Sleeping Beauty . . . well, that's actually not a very accurate description of the past month. Beauty, oh yes, she's quite a beauty! But sleeping . . . that's another story.The week before Mother's Day, Hannah Kate ceased sleeping through the night. She began waking up anywhere between three and six times a night! She wasn't hungry. She was tired, aggravated, frustrated . . . I attributed this to the loss of her swaddling blanket. We tried to graduate her from it at four months, but after one sleepless night without it, we decided to let her graduate to a bigger sized swaddling blanket instead. That worked for a month or so and then she became strong enough to weasel her way out of it during the night, which was waking her up, too, so we decided it was time to retire the beloved swaddling blanket. We knew from the beginning that we made a decision that we would later have to deal with some unwanted consequences from (more sleepless nights for a little while), but we just wanted our sleep at that time, and it was worth it! So I figured the sleepless, restless nights were due to the loss of her blanket. I also figured it would take her a few days to get the hang of it . . . a few days turned into a week, and a week turned into a couple of weeks . . . you get the picture. Now Hannah Kate and I are both tired, aggravated and frustrated from our lack of sleep.
Also around this time she began to have a lot of fussy spells during the day. I attributed that to the baby food we had just added to her diet and the formula we had to begin supplementing with. After all, her tummy had to get used to it, right?
This past weekend, I started really thinking about it, trying to figure out what in the world was going on. I then realized that all of this started at the same time she finished an antiobiotic at the beginning of the month for an ear infection. That was actually her second ear infection; the first one was in March.
Wouldn't you know Monday was a holiday, and the pediatrician's office was closed. It always works out that way! Anyway, I called Tuesday morning and asked if I could bring her in to have her ears checked. Don't get me wrong . . . I love our pediatrician, but I don't love going to see her! So, sure enough . . . another ear infection! This is her third one since March, and I really don't think it ever cleared up to begin with. So she's on a stronger antiobiotic this time, and we are hoping it will work. If not, she will probably have to get tubes in her ears. Oh, I hope and pray we don't have to do that, but I'll do anything for my little girl baby to feel better. Our pediatrician said some babies are just more prone than others to get ear infections and that it's also heriditary. Well, that explains it since I had a constant ear infection until I finally had my tonsils out at age five. We go back to the doctor on June 9 to have her ears checked again, and we'll know then whether or not we'll have to explore the option of tubes.
In the meantime, night before last was the first night she has slept through the night in about three weeks, and last night she woke up only once.