So This is Teething

Wow. When I posted ‘Teething Time’ I thought I might be one of the lucky ones. You know, a mom whose baby sails through teething with little discomfort. Boy was I wrong. Yesterday morning I was in heaven as the baby napped and I took time for myself. Then as if the switch was flipped, the mood changed from delightful to dreadful.

Last night was one of the worst nights I have had as a mother. It was worse than the last set of vaccines. Bad. The baby cried and cried. I felt terrible for him, as I knew he was in pain from those pesky teeth poking through his gums. To make matters worse it was extremely hot yesterday and we do not have air conditioning in our home. It remains hot late into the evening and being hot just added to the baby feeling miserable. I made my husband go for a walk with us at eleven o’clock last night just to allow the baby to cool and calm a bit. He didn’t sleep at all (45min. to an hour at a time).

I resorted to giving him Tylenol, which I only will do when I feel it is absolutely necessary. This was after trying to give him cooled teething rings, the frozen washcloth, a frozen piece of banana etc. He would only drink from a bottle (no breast). He chewed on his sippy cup a little as well.

I first gave him Tylenol around four in the afternoon. We went to the park after this to get out and the baby seemed to enjoy himself. As the day turned to night the baby became more miserable and we chose to give him more Tylenol later in the evening around ten. He vomited it up almost immediately after giving it to him. At three in the morning I again gave him Tylenol and again, he vomited it up immediately after giving it to him. This time I was holding him, walking around trying to calm him. It went down my chest, in between our bodies and all over my shoulder. I didn’t want to escalate the situation so I calmly reassured him, “it’s ok,” half talking to the baby, half talking to myself.


I continued to hold him, thinking to myself, “so I might spend the rest of the night with vomit on my body; I am not going to put the baby down when he seems to be falling asleep in my arms; I would rather hold him than set him down and listen to him cry, scream; this is part of being a mom.” He seemed to calm after this (momentarily) yet I could not get him back to sleep until about five this morning. He finally fell asleep draped across my body and I stayed as still as I could until he stirred. I then laid him next to me in my bed and nursed him there until he fell asleep, then gently eased myself into a comfortable position to sleep myself. I don’t like to sleep with the baby in the bed, mostly because I’m paranoid that my husband will roll on him or the dog will snap at him in his sleep – neither of which have ever come close to happening. Last night however, it allowed me to get three hours of uninterrupted sleep.

This morning the baby was still fussy but as the day went on he seemed to feel better. He did sleep a lot today so it took forever to get him to bed tonight, but at least he wasn’t crying. He just had a ton of energy. I am hoping the worst is over for these two teeth. We shall see.