Monday, April 28, 2008

What a night!

Evan has been sick for the last week with some type of cough/congestion thing. On Saturday, I called the doctor to see if there was anything I should be worrying about. They said no, but did tell us to give him Benadryl and Mucinex every 4 hours. Last night was the first night giving him Benadryl, and I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but it was horrible!

We put him down at 7:30 as usu, but I made a big mistake in changing the routine. The nurse had said to offer him water at night because that's when they get the most dry if they're coughing. So, we gave him a drink from his sippy cup before laying him down. He was NOT happy when we took it away and we finally had to lay him down in a fit.

Evan rarely cries for any length of time at bedtime, but he basically wailed with little reprieve from 7:30 - 10:00. We'd go in every 10-15 min or so and comfort him, but nothing worked. The only time he would stop crying was if we were holding him. We even brought him into our room thinking we could cuddle him to sleep, but he HATED that idea (good to know.)

We could tell he was so uncomfortable. He'd fall asleep and then within minutes he'd be awake again and crying. When we laid him down he'd twist and turn and eventually start kicking his legs straight tantrum style.

I thought maybe he was thirsty, so I was going to let him sleep with his sippy cup, but that only worked for about 5 minutes. Around 10:00, I laid on the floor next to him and patted his back until he fell asleep. At that point we thought we were in the clear so we went to bed too, but at 11:30 he woke up again. Jeff went in and tried comforting him, but when that didn't work, he gave him some Motrin and rocked him back to sleep.

This morning he woke up extra grumpy (I wonder why,) but now he's back to normal. What happened last night? Anyone have any insight, or tips for next time? I know he didn't feel well and because of that we were a lot less "tough love" than usual - but nothing seemed to work!

Edited to add...looks like it might have been ear related. Oops - We didn't even think about that!

7 comments:

Holly said...

yes, ear issues tend to arise at night when kiddies are lying flat. BUT, I sure wish they could use words to tell us what hurts or what is wrong... uber frustrating huh!?

Burgh Baby said...

The ears will get you every time!

morgan said...

there's a really good & gentle cranio-sacral ear pull you guys you can try that I'll have to show you sometime

Terri said...

I don't know much about baby congestion, just my own with allergies, but it would be nice if little ones could just say what hurts:) Hope tonight involves more sleep for all!

Nikki said...

Thanks so much! Jeff was just talking yesterday about how Evan was not feeling well, but you guys had no idea what exactly was wrong. He said I get to look forward to constantly feeling stupid about not knowing stuff!! Can't he just point to his ears and say, mom, this hurts! : )

Thanks again and I may be asking for advice in the coming months!!

Anonymous said...

I honestly believe it was something in the air this weekend that kept babies from sleeping! Lil Man had a horrible weekend where sleep was concerned and I read another post similar to yours just yesterday. It's also something I've heard Moms at the office discussing.

It had to be something in the air!!

Maya said...

I would have never thought ears either. It's so hard when you wish they could just communicate and tell you what's wrong!