(Teething)
One of the hardest things a mother can go through is witnessing her baby in pain. Hopefully, teething will be the only pain you’ll have to witness, but it still breaks your heart. Every baby is different, so every mom should know that yours could very well not make a peep throughout the entire teething process. You’re probably the same mom who didn’t get any stretch marks or tear during delivery, and I hate you for that. Everybody else probably won’t be so lucky.
The first tooth to come in is kind of tricky because you don’t really know what to expect from your baby. My little bird cried and cried, and I did my usual checklist and still couldn’t figure it out. The next day I noticed he was still in a crabby mood and drool was leaking out of his mouth like a sixteen-year-old staring at Pamela Anderson. That’s when Mommy finally put two and two together and gave my son some relief with baby Tylenol.
Baby teething is one of those things that everyone and their brother will give you helpful hints for, even though you’ve already been told by 150 other people. So you can either skip ahead or let me be the 151st person to tell you. Here are some good tips: Really cold or partly frozen washcloths were good at times, and so were frozen bagels, cold teething rings, and my absolute favorite, baby Anbesol. Applying it with a Q-tip made it easier.
So besides endless crying and drooling, other warning signs for teething are a fever, a runny nose, and possibly diarrhea. Some babies have also been known to get a rash. My son was part of the unlucky group to experience all of these. The tricky thing for me and my husband was trying to figure out the difference between teething symptoms and actually being sick. We called our doctor so many times when he got a fever due to teething that we stopped calling even when we were unsure if he was really sick. My poor son had a raging ear infection because I tossed it off as teething. People would say “Why is your son banging his head against the wall and pulling his hair out?” I would say “Oh, he’s just teething.”
What an asshole I was!! That was stupid. Again, never ever feel bad about bugging your pediatrician. That’s what he’s there for.
Then there were those times when nothing helped. My baby was looking into my eyes, crying hard with a runny nose and a fever, and he couldn’t shove his fist any deeper into his mouth. The Tylenol wasn’t working, so I switched to baby Motrin and that did nothing. That’s when I started yelling at my husband to do something because I didn’t know what to do myself. Finally, in desperation, I called the pediatrician and asked if they made any baby Vicodin or infant codeine for teething. I just wanted my baby out of pain. Needless to say, the doc said NO and told me to hang in there with Tylenol. (I think I’ve been in L.A. too long.)
It’s really, really hard when you’re helpless. Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks for a tooth to finally come up and your baby will be wigging out the entire time. Once the tooth breaks the gum, most of the pain has subsided, and Junior no longer looks like a rabid dog. But just when you think you’ve made it through a couple of the hardest weeks yet, another tooth starts up. Teething was definitely the hardest thing for me in my son’s first year. But as I said earlier, you might be the lucky bitch who escapes all of it.
If you’re not, just do the best you can, and don’t be afraid to call and bug your baby’s pediatrician if you’re unsure about symptoms. You pay him enough money to interrupt a good golf game.