Please Sir, can I have some Mo'

I couldn't tell you what the movie was about, or when I watched it, or really anything about it, but there is one thing that I remember distinctly about Oliver Twist. There's this one line in there where he carries his empty bowl up to the front and goes "Please Sir, can I have some mo'", and is answered with "Whaaaat? You want more????" I have no idea why that's been funny to me for the last 15 or so years, but it has been. And if Kaylani asks me that tonight, I'll fall over myself trying to give her more.

"Mo," in this case, means Motrin (Infants' Motrin of course). It didn't even hit us that we could try giving Kaylani Motrin instead of Tylenol for the last 2 months (not appropriate for children under 6 months). It wasn't until Danika mentioned it to us that we thought, hmm, we should give that a try since Motrin lasts longer (6-8 hours instead of 4). And try it we did. Early results are in, and they're gooooood!

Last night, Kaylani was asleep by 8pm. Before that though, she had 1.875ml of Infants' Motrin (odd measurement, but whatever). When she woke up at midnight, we were tempted to say "Motrin, you suck!" But after she cried for an hour and then passed out when Mommy nursed her, she slept from 1am all the way until 6:15am. The best part was that when she woke up at 6:15am, she didn't scream or cry. Instead she just laid in bed and played with her stuffed monkey, her feet, and anything else around her. It's morning like these that are the best to wake up to!

Of course Daddy woke up at 5:45am because that's what his body has adjusted to, but for the next hour he got to surf the web, catch up on some blogs and some sports, and listen to Kaylani play happily by herself until he went to get her around 6:45am. Then, after a bit of playing, and some breakfast, it was time to wake Mommy up (around 7:45am) so that Kaylani could nurse before a quick nap and swim class.

We're convinced that Motrin saved our day today. Kaylani was happy. Kaylani napped. Kaylani ate. Mommy slept in just a bit more. Daddy got to drive around and have coffee while listening to America's Country Top 40 with a napping Kaylani. All was good, and we have Motrin to thank. Motrin let Kaylani sleep for 9+ hours last night while only waking up once. Motrin let Kaylani survive the pain of her 3rd (and probably 4th) tooth are causing. Motrin makes the world go round.

We obviously gave Kaylani her dose of Motrin again tonight. And if it works again, you better believe that we're going to do it for another few nights too. While we'd rather not revert to "drugs" to have quiet nights, we're more than okay "trying" it for a few nights now. We promise we won't get dependent on it. That would be bad. But for now, it's all good. So Kaylani, if you want some mo', you can have some mo'. No ifs, ands, or whaaaats about it!

We've only just begun

A few days ago I asked for tooth number 2 to come in so we could be done with this phase of teething. It's been one week since tooth number 1 came out, but months of anticipation. Over the past few nights, she's been sleeping better. Not great. Just better. Instead of waking up every 2-4 hours, she's been lasting closer to 6 hours. And what keeps us running (barely, but running) is that we've been going to bed the same time as she has. So Kaylani's in bed at 8pm? Well then we'll be in bed and hopefully asleep by 9pm. It's pretty lame, but it works. And we figured it'd only be a short term routine anyways.

Today, Kaylani's 2nd tooth finally came in. It listened to our calls and poked its way on out. And since teeth come in twos, that means we're in the clear and Kaylani will go back to her regularly scheduled 9-11 hour sleep shifts. More importantly, Mommy and Daddy could go back to their regularly scheduled 8 hours of sleep, and still have time to stay up a little later and get some stuff done (and boy does Daddy need a few extra hours to get stuff/work done). But then we found out that we've only just begun.

Right next to Kaylani's 2nd tooth we can see our dreams of extra hours in the day and normal hours of sleep disappearing faster than the gums holding in Kaylani's 3rd tooth. A 3rd tooth? Seriously? Now? I really thought teeth came in two's and then took a break for awhile. A 3rd tooth on the horizon means more moving, more teething, more pain, and unfortunately, not more sleep. Sleep is something we all need to keep going. For Kaylani and Mommy, sleep makes them able to play all day, nap at reasonable times, and not be fussy. For Daddy, sleep means that I'm able to keep my head in the game during 10 straight hours of meetings and still be able to play with Kaylani for a few hours before getting actual work done at night. Sleep means so much to all of us, but we've only just begun.

