Teething Pains

Lizzie is teething again. She has had 6 teeth for the longest time, 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. From what I can tell she has 2 more coming in on the bottom. In general, you would hardly know she is teething. Her nose is a bit runny but that's about it, during the day. What really clued me in to the teething was when she started waking up in the middle of the night screaming. On Saturday I didn't think much of it, most of the time she sleeps through the night but occasionally she will wake up. We had trouble getting her back to sleep so she came to bed with us where she eventually fell asleep after much tossing and turning. Then it happened again on Tuesday night, only this time I was able to get her back to sleep only to have her wake up again an hour and a half later and eventually come to bed with us, again. That's when I realized it was teething. So, last night I had the ibuprofen ready to go so when she woke up at 3 am I gave her the ibuprofen, rocked her back to sleep and she stayed asleep.

Now, she has been sleeping through the night (the majority of the time) since she was about 8 1/2 months old so one gets used to getting a full night of uninterrupted sleep. This new spate of interrupted and diminished sleep makes me wonder. How am I going to do the sleep deprivation thing again??? I know I'll be on maternity leave in the beginning but I can't imagine being home with a newborn and a toddler is going to leave a lot of time for naps. Then, if I decide to go back to work, which at the moment is the plan, what will I do? How will I make it through the day? I'm guessing it will required copious amounts of caffeine!

Has anyone else out there worked full time with a newborn and an active toddler (and what toddlers aren't active) at home? Any advice on coping mechanisms would be greatly appreciated since I know I'm not the first to have to do this. Of course, first I need to get pregnant, but we'll worry about that later.