Teething

Alyssa had a cranky, cranky, week. And we don't have a cranky baby AT ALL so having one that is cranky is really difficult. I can't imagine how I would have handled colic. On Thursday morning (I think it was Thursday, the week is a blur) I threatened to drop her off at Nana and Sean's permanently. Then I had a nap with her and felt a bit better and decided to keep her. Basically we went back to a newborn sleep schedule. One night she slept from 8:30 p.m.-Midnight then woke up so I gave her some Tylenol, she slept until 3:40 a.m., from then on was up so many times until 7 a.m. that I lost count. I'm not sure what made me think of teething but I checked our handy Dr. Sears Baby Book (my baby bible) and found she had almost every "symptom" they list:

• Drooling
• Drool rash (red, raised, irritating rash around lips and chin)
• Drool cough (causes gagging and an irritating cough)
• Fever and irritability - definitely definitely irritable
• Biting (she'll happily gnaw on your knuckle)
• Night waking
• Refusal to eat

Her refusal to eat had me really worried. We had been changing her over to President's Choice Formula for a number of reasons, including cost saving (half the price of GoodStart due to the fact they don't advertise) so I was worried she wasn't liking the new formula. Friends of friends have had great luck with PC brand and we seem to be now as well. She isn't as constipated as she used to be. Another huge bonus is you can mix the PC powder formula up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerate. You can't do this with GoodStart (it is by the bottle). Changing formula is a bit like changing dog food, you have to go about it slowly and it takes about a week. We are almost there.

It is super hard to get stuff done around the house with a teething child. We are trying to not drug her up 24/7 so during the day we suffer, but we'd rather suffer during the day and sleep at night when she's drugged up. Thankfully it is the weekend so this afternoon Ryan napped with Alyssa (she isn't quite napping in her crib yet) while I did a bit of spring cleaning. I am finally getting around to cleaning our windows inside and out. Believe it or not we haven't really cleaned them all that well in the time we've lived here. The first summer we didn't have grass, the second summer there was still lots of construction going on (including our patio and our neighbours patios and stone cutting creates a LOT of dust) and this being our third summer we are finally getting around to removing all the dirt off of them. I am hoping this cuts down on the amount of dust inside my house, but not holding my breath. My mom is coming up to watch Alyssa tomorrow so Ryan and I can tackle stuff around the house. I will hopefully finish the windows and clean the inside of the house as well.