Teething Purgatory

Some moms have a really hard time with breast feeding, others struggle with their kiddo's not sleeping well through the night. The bane of my existence came when baby girl started teething. And when I say "bane of my existence," it may sound all cute and euphemistic, but it has been a real nightmare. 

She was sleeping okay through the night up until the teething came. Now one of two things happens: 

• It literally takes 3 hours of her screaming and us trying not to loose our marbles for her to finally get to sleep, or
•  She goes to sleep just fine, but then she wakes up 3 times in the night, and the third time she just doesn't go back to sleep after 4 am... Yeah, not very nice.

                                                            

I called my Mom for encouragement today and here are a few things she said.

1. Babies change so much all the time. If you're in survival mode right now, that's OKAY. This stage is not going to last forever. That makes me feel better. I am in survival mode, and it's nice to know that it's an acceptable place to be for the moment.

2. "The reward for being a grandparent is not killing your children." She said she wanted to kill all of her kids at one time or another (except for me, of course ;). This makes me feel slightly better, knowing that I'm not alone in sometimes feeling so frustrated and DONE with my crazy baby.

3. Prayer always helps. When you're at the end of your rope God will help. This actually happened last night. It was a take-3-hours-to-put-baby-to-sleep kind of night, and when I finally laid her in her crib at 12:30 am I prayed very sincerely that God would let me have a good night's sleep. Baby girl didn't wake up until 8:30. I know it was an answer to my prayers. 

Sometimes when I pray for a good night's sleep (and this is the sincere kind, not just a repetitious night time prayer) God says no. But I don't get mad at Him. He knows best. I need to develop patience and endurance, and that is only achieved by being stretched to my limits, and even a little beyond. 

I need to remember that there are seasons of life. Just as the weather changes from Summer, to Fall, to Winter, to Spring, my life will change from childhood, to adolescence, to adulthood, to changing diapers and dealing with a teething baby, to sending her off to school, to watching my grand babies grow up. This season of life is wonderful and terrible, as is every other season in life. I need to appreciate the good and deal with the bad. 

As Elder Worthlin said, "Come what may, and love it!"