I thought by the time I had my third baby, I’d have everything figured out. You can feel free to laugh with me. I’m laughing at myself right now! But really, I thought that.
Currently, my 4-month-old is teething and also hitting a developmental growth spurt. I’ve been reading The Wonder Weeks just to help me figure out what’s going on with him, because of course I can’t remember from when the first two were babies. In addition to getting these teeth, he’s figuring out that “events” are related to one another. For instance, if he swats at his little sheep rattle, it makes a rattle sound.
This is big stuff to a tiny brain.
He’s also in that lovely distracted nursing stage where he pops off and slowly turns that big noggin of his around to stare and smile at whatever’s happening. Like maybe the sunlight shifted or I exhaled or something terribly distracting like that!
So all of this is happening at once until I find myself so painfully engorged, my armpits hurt and I can pump five ounces in as many minutes.
My third baby is a calm little dude, so when I say he’s been distraught about the teething piece, it’s really pretty tame in the grand scheme of my kids. The others…the others definitely let me know when they were uncomfortable.
My wee Oren just mainly chomps on his hand with an angry look on his face, but does spend some time wailing and whimpering in the evenings. I need to remember that even though he’s not going wild, he’s still hurting and could use some extra care. He’s already sprouted his bottom 2 teeth, so he’s definitely teething younger than my first two kids.
I’m not sure if I feel safe using my go-to remedies, but thankfully we see our pediatrician tomorrow and I can check in.
With the older two, here are the things that we tried:
- Amber teething necklace. I feel sort of ambivilent about this one, though many moms swear by it. It’s really pretty, though! So we use it.
- Frozen waffle to gnaw on.
- Diluted clove oil. I only discovered this when my second was getting canines, and I wish I’d known about it sooner! This was the gold standard teething remedy at my house from then on.
- Tylenol. I’ve got a lot of people to take care of. I am pretty excited about a safe, fast-acting remedy like this.
- Extra nursing sessions.
- Coffee. For mom, of course! Sleep is hard to come by during these times.
Other than that, we just sort of paced around with our whimpering babies and chanted, “This, too, shall pass.” And I know it does, because it did the other times. But whew! It’s tricky when you’re in it!
Do you have any go-to teething coping strategies? Leave us a comment to share your tricks!
