I remember when my wisdom teeth were starting to come in. They would surface, then retreat, then surface, then retreat again. It was an on-going battle that nearly drove me nuts! My gums were itchy and sore with no respite. I bought tube after tube of oral gel to help diffuse the uncomfortable feeling, only to mask the discomfort for approximately 30 seconds. I would look longingly at an infants chew toy and desire to snatch it away and gnaw on it myself, anything to relieve my gums. You would think I would have clued in to what a baby goes through, when that was just 2 wisdom teeth at the back of my mouth. A baby has it's entire mouth, top and bottom, front and back, all feeling like this at the same time! No wonder it makes them cranky and irritable. What these babies go through in the first couple years of life is amazing to me. No wonder God made us so we wouldn't remember these first years, or we'd all have way more psychological disfunction to deal with. Sleep training, teething, the frustrations of not being able to communicate with words, just to name a few.
Then along came L and her cute button nose, crystal, brown eyes and beautiful gummy smile. I thought it would be this way forever. She would grab my finger and gently gum down on it. Not hard, more for pleasure, and life was bliss. Until that fateful day when those teeth decided it was time to make their journey upwards. This started at a ripe old age of 2 1/2 months! What?!? I thought babies started teething around 6, 7, or even 8 months. But 2 1/2 months? We had an over-achiever in this department it seemed.
The drool gushed forth one day, like a faucet being turned on full blast. Sticky, slimy drool was everywhere. On L, on me, we were always soaked it seemed. This we helped contain with the addition of an amber necklace. The day we put it on L, the faucet was turned off (who would have thought they would work so well). What was once a pleasant and gentle gumming all of a sudden turned into a clamp of death! If L got a finger, you weren't getting it back.
As the months crept on, I thought we were doing ok. There were no major symptoms like you hear from so many others. No major bum rash, so fever, no overtly sleepless nights (nothing out of the normal sleepless nights anyway). I thought we were breezing through this. Boy I couldn't have been more wrong.
One day, I can't tell you exactly when, the days are all hazy and meld into one, the switch occured.
My once happy, playful and drooly girl became irritable, cranky, whiny, and impossible to please. Let's call it, baby PMS, or PTS I supposed, Pre-teething Syndrome.
L would cry if I changed her, cry if I didn't, cry if she was tired, cry when she woke up, cry if I didn't get her food into her mouth fast enough, cry if I did, cry if I held her, cry if I put her down. The only time she didn't cry was when she was sleeping or chewing on something. Thank goodness for those short spells of slumber :) L still hasn't had a bad rash (knock on wood), she did have a very low temperature which lasted just a few days, but mostly she was just irritable, and drooly, and chewed on everything! I mean EVERYTHING. If it was within reach, or L could manoeuvre to get to it (which she's becoming ever so sly in doing these days), into her mouth it went. The metal clasp on her soother ribbon, the ribbon itself, the back of her soother, her stuffys, her toys, the metal legs of her jolly jumper stand, her clothes, her toes, her fingers, my fingers, my clothes, blankets, her play mat, you name it, she tried to chew it. If it came close to her mouth, it went into her mouth. And chew and gnaw and gnaw and chew she would. You know when a dog gets it's toy in it's mouth and shakes it's head ferociously? That was L when she would chew stuff. I'll admit, that part was pretty funny.
After a couple months of this craziness I began to wonder just how long this was supposed to last. Weren't babies supposed to teethe for a couple months and then sprout those teeth and get it over with? Well, I soon discovered there is no reason to the madness and every kid is different. I just had to wait it out.
Time went by and then one day, I felt her gums (which had become my daily routine) and I felt some bumps. They were barely perceptible, but they were there! Now, to hope that they would continue to rise and not retreat back into the safety of her gums. We were rewarded on Aug 7 to be exact, 10 days before she was 7 months, I awoke to feel the razor sharp (and I mean razor sharp) edge of her first tooth! Hurray! We had a tooth!
there's L's first bottom tooth :)
That day I noticed a major change in L. She was happy, content, and pleasant once more. That first tooth just needed to pop and I got my little happy camper back again! How strange, but I was told by someone (whether this is scientific or not, I believe it after what I've experienced) that once the first tooth cuts, it softens the gum for the rest of the teeth and makes them easier to cut. I believe this because, 2 weeks later her 2nd tooth popped, but the change in L's demeanour that first day was like night and day. Sleep training commenced and life became much more manageable and normal again. I could go out without fretting about if L would be irritable and cry the whole time. We have play dates, go for walks, and enjoy the sunshine together.
I know we are no where near done in this teething process, as she's still got a mouthful ahead of her, but I feel like we've marked a milestone in this teething journey. Thank goodness for God's ever sufficient grace for those times when you're at the end of your rope.
To you mommy's going through this and mommy's-to-be, hang in there. As the wise before us say "This too shall pass". Any of you have any teething stories to share? Can you relate? Did you notice a change when the first tooth appeared? I'm curious. :)
Till next time!
