Sleepless nights and guilt

The last two days have been crazy. I should say, my 9-month-old has been crazy. He’s been completely off his rocker. After two weeks of sleeping well, the last two nights he’s been waking up after two hours of sleep, crying, fussy and unwilling to go back to sleep.

I’ve tried all the online tips I’ve seen on babycenter, the bump and other sites. We changed his diaper, fed him, held him, rocked him, cradled him, gave him his favorite toys, let him crawl around… we tried everything. Regardless whether I was holding him or not, he continued to scream and cry. Needless to say, I’m exhausted and have dark circles under my eyes.

I know this all part of parenthood, but I have to wonder if there’s something wrong with him. We had a well-visit yesterday and the pediatrician said he was fine. His temperature is fine. His growth is fine. All on schedule. So, then why has he been so fussy? I guess we’ll never know.

The last time he was this crazy for four days straight, he sprouted two little teeth. I’m praying some teeth sprout out in the next week.

I feel bad for me, but also for the lil man because I can’t seem to soothe him in anyway. Last night, after he finally fell asleep at 6am, I got into bed and just started crying. Completely overwhelmed with the guilt that I couldn’t console him in the least bit.

Do you have stories to share about what you’ve done to help soothe your baby? We’d love to hear it about it. Share with us in the comments area.

On a side note, I wanted to include a photo of a crying baby, but don’t have any, so I did a search for “crying babies” online. I found this link to a photography exhibit titled “End Times” on the ABC News website. The photos are by photographer Jill Greenberg which features children crying. You have to wonder what they did to get the babies to cry, but the photos are interesting to view.