May 24, 2011  •  In Baby, Claire, Parenting, Personal

Growing Pains

About a month ago, Claire’s first two teeth popped out. And the very next day, she no longer started screaming for (seemingly) no reason and resumed waking up only once per night.

And within days of that, she *magically* started sleeping a full 12-13 hours through the night. And taking at least one 1-hour nap per day (well, 2 hours when her Aunt Annie is watching her but we all know that it’s only because she’s kissing up to her).

You guys, you don’t understand how good it feels to have your baby sleep that long. Especially after 5 consecutive weeks of multiple night wakings, scattered catnaps that do little to rest her tired little body, and endless fussing/crying/screaming from pain and discomfort.

We experienced two full weeks of this blissful period.

And now, we think Claire is teething again. Because for the past few days she has resumed that nightmare of a schedule and returned to interminable fussing.


Claire’s favorite teething remedy at the moment is
teething feeders which I fill with chilled sliced fruit.

What’s worse, we think that she is outgrowing her 3-nap schedule and needs to transition to a 2-nap schedule. (Not that we have a set schedule — because the length of her naps have never been consistent — but we try our best to stick with the same number of naps per day.)

According to my handy infant sleep chart, most babies transition from two to three naps between the ages of 5-8 months, and since Claire will be turning 8 months old in just a week, she is definitely ready. There’s also the fact that she is fighting her naps more than ever, and seems to be doing just fine going 2.5 hours between each nap.

Eliminating a nap is no easy task for most babies. (Don’t believe me? Just google “3 to 2 nap transition” or “2 to 1 nap transition.”) Add teething to that and…

You get stories like Claire who has now been up for almost five hours and still refuses to go to sleep.

I can only hope that her teeth will continue to pop out in pairs, like her first two did.

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9 Responses to “Growing Pains”

  1. Donna says:

    Or in threes! I remember when Neddy had three molars come in at once. He wanted to be held ALL the time.

    Btw – I lvoed the two nap schedule. He napped at 10am and 2pm.

    Now, he naps from 1pm – 4pm so it’s a blissful three hours for me to get all this stuff done but it does make it tough if we don’t get home in time for the 1pm nap! Because I NEED that nap to unwind!!

  2. Totally printing that sleeping chart! We were lucky and got the first two as a pair like Claire – we haven’t started teething again just yet but I am not looking forward to the day… Hang in there!

  3. Jessica says:

    If we want Julia to get that third nap in, we have to put her in the stroller or the carseat and go for a walk or drive! Otherwise, she’ll have none of it. It’s an awkward time but I keep reminding myself that, good or bad, it’s still just a phase. Hope Claire pops those teeth quickly and gets back to a regular sleep schedule soon!

  4. Ashley says:

    Eek, hope you guys get back to her normal sleep schedule soon. We just went in for Grayson’s 9-month checkup. He still has NO teeth, which the pediatrician was normal, but unfortunately, he’ll get 2-3 at a time whenever they do pop through.

    We’ve been on a 2-nap schedule for about 6 weeks now, and it’s working out pretty well when he does actually nap. What time does Claire wake up in the mornings? I’ve got an early riser on my hands – 6:15am. So his first name is around 9:30, and (fingers crossed), he sleeps until 11:00 or so, and then the second from 2:00 to 3:30 or so. That’s the ideal, though. It varies, like you said.

    I’m also swiping that teething chart!

    • Ashley says:

      Ha, clearly, I could use a nap. Obviously, I meant NAPPING chart.

    • She usually wakes between 7 and 8, but with her teething she’s been waking up at around 5. 🙁

      The problem with transitioning to 2 naps is that she won’t nap long enough for us to do that. She’s been napping only 15-30 mins at a time so either she will fight the every nap tooth and nail or we put her down later and she can’t sleep from being overtired. It’s a vicious cycle!

      P.S. — I mistakenly linked to the older version of the sleep chart — the newest version can be found here. Sorry about that!

  5. Annie says:

    Omg! I miss you guys so much!!! I hope that Claire naps better soon!

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