checkup

Ok, so Ethan's always been a good sleeper - from the time he was about 2 months old until 2 weeks ago, he's never had a problem sleeping through the night. Starting the day we went for his 1 year checkup, he's started waking up every night - exactly 8 hours after going to sleep - screaming his little lungs out for 2 hours straight then falling back asleep for a couple more hours before getting up for the day. So now I'm back to being a sleep-deprived momma again. I'd rather have the sleep-deprived days of taking care of a newborn than this any day though. At least when he was a newborn, I knew it was just hunger and could feed him and he'd fall right back asleep. But with constant screaming with nothing working to console him is downright exhausting and frustrating. I gave in and finally took him to the pediatrician yesterday (of course the night before I went - Monday night - he chose to sleep through the night!).

The doctor looked Ethan over and diagnosed him as teething - why didn't I think of that! But with a heart baby, you don't want to take any unusual behavior lightly. The doc pointed out to me that he's getting ready to cut 4 more teeth - 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom right next to the center 4 top & bottom teeth he already has! So she told me to give him Children's Tylenol or Motrin right before bed, which should last him through the night. So before bed last night, I gave him a dose and prayed for a good night sleep but to my dismay, he woke up 8 hours after bedtime, so I gave him more Tylenol but he continued his pattern of screaming again for 2 straight hours. I'm just glad that teething doesn't last forever!

Tomorrow we go to the cardiologist for a checkup. If everything goes well, we hopefully won't have to go back for 6 months this time instead of our usual 3 month checkups!