Toddlers and Teething

Well it is 8 am and the babe is still asleep. This is very unusual as he is like an alarm clock....every morning at 7:20 he is up and calling for us to be up too. Why the extra shut eye this morning? We were up most of the night with him sobbing about his teeth!

I hate teething. Why must it be so painful for most children? It tortures them so and leaves me baffled as to why. According to the doctor, Z is getting the most painful teeth right now....the incisors. He got his first two incisors around Christmas time and now he is getting bottom two. I feel so badly for him! He was sobbing "Momma" with his little finger in his mouth trying to get rid of the pain. It was heart breaking hearing him cry like that.

Nothing seems to work to soothe Z's teething pain other than a little Tylenol (and that doesn't even always work). I feel like we have tried it all. We have used baby Orajel in the swabs...very neat concept and sometimes it would numb him enough to fall asleep but if he ever woke up.....the pain was there worse than ever. It was also nearly impossible to get it to the spot where we needed it! So we gave up on that awhile ago.

Z does like teething rings (well one in particular) but it only lasts so long before it has lost its cool and then his interest. If you try to give Z another teething ring after the first, he refuses. So they are only good for about 3-5 minutes of pain relief. We have tried the frozen washcloths (as they were recommended by so many people) but Z did not like them at all. I can't say that I blame him, who wants to chew on a frozen piece of terry cloth???? I tried it when Z refused it and I have to agree with him, no good!

So for us, we are left with Tylenol when he is in extreme pain (Motrin gave him the shakes) and good old fashioned love. I rocked him for a bit last night when he woke at midnight screaming. It was actually kind of nice and reminded me of the days when he was first born (however he is much bigger and more awkward now). I got him to go back to sleep for about and hour. S had the second shift and I think I heard him reading him a couple of books. Nothing like reading at 2:30 am. Finally our sweet baby fell asleep and is just now stirring at 8:15. It was a bumpy night for all but he sounds happy now. I can't wait until those two little teeth poke their way through and we can all get a good night sleep again :) Happy Weekend!