Teething Hell

Oh my lordy. Teething. Something every parent will go through with every child. It might not be that bad, or it might be awful.

In my case, it's awful. Liam was once a "perfect" baby. He has always been a fairly happy and content baby. There have been difficult times, of course, but for the most part he's been such a good baby. He started sleeping through the night around 3 months or so. It was awesome. Some mornings he'd sleep till like 8am!

Hahahahahahahahahaha....oh, that has all long since passed. We co-sleep now, and Liam is up every hour or so. He finally got his first two teeth about a month ago and it got a bit better. But now the next teeth are coming in (well, or moving at least, who knows when they'll actually cut through).

This second round is even worse than the first one. They are his two front upper teeth. He won't even let me touch his upper lip, let alone see the gums. I've had him on motrin, in addition to Hyland's teething tablets. He's got practically every teether I could find. He has those mesh bags that I put cold fruit in, etc.

But there have been times where, no matter how chock full of drugs he has been and no matter what I did to distract him or console him, he still screamed. You know those days where by the end of if, you just want to cry, too.

It got so bad that I went ahead and ordered an amber teething necklace (something about the oils going into his skin is supposed to help...something like that) and I ordered a Sophie the Giraffe. Sophie is this $20 little rubber giraffe that's apparently been around for like 50 years in France. It's supposed to be a great teether. It's made from natural rubber and painted with food-grade paints, so it's safe to chew on.

I have yet to get these things in the mail, but when I do I'll tell you all whether they were worth the money I shelled out for them.

Don't forget that all this crankiness and pain is also accompanied by extreme drool action...and the need to chew on everything the baby can get his hands on. Liam's been teething since he was about 3.5 months, but it wasn't till these last two teeth started coming in that the drooling really kicked into high gear. There is nothing like have a giant stream of spit smeared all over your face by your loving baby. Or in your hair. He's like a saliva hose...

It's really not fair what little babies have to go through in the first year of their life. First they are shoved through a ridiculously small canal over a period of hours. They are taken from their warm, dark (a bit cramped, but nice and snuggly) home into the cold bright world. The sounds are loud and un-muffled. They are all wobbly. They can't even hold their heads up. Then they have to poop and pee in a diaper which is stuck to their bodies. They suddenly have to work for their food. Over time they finally get enough muscle strength to hold their heads up, and then sit up and roll over. Eventually they learn to crawl, or they don't and go straight to walking. In the meantime, they have to contend with gas, colic, constipation, diarrhea, earaches, and the lovely teething, which could go on for a couple years. The poor things....

Thankfully, yesterday was better than the day before. Teething certainly has it's ups and downs, but hopefully Liam's next two teeth will be here soon and he'll get a little break.

Till next time...