Sick, clingy, toothy 10 month old

Donovan just turned 10 months old.  And, poor little guy, with it came a few not so pleasant experiences and changes.

He just got over a bout of RSV.  It went around at his daycare, and poor kid got it pretty badly.  He was on a nebulizer and everything.  So that was unpleasant.  The poor kid was just miserable for a few days.  And, of course, I felt like the worst mommy in the world because I shrugged it off as teething-related or just a cold for several days.  Now, to be fair, I did make a declaration of, "If he gets any worse we are going to the doctor!", so it's not like I was ignoring his illness.   But then we got the RSV letter that day, so that definitely sealed the deal for seeing the doc.

So it was albuterol via the nebulizer every 3-4 hours for a few days.  That included overnight as well.   Plus saline and nasal aspirator to clean out his nose.  And Benadryl to help with the drip.

That is a LOT already.  But on top of it, he had not one, not two, but THREE teeth coming in.  His gums had been sore for a few days before he got sick, and by the Friday after Thanksgiving he had three new teeth popping through.  Poor little guy is just hurting from it!  So it's been ibuprofen and Orajel Naturals for that.

Given all of the above, I guess it's no surprise that sleep has become awful lately.  I mean *awful*.  He is very difficult to put down to sleep in the first place, and then he always wakes up at some point in the middle of the night (usually between 1 and 4 a.m.) and stays up for several hours.  He will fall asleep at the breast, but the second I start to lower him into his crib he wakes up.  When I pick him up, he passes out on my shoulder.  Lower him to the crib, wakes up immediately.  On and on.  Then eventually Mike tries.  Then I usually wind up nursing him again.  And that eventually works. Most of the time. 

Lately we have done something that I swore I wouldn't do - we let him cry himself to sleep.  I couldn't help it.  We were up for hours, passing him back and forth.  He was fed.  He was dry.  He was warm, but not too warm.  He was magically fine in our arms, but a mess when not.  I know it's developmentally appropriate for a 10-month-old to get separation anxiety.  I know it is.  And I want to be sympathetic.  But we were SO. TIRED.

Two nights ago (the day he actually turned 10 months old), he cried on and off for over an hour.  It was pretty bad, but not as awful as I expected it to be.  It was only on and off, and I could tell by the sound of his cry that he was awake and bored and wanted to cuddle.  We did it again last night, and he cried hard, but only for about 15 minutes.  Then he was out and we didn't hear from  him until morning. 

We do plan to officially sleep train starting this weekend.  We will employ the Sleep Lady Shuffle again.  It worked really well for Jocelyn, so we are going to test it out for Donovan.  Yes, it's silly to do this now since we are about to go on vacation for Christmas.  But I figure that if he back-slides it won't be all the way, and maybe it will be better enough in the short term.

But enough complaining.  Donovan is awesome!  Sure, he has had some rough patches that probably contributed to his sleep backsliding.  But he's great!  His walking is getting much better.  He can go a good 8 or so steps before falling.  He is not nearly as interested in practicing as he used to be, but he does great with it when he does.  His cruising is superb - he is the expert.  He can turn around, catch stuff as it goes by, go around small 'footprint' objects (like the kitchen stools, or me).  He enjoys pulling up on people, which is really cute, except when it pulls up on Jocelyn and it hurts here (he is 2/3 her weight, after all). 

He is working on saying "cat".  He looks right at Dakota and Pumpkin and yells something that sounds like 'GA!'  He loves them.  He is so very interested in them.  He will crawl right to them.  They usually run away, but every once in a while he can get his hand on one.  Dakota did scratch him once, which she got a HUGE time out for (and then I ignored her for days, because I was mad at her for it, because she had an open doorway behind her so she was not cornered).  But usually they just peacefully, but quickly, walk away.

Donovan is doing the typical, clingy 10-month old thing, though.  He will not be put down these days.  I have to brush my hair while holding him.  I often need to hold him while eating (or take turns with Mike).  Even when I'm dressing him, I have to hold him.  Sitting him in my lap to pull a onesie over his head will not suffice.  He needs my hands on him or arms wrapped around him. It's a pain in the neck, especially in the morning, and extra especially when either Mike or I has an early meeting and only one is around to get the kids up and moving.  Sometimes he pushes out of my arms (which he is very good at), so I bend over to put him on the floor.  This makes him cry, despite his own attempt at freedom.  When he does this while I am seated on the floor, he crawls a few steps away, then quickly turns around and crawls back in tears.  Again, he pushed out himself, I just didn't stop him.  If, by some miracle, he does play by himself on the floor, he quickly realizes the problem and makes a bee-line for me and pulls up on my legs so I can pick him up. 

All in all, though, he is a good boy.  And he loves his Mama :-).