Last night, we found out what it was like to have a newborn baby. Everything was completely normal getting Nicky to bed, which was done by 9pm. But, around 11:15, he woke up screaming and we didn’t know what to do for him. I changed his diaper (about four times!), we gave him a teething ring, then Tylenol, then a cold washcloth, then I massaged his gums and still no change. Chuck gave him a bottle around 12:30 (he took almost 6 ounces, which is crazy, since he NEVER eats in the middle of the night!) and then I nursed him afterwards and he fell asleep for about 10 minutes.
After that, he woke up screaming again and we put a blanket on the floor next to his crib and all three of us laid on it together. He was fine, then, playing with my fingers and babbling a little bit, but he kept rubbing his head and his left ear, which finally made us call the after-hours nurse because we were afraid he might have an ear infection. She called back and said that it’s hard to say without looking at it and that we should call the office in the morning for an appointment. In the meantime, she suggested all of the things that we had already done, plus propping up the mattress a bit by his head so that it would relieve some of the pressure in the ear if it was infected. After that, I got Nicky to fall asleep (finally!) around 4:15am and didn’t hear from him until almost 7:30, when he woke up screaming once again.
This time, I went in there and he smiled at me while crying and it broke my heart. After I changed his diaper again, he pretty much fell asleep right away on my shoulder, so we laid down in our bed like that and he slept until 9am and maybe would have slept longer if I hadn’t moved him to the bed while I called the doctor to follow up from last night. When he woke up this time, you’d never have known anything was wrong! This nurse told me that it’s most likely that he’s experiencing pain from teething (his second bottom tooth is poking through the skin now) and that’s probably why he was grabbing his ear, and he doesn’t need to be seen in the office yet. She said to definitely keep an eye on him and if anything changes to call back.
And the rest of our day so far has been completely normal. He’s not any sleepier than he’s ever been during the day; I got him to take about an hour or so nap after I fed him this morning and he finally settled down for another nap about 20 minutes ago. Stacy said babies have a sleep reserve, and he’s definitely tapped into it today!
On the bright side of all of this, aside from the part about him being fine now, he seemed to use his extra awake time for some learning advancement – he’s been babbling like crazy all morning, telling me all about blah-bloo! 
Plus, he’s been playing with his feet, which he hasn’t done before.
I’m going to see if I can catch a couple of zzz’s myself while he’s sleeping…three hours of sleep isn’t great, and I have a new respect for all of my friends who have new babies with normal sleeping habits! I don’t know how they do it; they’re pretty amazing!