Relief At Last

Patrick is suffering endlessly from his first foray into teething. Matt and I have tried everything to soothe his poor gums, or at least distract him from the pain. We have found that he is temporarily distracted by being rocked--while we are standing, of course--and walked around the house. My arms and legs are already sore from that much rocking and walking. Even that didn't console him earlier, so I got inventive. The only things Patrick can keep in his mouth are Daddy's or Mommy's fingers or his Soothie pacifier. The other pacifiers we've offered him help but fall out (I think he doesn't like them and pushes them out on purpose). So I got the idea of using the Soothie as a teething ring. That's much better than leaving my finger in his mouth all day; having him connected to my finger would get old fast. I put his Soothie pacifier in the freezer to get it nice and cold, just like the traditional teething rings. Because the nipple part is hollow, I was even able to fill it with water and freeze it. Finally, something worked! He's still quite content fifteen minutes later. I think I'll rotate the pacifiers so that one is always in the freezer waiting on him.

Uh-oh, he's fussy again. The pacifier is back to his body temperature. Hmmm, I guess that didn't work as well as I thought, at least not long enough. Time to get inventive again...we'll see what I can come up with this time! If I can't come up with something, I may just go crazy. This crying is much worse than most cries and grates on my nerves something awful. It also makes me almost sick hearing him cry and knowing how little I can help him right now.