Teething

It's crazy that Tillman could be old enough to be getting teeth, but he is!  I've had every intention of blogging more now that he's a little older and the boys are napping on the schedule for the most part, but such is life!  I constantly have ideas for blog posts that I would like to get down "on paper" but actually sitting down to write it is a different story. 

After Turner finished teething all of his baby teeth but his molars, I promised myself that I would not try to predict when my future children were teething.  I would guess that he was teething and it would be weeks before a tooth actually came through. 

BUT this time it was much easier to determine that he was teething just because we had been through this before with Turner.  So...for my future self and my mommy friends...these are some of the signs I noticed that Tillman might be teething:

- He was smacking his gums together.  Not just a little bit, but chomping down like an alligator!  CHOMP.

-He stuck his tongue out and then put it back in his mouth over and over again, like a lizard (or as Turner would say..."wizard") as if he was trying to feel his new pearly white coming through.

-He did drool, but not a little like he had since he was born, it was a lot, and usually when his mouth was open and he was visibly trying to feel his teeth with his gums.

-He was fussy at times that he is not normally fussy and he wasn't as easy to sooth.  Normally it takes no effort at all to get a belly laugh out of Tillman, but over the last two days he wasn't quite as easy to get happy.  This was a pretty subtle fussiness, he wasn't crying or freaking out, he was just a little bit...grumpy.  If your baby is really crying, it might be something else altogether, a cold or a tummy ache, etc.  And he was only fussy about it for a day or two before I could actually see the tooth pop out.

-Lastly, his gums were quite white and a little bit swollen as well.

Old people love to walk up to you when your baby's crying to tell you that they think he or she is teething, but babies DO cry for many other reasons! 

Treatment:  The good old fashion teether rings, frozen wash cloth.  I try not to use Oragel because there is some controversy about the affect that it can have on an infant's swallowing reflex and can also cause some other adverse reactions.  However, I may try an amber necklace.  My cousin swore by it with her son and it can't hurt to try!  If I do, I will write a follow up post if I noticed any difference between these teeth and any future teeth that come in.