's sweet time) and 2 on bottom
we call her Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel(Simpsons)
We suspect her awful nights' sleep are teething pain here at 11months, but hello, she has been teething since 2.5 months! Only 1ish more year of this?

[stella]

I wanted to second the Hyland's Teething Tablets!! Great stuff and not a "drug". Good luck with the nursing. I wasn't as brave as you and weened my son when he began to get teeth. That's what I said I was going to do from the beginning.

I teach theatre at a University. Don't know if that's what you need or not. Take care!

I'm a teacher. Going for my doctorate in Instructional Leadership. Ask away.

No advice on Tori, I still am childless.

[Maura]

I was a teacher for 7 years, most recently last year. (Public middle and high schools.) I'm not currently teaching this year, but if that helps at all, I'm available!

[Melessa]

My daughter's second pair of top teeth came in before the front ones, making her resemble a baby vampire. I didn't care for it either, but the rest of the family sure thought it was fun.

[shelli]

it's TOTALLY teething.

Give her some motrin, it'll knock out the pain for up to 8 hours, and hopefully, let her (and you) sleep. When Malka was teething, we'd give her tylenol or motrin at FIRST wake up, and it usually prevented the successive ones.

Soimeteims, if it was REALLY bad, we'd just give her motrin as a "night cap."

:)

[rabi]

hi cecily,

I'm a former high school science teacher, currently doing middle school curriculum evaluation & development (so, I work in a number of different schools throughout nyc) and getting my phd in science ed. email me if you want to talk.

[wwbd]

My daughter has three top and soon to be three bottom, too!

I also love the baby jail. Ours has gone through many different shapes as Anya grew and became more mobile.

It looks like you have lots of teachers already, but if you need more I am an adjunct psych prof at a community college.