Jake the Despot

This post is part two of a series. Part one (which you should read first) is posted below: Jake Rules. There had better not be a third in the series. DO YOU HEAR ME JAKE?

Jake was at it again last night. Having practiced two out of the previous three nights, he was in top form while the rest of us definitely came into the contest tired and beaten down.

It started at the usual hour—between 1 and 2AM. I was woken up from my slumbers by a few pitiful shrieks from the room next to mine. I listened to see if he would roll over and go back to sleep. Nope, there he went again. I got up and went down the hall, but by the time I got to his door he was quiet again. All right! I listened at the door and heard lots of labored breathing (all three toddlers currently have head colds), but I heard no more shrieks. I happily went back to bed. Five minutes later he started up again, this time in earnest.

I headed back to his bedroom hoping to get to him before he got to his sleeping siblings. At first I thought I was successful in my goal, but when I reached to nab him from his crib, his twin popped up in hers. She took one look at me rescuing her sibling and she started wailing. She was serious about her discontent. As I stood there and pondered my options (I was tired and couldn’t think what to do), she got louder and louder. Jake at this point was quiet because he’d scored a rescue.

Then Kara made her presence known. I think she had been standing outside the door listening to the mayhem, waiting to see if Viva would lay back down. Bentley meanwhile was starting to make a few noises, so we skedaddled out of the room with the twins. I took Jake and Kara took Viva. Jake was quiet as long as I held him. I could hear Viva crying and crying and crying. She was not willing to be pacified even if she was in her parents’ bed. I heard footsteps come down the hall for a diaper and then come back and go by the door for bottle. Eventually Viva quieted.

Meanwhile Jake was being quiet, but not going to sleep. After a while I told him to be good (i.e. don't disturb his opa) and I’d go get him a bottle. He slowly downed the bottle, taking it out of his mouth every so often and shaking it. He did not fall asleep while sucking it down--bummer. I was running out of tricks to get him to sleep. I tried to put him back in his bed, but he started crying before I even got to my bedroom door. I didn’t want to risk waking Bentley, so I gave in to his blackmail and let him stay.

Eventually Jake slept and I slept. You’d think a toddler who kept you up half the night would be tired and sleep in, wouldn’t you? But no, he was up early. Or at least earlier than I wanted to be up. He woke up shrieking. I tried cuddling him and that did stop his shrieking, but he wasn’t very cuddly. He was into head butting me. He likes to arch his back and use his head as a ramming butt. It’s not very comfortable at the receiving end of the butt. One of his favorite targets is another head.

I lied in my last post when I told you that he sometimes flails his arms and inadvertently hits you. There is nothing inadvertent about it. He purposefully aims to hit someone. Sometimes he even tries to gouge out eyes. He can be very ornery some nights. And not only at night--when Jake has had a bad night he gets furious the next morning when you unzip his sleeper to change his diaper and put on his day clothes. He screams and kicks and does everything in his power to keep that sleeper on. Not the smartest move on his part since tempers are already short from lack of sleep.

My goal today (after taking a nap) is to find a dentist who specializes in toddlers. Surely they have some method for speeding along teething?!