Teething means Kaylani is growing which is great. I'm sure I'll echo this sentiment for many years to come, if not for the rest of my life, but sometimes I wish that Kaylani would just grow a little bit slower. I wish she would develop faster, but grow slower. Does that make any sense? I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. I spend working hours ensuring that I make sense. Sleep would help me make sense all the time. Too bad we've only just begun.

Show yourself!

I know you're in there. One of your little buddies already gave you guys away. For months you've been tormenting us, but we've been on to you. You've left us little clues and tried to hide and make us look like we're crazy, but we know we're not. Just give up and come out. If you do, we promise not to be too hard on you. We'll even take care of you. We'll treat you like one of our own. If you do it, so will everyone else. Soon, your other friends will come out too. Before you know it, all 20 of you will show yourselves so you might as well just follow suit. You won't even be the first one anymore, so just do it.

Will Tylenol help? We'll give you Tylenol before Kaylani goes to bed tonight so maybe you won't bother her later. If you're not going to come out, just relax okay? No need to move around if you're just messing around. I mean, if you want to go, then go big. Go all the way, but none of this behind the scenes stuff. It's totally not cool. It's also not the right thing to do, so stop it. Please?

Alright, I'm serious now. Get out. Stop messing around and just come out. You're keeping us up at night now. If I have to listen to Kaylani scream at the top of her lungs after 4 hours for the 4th straight night, I'm not going to be very happy with you. Your buddy made a plea bargain and came out a few days ago so I can't blame him anymore. He ratted you guys out. And I can see you! I mean, not really, but you might as well be out. So just cut it out and let's be done with this. We're all tired of this little act. Especially Kaylani.

O-U-T OUT! OUT OUT OUT! Don't make me come in there and get you! You're lucky that you're protected, but you won't be for long. If you don't come out, I'm going to make sure you get taken care of when you do...and not just once or twice a day...but 3 times a day! That's right, I'll make Kaylani be one of those people. 3 times a day. You want that? I didn't think so. So just give up and come out now.

Okay, you win. I'm done negotiating with you now. Just please don't wake Kaylani up after a few hours. Let Kaylani sleep for her normal 10 hours because we can't take much more of this. We can try again tomorrow. I'll even make sure Mommy gives you lots of things to play with all day. Lots of cold things to hang out with. Do we have a deal? I don't want to be having this same conversation for 2 hours in the middle of the night. We all need to rest, so let's do it. You hang out quietly, and tomorrow you can come on out and we'll call a truce. Sound good? Great!

Looks like I'm the one getting brushed off now. Damn teeth. They'll pay for that.

Kaylani's First Tooth!

Kaylani's been acting up for the last couple of days. She hasn't been eating well, she hasn't been nursing well, and she definitely hasn't been napping or sleeping well. We thought that maybe we had screwed her up with all our travel plans and general craziness over the last couple of weeks. We thought maybe she was getting a little cold and fussy because of it. We thought maybe she was even teething, but then again, we've been thinking that for 4 months. Turns out that this time we were finally right about the teething.

Daddy got a text message from Mommy today saying "Good news! Can't wait 2 tell u. Stupid mtg of urs!" And since Daddy was in his "stupid mtg" I didn't get news of Mommy's discovery of her first tooth until an hour later. Finally we could celebrate her first tooth (for real, unlike 3 months ago on April Fools' Day)! But the way Mommy discovered the tooth wasn't exactly the most pleasant.

Apparently nursing and teeth don't mix well. We've heard stories from friends who have nursed babies with teeth and barely lived to tell about it. And now that Kaylani has a tooth, Mommy came clean and said she was secretly hoping Kaylani wouldn't have a tooth anytime soon. For the last few days, Mommy's been saying that Kaylani's not doing something right, or something is different, but there was never anything we could pinpoint. Today though, it became clear as day and when she checked, there it was!

When I got home to see the tooth, it took me 5 minutes to get Kaylani to stop trying to lick my finger so I could just see her tooth. And since we're being honest, I was kinda disappointed when I finally saw it. For some reason I was expecting like a real little person tooth to just be hanging out there, like those cartoon pictures of a baby with 2 or 3 curly hairs, and 1 or 2 teeth just hanging out in their wide open mouth. Instead, I saw the very tip of a tooth poking out through her gums. Still exciting, but just not up to my unrealistic expectations I guess. Silly Daddy.

