Holy Molars

Why is it that every time we go away or travel Juliette decides to push out a couple new teeth?

So at the moment Juliette is starting to show one of her molars on the right side of her lower jaw. She also appears to have the molar on the other side preparing to break through. It’s not been an easy time for her or us – she’s been waking up at least 3 times a night shrieking in pain. She’s not even awake, she’s just rolling around screaming and crying while poking her thumb in her mouth.

It’s been very difficult to deal with – as she’s not awake, trying to console her is a slow and stressful process. Unless Becoming-A-Mom’s breasts are involved, that is. However because we’re trying to wean Juliette, it’s now Becoming-A-(sleepless)-Dad’s role to try and get her back to sleep.

My technique so far has not been very sophisticated but it appears to work. I pick her up and talk to her while stroking her head and back. I walk around to a different room which sometimes distracts her enough for her to open her eyes and stop crying for a bit while she surveys what’s going on. I give her some water (if she’ll take her sippy cup) or if not, some raisins or cheerios – this normally will break her out of the crying and focus her on something else. If that doesn’t work a few spoons of yogurt will do the trick.

If she seems particularly in pain I’ll give her a dose of baby Tylenol (the regular one, not the recalled stuff that had other decongestants etc in it). A few minutes more and she’s ready to go back to sleep.

This takes up to 30 minutes to complete… I put her back in her crib and she falls alsleep within a minute or two. For Becoming-A-Dad it’s a different story – after all this I’m wide awake and stay that way for at least an hour before falling back to sleep.

What does all this add up to? A very sleep-deprived Becoming-A-Dad who’s beginning to think the puppy would have been a much better plan…