Growth Spurt ... Maybe?

Micah caught a cold last week, but he'd been doing really well at night time regardless of all of the congestion he was having.

We also had friends in town from Omaha on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so Micah was out of routine for most of those days.

On Monday morning (5:00am) Micah woke up crying. I gave him some medicine and then ended up nursing him so that I wouldn't wake up our guests and he went back to sleep until around 8am. Then he did fine the rest of the day and we even went to the beach.

Tuesday morning he woke up at 4:00am and was inconsolable. I gave him medicine, gas drops and sucked out his nose and after an hour and a half of crying I could finally rock him back to sleep(I didn't nurse him this time because I didn't want to create a habit) and he slept until around 8am. I figured he has had a cold for one week now and may be battling an ear infection. His morning nap was perfect, but I had a hard time getting him to sleep for his afternoon nap although he eventually did go to sleep and slept quite awhile. When I put him to bed that night I gave him medicine and gas drops just in case.

Wednesday morning he woke up at 4:30am and again was inconsolable. I gave him medicine and gas drops but didn't suck out his nose thinking that would wake him up too much. After an hour and a half of crying I finally gave in and nursed him. He drank it ALL! As soon as he was finished he was sound asleep.

I feel TERRIBLE that he cried for that long for nothing. I could have just nursed him and put him right back to bed and we would have all been much happier today. But, in my defense, he's sick and teething and trying new foods and out of routine and I thought all of those combined were my problem.

Looking back I'm not really sure I would have done anything differently except try nursing a little sooner, but I still would have tried everything else first. (SIGH) I still feel terrible though and that's only magnified by the fact that I'm exhausted.

Well, I'm going to try to increase Micah's calories today (mix some breast milk in his food and add an extra nursing) to see if that helps tonight.

I'm still not fully convinced that it's a growth spurt, but part of me hopes that it's only that. Poor little guy.

We'll get this all straightened out soon.

Additional Note Made 8/7/09:

The day I fed Micah more calories he did sleep through the night, BUT he had a very difficult time falling asleep and I moved him to his swing where he slept all night long. I'm now almost certain that he had some sort of ear infection that would feel progressively worse throughout the day and made night times uncomfortable for him.

Last night he went to sleep well (a little fussy due to separation anxiety) and stayed asleep ALL NIGHT!! (SIGH) Let's hope this is the end of this cold.

Additional Note Made 8/8/09:

NOPE! He was up again this morning at 5:30am! Finally fell asleep again after I nursed him and put him in the swing. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!