...and knowing is half the battle

About a week ago I blogged about Isaac's recent reluctance to sleeping through the night. We figured the problem was an empty tummy, and we should just up the milk dosage and maybe even throw in a snack or two for good measure. The first night we tried this altered bedtime eating routine, Isaac did sleep through the night. Every night thereafter my insane child has awakened at least once in the middle of the night, and then also between 5 and 6 for good. When he wakes up, sometimes I give him more milk, but just as many times he seems perfectly happy just to snuggle against me in the rocking chair and fall back asleep in my arms with no nutritional input. "What is going on?" I ask, but figure "Who knows?" is probably the only answer I will get. Nevertheless, it usually seems when there is a sleep problem now with Isaac that there IS an underlying cause. He's been sick, so I chalked it up to that. He has also been pretty gassy, which What to Expect When You are Freaking Out About Your Toddler suggested could be related to after effects from his stomach bug. Teething is always a possibility, but I had been feeling around for his second molars and noticed nothing new.

In a seemingly unrelated development, I noticed over the past couple days that he developed a bump on his skull, right behind his left ear, that felt like a little swollen lymph node or something. The similar gland behind his right ear was also swollen, but not like the left one. I was a little concerned and showed Dada. Dada called Grandma O'Neal, and without a second thought she said, "He's teething." Well, like I said, I had been feeling around in his precious little mouth for those second molars, and nada. Again, I chalked it up to his recent cold(s).

This afternoon we went to a park and were having a blast swinging. Hanging around his old buddy Claudia taught him to love getting underdogs, and today he laughed hysterically as I held him over my head in his swing. So boisterous was his laugh that he flashed me many glimpses of his upper jaw. There, in plain view, was a big white pointy chomper sticking out where one would expect his left canine to come in, and a thinning white pointed-out gum where the right one should be.

Apparently I was grossly misinformed about tooth eruption patterns, and was feeling around in all the wrong places to notice that he is getting two ginormous teeth at the same time. But it pleases me to know that there IS a reason for him not sleeping, and somehow now knowing that reason makes the sleepless nights seem like they could have a blessed end.