More Teething Woes

I was hoping to proudly announce Patrick's first teeth today, but they haven't quite broken through yet. Any day now, though, I'm sure I'll make that announcement. Instead, he is biding his time by sucking on anything he can get to his mouth. Most often that would be his fingers, but our fingers, my hair, most toys, clothes, and blankets make it there too. It's almost amusing to see what he'll get his mouth on next.

Yummy fingers

Along the same lines, he's wanting to eat more often--but he won't eat for long. I think he wants some relief from the pain and thinks eating will provide that relief. When it doesn't, he gives up and cries instead. He also has shown less interest in solids. He ate about half his usual meal for lunch and then spit up quite a bit of it. I haven't heard this anywhere, but has anybody else found that spitting up is associated with teething? I'm hoping that's the case, but I've never heard of that as a symptom before.

Telling a secret to his teddy bear

Despite trying to suck on everything, Patrick's really been pretty good about the teething. He breaks down into crying spells occasionally when the pain gets too bad, but we're typically able to distract him. We're just starting to lose creativity with those distractions. I don't know what we'll end up turning to if the teething lasts too much longer.

Smiling up at lights, I think

He's also been sleeping in unusual patterns. He's taking more frequent naps, but they don't last as long. The longer naps are often medically induced (thank goodness for Tylenol and teething tablets!). As soon as his medicine starts to wear off, though, he's back awake and desperate for attention, and possibly relief from the pain.

Check out this long tongue!

It's sad for me to see him in pain and hear his constant whining or crying. I know this pain is at least productive (it better be this time), but I hate to see him in pain anyway. That's why I try to be as patient as I am with distracting him and catering to his every demand in the hopes that I am doing something to help him. And maybe tomorrow this phase will be over as his first teeth finally break through his gums.

On a side note, I have enabled word verification for posting comments. For those of you who haven't experienced this yet, it's just one simple extra step you have to go through before you post your comment. I suspected eventually I would have to give in and turn it on, but I was delaying as long as possible. Then today I got my first spam comment. That was what I was waiting for; as long as I wasn't getting spam, I didn't really need it. (I'm actually kind of flattered that my blog is finally on the map enough that spammers find it worthy of spamming.) So I'm sorry for those of you who hate word verification, but I think it will be worth it if it helps keep my blog spam-free.