Teething

Axel, 2013

For about a month now, we've been in the throes of some major teething drama. Axel was a toothless wonder until about 3 weeks after his first birthday, and since then he's gotten four giant teeth in rapid succession (he takes after his papa in the giant teeth department); plus there's two more on the top that are peeking through.

During the day, you wouldn't especially notice anything is amiss, but at night, a few times a week, our usually sound sleeper often wakes up around 1 a.m. moaning and can be up for hours. It's not his 'I'm upset' cry, it's something that sounds much more like discomfort, and it can be really tough to console him. We use infant Tylenol from time to time, and let him snuggle in our bed with milk and a few episodes of Peppa Pig on Youtube, but last night nothing seemed to make him comfortable.

I've read all sorts of things about chilled washcloths and frozen fruit and the like, but in the middle of the night the last thing he wants is something shoved into his mouth. He doesn't even seem especially "teeth-y" in terms of wanting to chew things, at least, not any more than usual.

We eventually get him back to bed and he wakes up at the usual time perfectly cheerful and ready to go, while we feel completely run ragged, with pounding headaches from all the sleep disruption. Somehow, the unpredictability of it all makes this stage feel harder than the newborn phase, when it was usually a simple case of feeding him back to bed. Only 16 more to go...?