No such luck.
Well, my wood knocking didn’t do any good whatsoever. All that sleepiness last week was not a sign of a growth spurt as I had hoped, but was actually a double ear infection and early teething! Poor little guy. He never ran a fever so I almost didn’t even bother taking him to the pediatrician. I’m glad I did though. Some antibiotics and tylenol seemed to have done the trick and he’s back to his normal happy self.
But now we have a new problem. Sleep. Ahhh yes, that was once his favorite activity. I remember when the child would sleep 20 hours a day (seriously). But now, we have apparently moved into something known as “the four month wakeful period.” Basically, from my understanding, this is when his brain is at a particularly active developmental stage. He is finding things to be much more interesting and doesn’t want to sleep for fear that he will miss out on something. Well, I don’t know what the kid thinks is going on at 3 am, but I swear he’s not missing any parties or anything. He still goes down easy for us around 8:30 or 9 pm, but then around 12:30 he wakes up fussing. I go in to check on him, and he gives me this giant grin- like “heh, it worked- now play with me.” I turn on his rainforest soother (this is a really neat crib toy that makes nature sounds and lights up and has a monkey that swings back and forth) and he drifts back to sleep… for a while. Then we repeat again in half an hour. And again in another hour. And so on. Until Daddy finally caves and puts him in bed with us.
I know we shouldn’t complain. We got 4 months of very good sleep out of him. And from all my internet reading (and believe me, I’ve done a lot- looking for a “cure”), it appears that this is just a phase. And since it’s almost time for him to start rice cereal, we are also hoping that the pediatrician gives us the green light for this next week and that may help him re-establish a healthy sleep pattern. But please, PLEASE, cross your fingers and say a prayer that this phase is a short one. Mommy and Daddy really miss our sleepy little boy.