Teething with a spica...

Having the spica cast is no fun. Sleeping in a spica is also no fun. Teething in a spica - well you do the math. Mabel is not having it, and by it I mean sleep. She just can not sleep right now. I know it is a combination of two very uncomfortable things, her two new teeth that are coming in and the cast. She has done really well and I think in reality she probably doesn't remember life before the cast at this point. She probably doesn't even remember she use to roll around in bed, but one thing she knows is that when she wakes up at night she can't easily get back to sleep. She wakes and struggles to get comfortable and then cries. Lately it has been her tell tale teething cry, a long whimpery cry that she even does in her sleep, but when she is fully awake it turns into her frustrated uncomfortable "Mama I need help" cry. It makes for along night. Nature sure knew what it was doing by making babies so very cute - she is even cute at 3:25am (the time I've been up since BTW), she was smiling in her sleep as I rocked her.

Through the past few weeks my underlining fear is how this will effect her sleep long term. I have never been one to promote the cry-it-out method and personally for me I could never do it. We did sleep training, but it was a "no cry" method. There is no resource for a baby in a spica cast that can't sleep, there is not books, no doctor's opinion, no websites, nothing. If you google "baby won't sleep" you get hundreds of websites with tips, opions and experiences of what could help - you google "baby won't sleep in spica cast" you get little to no info about sleep issues while a baby is in a spica. I guess the quick answer is they are uncomfortable because of the cast, sure I could have told you that, but is there a solution? Is it really common? I imagine it is, but any tips? When I asked the nurse at the hospital they said just make her comfortable...wow that was helpful. When I asked the doctor he said he's not surprised she isn't sleeping well because of the cast. I guess that is why he gets paid the big bucks huh? I don't have any answers myself. Mabel sleeps on a pillow on her belly in her crib. When she cries I come to her and I pick her up and soothe her and reposition her slightly and she typically falls back to sleep. Sometimes it takes two minutes sometimes it takes an hour...either way I can't let her cry alone. I appreciate as hard as it is for me to get up in the night it is equally hard for her to wake up with a pain in her mouth and unable to move.

Anyway, she is teething I know that...bad combo...sleepy mommy...cranky Mabel...but still soooo cute and sweet. Tomorrow is her first Thanksgiving! We have that to look forward too! See the picture? Do you like Mabel's hat? Just like Papa!