Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Teething and stuff

My blogging friends, Stacey and Angele at "2 girls in love" once commented to me that "Teething never ends".

Isn't that the truth.

We've had 7 pretty hard teething days. By my count, Kylie has six teeth that are all sitting there waiting to cut through. And they are causing her lots of pain.

A "teething day" looks like this.

  • First of all, she has this expression for most of the day. "I'm trying to have fun Mom but I just don't feel right".
  • Kylie wants to be fed and soothed at around 1am and then again at 5am. (Before this, she was back to sleeping through the night until 6am but I guess those days are over for a while).
  • She sits and strokes her cheeks over and over or just holds them. After a while, she breaks out in tears.
  • We have tearful, "I'm hurting Mommy" moments several times throughout the day.
  • She needs more distraction and more interaction from me during playtime. If she plays quietly on her own, she feels the pain more and cries. But if I can keep her distracted with walks, a daily trip to Gymboree playtime, and really playing with her, she does better. Normally, I'll spend 30 minutes cleaning a room while she's playing in it. But I've not been able to multi-task like this because she needs me so much.
  • Her appetite is really inconsistent. She'll either be wildly hungry or want nothing at all.
  • The plus side is that she's napping more. I suspect the pain wears her down or she just wants to sleep to escape it for a bit. The naps are a welcome relief for me because she's wearing me out.

    We've been consistent with giving her Motrin. Each morning I hope that she won't be symptomatic but then she starts pulling at her cheeks and crying so I'll give her a dose. She welcomes the medicine. She opens her mouth wide for it and smiles (probably from the good taste). But I think she knows that it helps her.

    She hates the teething tablets and they don't seem to help her so I've stopped those. We've had to rub Baby Orajel on her gums a few times. She either grabs and chews a cold teething ring or pushes it away and starts crying. We gave her frozen blueberries yesterday which she loved (either the taste or the fact they were frozen) but then she had purple fingers and lips for several hours.

    All of this is to say, "Come on teeth! Cut on through!"

    In other news, we've all been enjoying a children's music cd by Justin Roberts titled Yellow Bus.

    It's a welcome relief from listening to Jack Johnson when we are in the car. Jack Johnson is Kylie's favorite. She settles down and grins whenever she hears him.

    I completed this scrapbook page last night.


    Here's another picture of our foot-lovin' girl.


    And I did this pageas a placeholder in my 2008 scrapbook album. The journaling explains that there aren't many scrapbook pages for the month of May because I was doing the book project instead.
  • 7 comments:

    Stacey said...

    Sorry about the teething. It really does suck. Riley's had some teething lately too and now I see the teeth poking through. Motrin is our friend on those days/nights. It really is the only thing that works.

    Love the foot photo. Too cute.

    Unknown said...

    Suggestions for more good music (from my childhood and my best friend's) includes Charlotte Diamond and Linda Arnold. Both singers are very fun and some of Diamond's work is in French (she's Canadian).

    Shauna said...

    Yeah, the teething.... ug! Chicka has been grinding on and off and it's driving me crazy. I find Camilia helps. Have you tried that?

    Anonymous said...

    I'm sorry her teeth are hurting her so much :( All those teeth coming in at once! Look at the upside - once they're in, there are that many less she'll have to cut. We were fortunate that all of Thaya's came in in one shot. Now she only has the back most 3 year molars left.

    We were also lucky that Thaya liked to suck to counter the pressure. We'd fill her suckers up with water and stick them in the freezer then give her those to suck on. It really helped - as did frozen wash clothes. Poor poor Kylie, and poor mamas! I hope they cut soon!

    The Maven said...

    When I was pregnant with Spawnling I started feeling really run down. My nose was running, my throat hurt, I had a headache and I was really tired. I figured I must be coming down with something.

    In reality I was getting my wisdom teeth (at 30!) and OUCH, did it hurt! Ever since I've had so much more empathy for the teething babes of the world, and the parents, too! I I hope things get better over the next few days - for all of you!

    Kerry Lynn said...

    I guess teething hasn't been that bad for m&j. I've really never experienced any of that (that I thought was tooth related anyway).

    I give them frozen blueberries all the time. A tip I got for the staining was to rinse them off before giving them to her. They still stain but not nearly as bad. You could also try frozen peas. Those were a big hit around here until they aparently had a meeting and decided they were done.

    Soupy said...

    poor baby girl. :(
    our K is going thru the same thing lately -isn't it awful ? :( she just sits and sobs and my heart breaks into a million pieces *sigh* here's hoping the motrin helps and that they break thru soon!
    at least she still looks damn adorable!