Open Letter to Colin Meloy; or, How To Get Through Teething

Dear Colin and the rest of The Decemberists:

I don't know if you guys have any kids - which, along with the fact that I had to actually look up the spelling of your name, is pretty funny. When I was younger I could tell you anything about anyone in any of the bands that I loved, from New Kids on the Block to Marilyn Manson to Bob Dylan to Tori Amos. I'm not sure when I stopped obsessing so completely about the people in the bands as much as the music, but I don't feel the loss that much. Except in cases like this, when I want to earnestly thank you.

You see, what I started to say is that I have a baby, six months old. If you have kids, you know that there are times that no matter what you do, you can't figure out what is going to make it better for your crying baby. You've changed her diaper, you're trying to feed her, you're snuggling her and singing, and she's still inconsolable. You know she's hungry, but she's too upset to eat. And after hours of this, you feel like crying yourself, because you just can't make it better and that's heartbreaking.

This will happen more than once.

Eventually, something will make it stop. She falls asleep, or she decides to take the bottle. Sometimes something triggers it - you make a particular face that causes her to smile, and come out of her black mood. You make just the right "shush" sound that lulls her to sleep. Or you turn on the iPod and put it on your favorite Decemberists playlist because mommy needs some comfort, too. And then the baby goes quiet and smiles, drinks her bottle, and goes to sleep.

Twice in her young life, Charlotte has been consoled by your voice, Colin Meloy, when nothing else worked. And for that, and the sleep that came after, I thank you.

Sincerely,
Jenn & Charlotte


(cross-posted to LJ, too)

Still teething. Still Not King.

There will be posts put up and backdated for Easter, Charlotte's six-month birthday, and Red Sox opening day. Once I have time to upload pictures that is. And once I have time to actually breathe.

Today has been NUTS. Charlotte is miserable, and no combo of Tylenol, Hylands, and Baby Orajel is working. She's eaten less than half the amount she usually eats, and she's had far fewer wet diapers. I'm seriously worried that she's going to get dehydrated. After repeatedly pushing away her bottle - ALL DAY LONG - I had the brilliant idea tonight to give her a sippy cup. She's getting only a little bit that way, but it's a little more than the nothing she was getting.

Today is one of those days where I'm both exhausted and amazed.

Two big things today: the sippy cup and noticing music. We were listening to "Peter and the Wolf" today, and every time a new instrument came on, she'd turn her head towards the speaker. Before she didn't really seem to notice music unless we were singing a long with it. Or, rather, she noticed it when you turned it on or off, or if it was particularly loud, but she didn't really pay attention to the changes within the music. So that was pretty cool.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, a little late!

Things to remember, 4 to 5 months

* Charlotte loves sitting in her high chair, and throwing things over the sides.

* She makes a wide range of noises, including a "hoo, hoo," noise that Matt calls the baby-owl noise, and the weird, atonal humming that she does when she's singing herself to sleep. She also loves to squeal and shriek.

* Charlotte is so much better at grabbing things deliberately. She loves to grab blankies and clothes and Daddy's beard.

* When putting herself to sleep, Charlotte likes to drape a wide variety of items over her head.

* While she can suck her thumb now, she usually just puts it in a corner of her mouth to chew on. For hardcore comfort sucking, she prefers the bink. (we gotta work on that.)

* We are starting to get into a bedtime routine, but were kind of derailed by teething. Also, Mommy needs to fight her TV addiction! Charlotte is ready for bed around 9 pm, but starts waking up around 5:30 am.

* Charlotte really started hardcore teething on February 25, at 5 months and 1 day.

Oh, what a night. And not in a good way.

Either Charlotte is teething, or we are bad parents.

I think it's the teething thing. She just did not want to go to sleep or anything last night. She shrieked and shrieked. We fed her, changed her, offered her the bink, walked her, bounced her, everything. She would close her eyes for a moment, then scream some more. I was hesitant to give her Tylenol, because she wasn't running a fever and I'm not sure she's teething, and I don't want to drug her unnecessarily, but then she showed a lot of interest and quieted down when we gave her a chilled teether to "chew" on. That's what convinced me to at least try the Tylenol. It was very late, and I still had work to do, and Matt was at the end of his rope. She did finally settle down after that, so now I'm wondering if she was in pain that whole time, and that's why she was so upset.

This parenting thing is hard.

ETA: According to BabyCenter.com, here are some signs of teething.

What teething symptoms will my baby experience?
Experts disagree about whether teething actually causes symptoms — like fussiness, diarrhea, and fever — or whether these common symptoms are not related to teething at all and just coincidentally appear at the same time as emerging teeth. Regardless, many parents maintain that their teething babies do experience discomfort (though some babies get through the process with no problems at all). The symptoms most likely to trouble a teether include:

• Drooling (which can lead to a facial rash)
• Gum swelling and sensitivity
• Irritability or fussiness
• Biting behavior
• Refusing food
• Sleep problems

Also, it notes that teeth can start erupting (god, that just SOUNDS painful, doesn't it?) somewhere between 4 and 7 months.

And here's what the Drs. Sears say about teething.

Changeling

Either my angel baby is teething, or the fairies came and swapped her. She might also have a cold. I'm not sure what's going on, except she's been fussy for 2 days straight, and not even the usual stuff calms her. It's frustrating, but mostly I'm just worried that something is bugging her and she can't tell me what.

We did do a lot this weekend, and our bed routines were completely toasted. Yesterday I actually put the TV on during the day with the intent that she be distracted - she was, and I felt guilty, but she was so unhappy all day. I was a little surprised when flipping through the channels (sorry, PBS, I just can't do Barney) and Charlotte shrieked with joy at The Millionaire Matchmaker. I am disturbed that Charlotte finds fake tans so awesome. Yikes.

This Sunday was Charlotte's 5 month birthday! I didn't actually take a picture during the day - we were in Quincy visiting our friends Dave and Aaron (and Steph, and Ying and Glyph), and I forgot my camera. I did take a picture of her that night, though.

Busy, busy.

There's been a lot going on, and I haven't been able to blog all of it. I still want to blog some major baby things - like the issues I had breastfeeding, and the whole birth experience. I also wanted to post about how our friends have reacted to the whole baby thing. I'll get to that eventually.

Things that are currently noteworthy - we got Charlotte a high chair, we packed up some of her tiniest baby clothes, she's sucking her thumb pretty regularly now, and she had a good doctor's appointment last week. My grandfather is also sick and in the hospital, which is less good. My sister Nicole and I drove out to eastern MA to see him, and brought some Charlotte pictures, as well as pictures of his other great-grandchildren. He really did enjoy that. My mom, who saw him after Nicole and I left said that he was showing all the nurses his great-grandchildren pictures, and was still tickled that we brought them for him.

We got Charlotte a high chair 1) because it was on deep discount, 2) she'll need one soon enough, and 3) she really wants to be with us during dinner, and it's hard to eat one-handed. I do take very seriously the current medical guidelines. It's recommended that you hold off on solid foods for as long as possible, preferably until 6 months for formula-fed babies. I've heard that breast-fed babies can go even longer. Charlotte just turned 4 months, but she's so interested in sitting up, that I wanted to start getting her used to the high chair now, so that we aren't doing too many new things at once by the time we're feeding her rice cereal.