Molar Meltdown

I haven't been around the last week because I've been in molar teething hell with Alexa. We had seven straight nights of less than three continuous hours of sleep. Do you know what that does to a person?? This is not newborn baby wake up, change diaper, nurse and go back to bed middle of the night hell. This is a whole new torture chamber that this mom was not prepared for!

Alexa's always had a rough time with teething. She sports two bright red, super hot cheeks, her temperature teeters between low-grade and high fever and her personality turns uber needy. This time around there were no red cheeks, no temperature change whatsoever, but the neediness was replaced by whininess and clinginess to a degree I could have never imagined. I wasn't allowed more than two feet away from her or she would produce this horrible, high pitched, squeally whine that could only be stopped by picking her up and rocking her for a few minutes. She completely stopped sleeping through the night and turned into a little havoc wreaking zombie toddler.

I hate teething. I really hate molar teething.

After four sleepless nights I was close to breaking. A friend of mine sent me this blogpost to read and it definitely cracked me up and made me realize we would survive this horrible, rotten, no good, very bad week. However, after I read through the comments I did cry because I was doing absolutely everything that every other mom had tried and still, nothing was helping. Nothing was calming her down, reducing the pain, helping her sleep or making those damn molars pop through any faster!

Here's the list of tried and true teething stuff that we used and that lots of other moms suggested as well:

-Hyland's teething tablets (worked like a charm for regular teeth, was basically a snack during molar time)
-Dentinox gel (this is a prescription teething gel here in Europe, in the states I guess baby Anbesol or baby Orajel would work)
-Ibuprofen (in the correct dose for your child, this did seem to help a little bit. Ibuprofen combined with the Dentinox helped initially at bedtime)
-Frozen washcloths or cold washcloths to chew on
-Cold, peeled, raw carrots (parental supervision needed. I just peel a whole carrot and let her gnaw on it)
-Snuggles (I know this sounds like common sense, but after not sleeping for nearly a week, the last thing I was thinking was, "Hey let's snuggle together and it'll be great!" I was more of the "Why are you still clinging to me? What in god's name is going to make you stop whining?!?!?!" It's horrible, but it's true. No sleep makes me very irritable. Getting down on the floor and just hanging out really helped. I pulled the pillows off the couch, brought out our big comfy comforter from the bedroom and put on a movie for us to watch. I also pulled some of her favorite books out and we just hung out, snuggled, watched a bit of the movie, read a book and then snuggled some more. I wish tired me had thought of this sooner!)
-Cold sippy cups of water or milk (Alexa usually drinks cold water no problem, but pre-molars preferred warm milk. This past week it has been icy cold goodness all the way!)
-Freezer pops (Simple genius. I offered a freezer pop in between the ibuprofen and the teething gel.)
-Frozen apples (or other fruit) in a mesh feeder (This was the golden ticket for us! (Thank you Brandi) Alexa was not eating anything except applesauce and yogurt because chewing hurt, but frozen apples got a little bit of food in her tummy and soothed her aching gums at the same time.)

As of last night, I think one of the bottom molars has broken through the skin. She has been in a substantially better mood the last two days and I can only hope the upswing continues as the molars come all the way through. This was such a horrible and trying week. I'm hoping next week is much better.

Oh what a week!

We had a rough few days this week with missed nap times and a bit of a tummy bug. Let me tell you, babies are complicated! They can't just talk and say "hey mom, my tummy hurts!" They apparently use secret code cries and hand signals to let us know what's going on...and no one gave me the decipher!

All of last week something was wrong...Alexa was vomiting, I thought it was because I gave her avocado...Alexa had a low grade fever, I thought it was from teething...Alexa was pulling off and crying during nursing (until she refused to nurse at all), I thought she might be going on a nursing strike, or maybe she had an ear ache. I was wrong...about everything! I brought her to the pediatrician's on Monday after an entire weekend of inconsolable, heart-breaking crying. I told the doctor what I thought: ear infection, and she told me I was wrong. She then told me that Alexa has a stomach virus. WOW, that came from left field, but actually, if you look at all of her symptoms again, well...I guess the doctor could be right. Poor baby, it's horrible to see her unhappy and not feeling well.

Thank god it's Thursday! The Papa comes home tonight and this Mama will be begging for a sleep break!

Despite an upset tummy, Alexa has learned some pretty cool new things this week. She was able to drink out of her sippy cup all by herself for the first time.

She also found her toes for the first time...while she was in the tub. It definitely made for an interesting bath time, since she completely refused to do anything but hang onto her toes, wave them and wiggle around in the tub!

More Teething Tips

The teething process is just that, a process. So far we are going on two weeks of irritable, cranky, gum hurting baby. I wish these teeth would just pop through already! At our pediatrician's appointment on Friday we discovered that Alexa actually has FIVE teeth all trying to come in at the same time. FIVE! As if getting one tooth at a time isn't bad enough, she has to try and be an overachiever and get five at once! Well, this officially put me on the hunt for something to soothe her gums and help those teeth pop through. In Terrible, Horrible, Rotten, Evil Teething I talked about some different things that we had tried using as teethers...here are some new things that we have tried:

Bibs - Who knew that bibs not only caught the drool from teething, but also work as an awesome teether!
Carrots - Carrots are cold, hard, and AWESOME for soothing little teething gums. (I'm also hoping that they will help "encourage" the teeth to pop through!)

I have also bought some teething tablets (Osanit) and gum numbing gel (Dentinox). So far, I don't really think that the Dentinox works very well, but Alexa seems to like the Osanit teething tablets.

Terrible, Horrible, Rotten, Evil Teething!

I finally figured out the problem, but I'm having some trouble actually solving the problem. She's teething. Teething sucks. I hate teething. Teething needs to take a hike! We've gotten teething gel and teething tablet thingies. I'm not actually convinced that either one work or are helping at all, but I am going to keep trying them because something has got to give. It's been two nights now since I have slept for more than an hour or two. I am cranky. I am tired. Plus, I feel like a horrible mom because I'm getting angry at her for crying. She's in pain and evil mommy is getting mad. Who does that?? I am such a jerk!

I've googled a whole bunch of different teething tips and I'm planning on trying ALL OF THEM! So far we've tried:

Teething toys put in the fridge - She likes these
Teething binky from MAM - even the stage 1 is too big for her, two thumbs down
Cool teether from MAM - too big for her, can suck on a corner if I hold it, but still isn't that fond of it
Wooden toys - Not at all, two thumbs down
Cold, wet wash cloth - undecided
My finger - LOVE at first tooth

I also ordered some Razbaby special teething binkies from the US. They will arrive right before we do, so I'll keep you all updated on how she likes them.

Ok, so I need to give a special shout out to my mother-in-law. She has been sooooo amazing this week helping out with Alexa and giving me a little "find your sanity and regroup" break. I am so appreciative for her help. With Michael in Vienna, I am quickly and certainly losing my mind a lot faster than normal.