Cheese and the little stinker

I'm going to complain so if you only want to read about kittens and rainbows, I'd go down about 3 paragraphs or better yet just go away all together...

Anyways I went reading to find out if Oz is having nightmares and what I could do about it. Since about 6 weeks (which was WEEKS before going back to work mind you), I noticed Oz was an active sleeper. He would wiggle, kick, toss his head, laugh, cry, smile and frown. He also travels from one side of the crib to the other by the morning, as well as turn himself in a 180. He does all this without ever waking up.

After reading a bit I found that he's having night terrors which aren't always scary which is why I don't get the name. Night terrors are a state of quasi-wakefulness but not really being awake. The good news is that with nightmares the child remembers what was happening. With night terrors its like sleep walking and they don't remember. What's poopy is that in order to not prolong the night terror they recommend you not picking up and holding the child because it can create a nightmare situation and leave the child feeling trapped, restrained or constricted. Instead it was suggested you turn on the light and speak to your child, while patting or stroking their arm, leg or tummy.

My comoplaint is that he's a great sleeper until about 3am. This is when he either wakes because he's hungry or he wakes me with laughter, cooing or a squak. I wake at 5:30am to get ready for work. Since it takes me at least 30 minutes to fall back asleep you can see where my complaint is - he's got bad timing. I know its not his fault - if he's hungry he gets a midnight snack, if he's tossing and turning he gets gentle pats and comforting words. I'm just right on the edge of getting enough sleep at night to feel rested the next day. Sadly I'm just one of those people that need 8 hours of sleep to be at my best. So the 3 am wake ups are keeping me right on the edge of grumpy. There's the cheese to my WHINE.

On to the little stinker. Barb calls me today at 10:30 letting me know that Oz isn't himself today and has been crying for the last two hours. She tried it all - changing him, feeding, burping, the swing (her's doesnt make him puke), holding, rocking, checked him over to see if my hair had gotten wrapped around his toes or something cutting off the bloodflow - nothing seemed to be working. She also said he was spitting up a lot when he hadn't spit up the entire time he's been in her care. She also mentioned that he was stuffed up, seemed to be sucking air more to breath while eating and thought that his breathing was raspy. Of course I called the clinic and got him an appt.

When I got there Barb's mom had just fed him and he was dozing on her chest. He had went through 3 onesies, 5 burp clothes, 1 hoodie before I got there by spitting up all over them. I put another hoodie on him and as I was strapping him into his carseat, he looks at me and smiles. While waiting in the waiting room at the clinic he was smiling, laughing and cooing at me. While meeting with the doctor he was all smiles, laughs and giggles with the doc. Other than a stuffy nose he was as healthy as a horse.

The doc played with him for a bit while I was scolded for feeding him too much. I told him what the AAP had said about the 2-3 oz per lbs of baby and then split that total over the 6 feedings a day. He frowned, probably did the math in his head and said that he was taught it was 2oz right out of the hospital and then add an ounce for each month milestone he hit. So that put Oz at 5oz by his calcuations and we are offering 6oz by mine. Oz doesn't always eat the whole thing so the doc stopped scolding me and just asked that I keep an eye out with the reflux that we don't over feed too much in one sitting. That I totally understand and we will keep an eye out to make sure he's not spitting up a ton.

So I take my laughing Buddha boy back from the doc and start getting ready to go back to Barb's place. He's flirting with the nurses and anyone else he can smile and hide his face at. I call Barb let him know he's okay and that I am bringing him back. I put him in the car, start it because of the warm day and by the time I put the stroller in the trunk and got in the car he was racked out. We get back to Barb's and he's flirting with both of them and laughing too. His crying fit was apparently because he was TIRED. Unfortunately overtired enough that he was fighting sleep instead of giving in. He woke for 5 minutes said goodbye to me and then went right back to sleep. They swaddled him up and he slept for 2 hours.

So my little stinker freaked us all out for a nap. When I picked him up he was sitting in the bouncey seat flirting and playing peek-a-boo with Barb. The poor little stinker just needed a nap. I love my boy, he cracks me up!