The Trauma of Teething

Lamb's first two teeth popped through with hardly any commotion.  No real fuss, no real bother, just a bit of a fever and runny nose and within a week, we had two little pearly white emerging from the lower gum.

That, however, was apparently just a teaser, to make us think that teething wouldn't be a problem.  And then came this past Saturday.  Holy bells batman, was this kid unhappy from the moment he got up.  Those two little teeth had decided to make a major move and emerge to be more than just two little nubs.  He screamed and cried (the hey mom, I'm in pain can't you DO SOMETHING about it type of cry) just about every moment he was awake through the morning, and nothing we could do helped.  He wasn't a fan of the teethers, cold or frozen.  The ibuprofen didn't help, he didn't even like taking a bath!  We tried everything we could think of, but we still had a horribly unhappy baby who wouldn't sleep and who kept chewing on his fingers.

A desperate post on Facebook led to some awesome help and suggestions, so thank you all!  During the 20 minutes he napped, I ran down to Target and stocked up on a bunch of suggestions.  The Hyland Teething tablets are A-MA-ZING.!!!  I got home to a screaming baby, put two tablets under his tongue and within 20 minutes he was clam...and pretty darn happy, especially when compared to the previous 6 hours.  Wow.  They lasted a couple of hours, we did one more tablet, and he was pretty much good the whole rest of the night.  We never did get much napping, but a little ibuprofen before an early bedtime and he slept all night.  I'm a huge believer in the Hyland tablets, I can't believe the difference they made, and so quickly!  When desperate, those will be my go-to remedy from now on, when nothing else seems to help.

We also did cold bottles and ice water in a sippy cup (he liked both) and another trip to the store stocked us up on fruit we could freeze, as we'd gone through all our pears and discovered that while frozen blueberries 1) helped and 2) were greatly enjoyed, they were NOT the smartest thing to give a baby laying on carpet (oops).  We tried frozen waffles, which Liam and Harley both enjoyed.  We are also prepared for the next go around, as we have stocked up (I think) on just about every suggestion that was made to us on Facebook. 

Luckily, Sunday was a totally different kind of day as he woke up with a smile and was his normal, happy baby (for the most part).  We didn't need the teething help yesterday, but we will never be unprepared again for emerging teeth!