Not to dishearten the new parents, but our daughter turned one today and the last three nights have been a return to what life used to be like before we returned to sleep. Up every 2 hours and fits of crying.
The culprit? We wracked our brains and thought it was one of the following:
- New footed pajamas bugging her.
- Too cold in her room (weather has been between teens to negative digits for a week now).
- Noise from visiting parents in our guest room scaring her.
- Teething.
It’s always the simplest solution — she has her first cold. Well, at least it looks like a cold, runny nose is tormenting her at night time preventing easy breathing — frustration and tears.
But this turns out to be symptoms something bigger.
Her one year checkup today informed us that she is teething, not just one or two teeth mind you, but four of her back molars are coming in at the same time. (Can you hear my screams of anguish?) Not just for me and my wife returning to no sleep for days, but for our daughter being uncomfortable, tired and cranky for who knows how long?
So the lesson I’ve learned is, just because things have gotten better, don’t count on them staying comfortable. There is a high likelihood of returning to the “olden days” of broken sleep patterns. And there really isn’t much you can do about it since no amount of sleep training will really get your child to sleep through this much discomfort.
Just make sure you keep at least one bottle of ibuprofen laying around, for everyone involved.
