Wordless Wednesday

Teething

We're teething over here. I say we because it's a whole family experience. It's impacting every aspect of our lives and it sucks. It's not terrible terrible but it's not fun either. The worst part about it is that I find myself questioning if each new or changed behavior is teething. Teething is such a joke. I feel so bad for my little guy. Luckily he's still pretty happy, well, mostly happy. He's ready for his teeth to pop through so he can bite me.

OK, so what are the signs of teething?
drool. But that can mean they are getting teeth right now, or sometime in the next 6 months right? Not really definitive.
putting everything in their mouth (hands, toys, etc). Don't babies do this anyhow? This seems like it could be developmental as well as a sign of teething, not really definitive either.
being fussy. Um, babies get fussy sometimes. It could be for a variety of reasons (teething included). Still not definitive.
diaper rash. Can happen for any number of reasons.

The only definitive ways to know if it's really teething that I can tell are these - red, puffy gums with a white spot of pressure or teeth. We have the red gums with the white spots of pressure so where are the freaking teeth? It's getting old. I'm ready for them to get here already. We have days of fussy baby and then days of happy baby, we have days filled with drool, days with less drool, no diaper rash, and everything is in Q's mouth. We have red angry gums and still no teeth. Do you get the point? NO TEETH!

Our two newest teething remedies are an amber teething necklace and a mesh feeder with ice cubes of frozen breastmilk. They both seem to be helping actually. Other things we've tried include - cold wet washcloths to chew on, Boiron Camilia and Hyland's Teething Tablets, those cool ring toys you put in the fridge, our knuckles :)

What else can we try?

Breastfeeding a 5 month old

So this is a couple days early but we've had a bumpy couple of days and our breastfeeding relationship is constantly changing so I thought I'd put this out there.

When Q was 4 months old he started the whole distractable/looking around thing which really he's still doing just as much but now - we're teething (and some new mobility). I'm sure that's what it is but it's affecting so many other aspects of our life, most notably are sleep and nursing and not a lot of either.

All I can think about is today because so far it's the culmination of all these various new issues. He's been sleeping really crappy and not wanting nursing very well during the night, he'll refuse to nurse on one side and if I push the issue he will wake himself up fully and not be happy about it. If I get up out of bed and get in the nursing chair he'll nurse and we'll both sleep in the chair. He wants to sit so bad, it's pretty much all he likes to do besides stand up holding our hands. He would do these 2 things all day if we'd assist him in them. Sitting he does by himself but we have to be watching him very closely to pick him up when he falls over. He wants to sit up so bad that if he's laying down at all (while awake) he does baby crunches, craning his head trying to sit himself up, but now.. he does this while nursing and would seemingly rather do that than nurse except that it frustrates him so bad. Nervous momma's rambling here but basically today it culminated in the fact that he wouldn't nurse for about 8 hours. He's doing a little better at the moment (nursed a bit before bed) and I think we're on our way out of this little nursing strike, but it sucks and it took a lot of work to get him to nurse even the little bit that he did. I got some great advice from my mother in law and sister in law and we did lots of skin to skin and infant and breast massage to calm us all down and get the milks flowing.

I hope this weeks events and especially today's events are not a sign of things to come during the rest of this month.

Conundrums

did I spell that right?

I feel like I’m not doing a very good job at all this mom stuff sometimes. I’m sure I’m doing fine and as my mom has reminded me - I am the best mom for Q. Whatever that means

I think we may finally be in the stage where I need to start putting the boy in bibs. I’m so sick of changing his outfits all the time because of one reason or another. I think sometimes I change them too readily because of being wet on the front or having some poop on them or something but I don’t know - is my child just more of a mess than everyone else’s? or am I just really bad at keeping him clean? He’s starting to outgrow his small diapers so I put him in a medium FuzziBunz this morning and it fit good around the waist but the leg holes were gaping open and of course I noticed but decided to just leave it. Well now I have peed on sheets and another outfit change. ugh.

So here’s a bib question for you - do I put him in bibs that came with the outfit he’s wearing? Do I try to make them match? or do I just give up caring (which will happen eventually I’m sure) and put him whatever bib I grab first. Speaking of which, I don’t think I have a lot of bibs. Nellie did give me a supercute one that says “bald is beautiful” that wasn’t really accurate for her read headed boy Kieran. Speaking of bibs though - I saw this tutorial for a bib and I really want to make it. Maybe I’ll just make my own bibs and make them solid colored or simple graphic patterns so they can go with most anything….

In other news, I’m going to be hosting a K14 Playdate at my house this month. I had fun at the last one I went to and it’s nice to see babies of different ages all in the same room and get some support from other moms and advice and whatnot. Spending time with these moms is helping me to get outside of my own world/head. Most of them are very mainstream in some things I’m not mainstream about but I kind of like that. I think I’m more mainstream than some people think I am (at least sometimes). At our last playgroup they were all about the moby wrap and we had fun playing with it.

OK, B has had Q for quite a whole now and I should go give him a break. maybe a nap? I took one today but it left me groggy and feeling guilty. Q and I were asleep in bed and he woke up and I wanted to stay asleep so I hollered at B to come get him and little did I know he had just laid down on the couch to take a nap when my hollering woke him up. I was groggy and out of it so I just handed him Q and said “take him” and he did. Poor guy. I think Q and I are gonna go out and buy an arsenal of teething crap - teething tablets, baby motrin, those squishy teething rings, boiron chamomillia, clove oil, orajel? What else??!

I really don’t know when teething starts, I read online all these symptoms and Q has so many of them but how do i KNOW?! Yesterday was the first time I really thought it could be teething because he woke up crying his “i’m in pain” cry and nothing would fix it. Finally the “geographical cure” worked (ie. taking him in the backyard) and I put him in the bumbo and gave him a cold wet washcloth to chew on. He was happier but still a little perturbed - is that teething? I’m not overly certain but I guess it sounds like it. right?