So Kaylani has her first tooth, and she's not afraid to use it either. She chomped down (or up I guess since it's her bottom tooth) on me and it definitely felt like a tooth. My favorite is to tell Mommy that she has no idea what that feels like, but then I just look away when I get the dirty stare back from her. Apparently nursing moms don't find teeth funny. Anyways, we're very excited that Kaylani is all growed up again with her first real tooth. Soon the rest will come filing in, but until then, we'll celebrate this one and start to take care of it. The tricky part will be seeing how Mommy handles it!

And since it's Thursday/Friday, don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for the latest Fatherhood Friday! I can't wait to spend the first part of my July 4th holiday reading up on all the other great posts over there, so you should too. Enjoy and Happy 4th and Fatherhood Friday!

Little Dipper

Astronomy is not something that I know anything about. I can't tell you where the North Star is, where the Big Dipper or Little Dipper are, or even where Uranus is (tee hee). But to me, Kaylani is my Little Dipper. She doesn't look like a small connect the dots spoon, but she does this funny little motion when we give her a teething ring that looks like she's dipping it in something.

Now that she can sit by herself, she has full use of her arms. That means she doesn't have to worry about falling over when she grabs something and puts it in her mouth. It also means that she can put things in and out of her mouth as she pleases just because. And whenever we give her one of her little teething rings, she'll shove it in her mouth for a few seconds to relax her gums, but then pull it out and bang it on the ground a few times for good measure before putting it back in.

If you can't picture what I'm talking about, it's pretty comparable to the way you would treat a chicken mcnugget (not just any chicken nugget, but a chicken MCnugget). So whenever you're about to eat a chicken mcnugget, you take it, dip it into BBQ sauce, sweet and sour sauce, or my personal favorite, honey mustard sauce. After a few dips, you shove it into your mouth next to the other 3 that you're still chewing and move on. Now picture Kaylani sitting up in the middle of a blanket. And then imagine a giant container of opened sauce next to her, and she's holding a chicken mcnugget shaped teething ring. Got it?

When you see her in person, it really looks like she dipped the teething ring in something since it's always covered in some sort of liquid, which in this case is obviously her own drool (or "baba" in Spanish). This dipping process will go on for 5-15 minutes depending on when she gets bored of playing with the same chicken mcnugget, I mean, teething ring. It's pretty cute to watch, or pretty gross if baby baba isn't your thing. Luckily for us, baby baba is our thing. Well, as long as it comes from our baby. Other babies? Now that's just gross.

What's Next?

Kaylani slept 10 hours straight last night. It was the first time in over a week that she had slept more than 5 hours straight, and more often then not, it was closer to 3 hours of sleep at a time. Needless to say that 10 hours was much appreciated by both Mommy and Daddy. What's interesting about it is that Kaylani had been sleeping 10-12 hours at a time for a 2 week period before this recent one bad week of sleep. So is it back? Is she back to sleeping 10-12 hours at a time? Or more importantly, what happened last week?

We had a lot of speculation around what caused Kaylani to wake up every 3-5 hours last week. The ideas ranged from the family we had in town, to the change in weather making it too warm for her to sleep (or cold with the A/C on), and even to the possibility that she was hungry and going through her 6 month growth spurt a bit early. Personally, I think it was the 6 month growth spurt early that was the reason, but I learned something a bit new today.

Apparently the week of non-sleep could be a sign that Kaylani is about to do something new. Her mind may be so filled with the things that she's learned that she can't sleep at night and she wakes up often to try and put it all together. If that's actually the case, then I can't blame her for waking up because Daddy is the same exact way. If there's something on my mind I can pretty much just forget about sleeping. But the question is, what's next?

I'm extremely curious to find out what it is Kaylani is about to do for us. Could it be sitting up all by herself (since her friend Aadi just mastered this skill himself after a period of sleeplessness as well)? Could it be crawling (doubtful even though she does kick like a frog sometimes while she's on her belly)? Could it be walking (unlikely although she does have really strong legs in our opinion)? Could it be her first tooth (which should be sometime in the near future)? Or could it be getting ready for her first word (which hopefully is Papa)?

Whatever it is, we're ready. Our Pediatrician may have better answers for us at Kaylani's 6 month appointment tomorrow, or maybe she'll just agree with our list of things that may or may not be next. Or then again, maybe she'll just stick Kaylani with 2-3 needles and collect our copay from us. Either way, at least I'll have an official updated height and weight to throw up on the Stat Tracker. Stay tuned for that, and much much more here on "The Daddy Diaries."