9 Teeth in 4 Months: How We Survived(?) Terrible Teething

2

My son didn’t have any teeth at his one year checkup. I’d been waiting, anxiously patiently, for those suckers to pop through since, oh, about 10 months. Every more-than-normal whiny day, every puddle of drool. It was the same thought every time.

This is it….he’s finally teething.

I wanted it to be over and done because I’d remembered, however vaguely, when my daughter went through the same thing four years previously. I wanted him to have teeth, so he could really chow at meal time. This kid LOVES food, and teeth just make the whole process better. So we waited and kept looking and thinking, gee, he’s got to get teeth at some point, right? After a while it got to be kind of comical, because we’d joke about C being the tiniest guy with dentures, ever.

And then it really started, the real teeth showed up.

The first two popped out together. Then another, and two and then two molars. Currently he’s working on a another bi-cuspid and another molar. Over the course of four months, my little dude has popped out nine teeth. Nine! It’s gotta hurt. Admit it—you’d be running straight for the medicine cabinet, or for a pair of pliers, it’d hurt that bad. Even with all the Hylands tablets, ice chews, frozen yogurt pops, ibuprofen, essential oils, and yes, a pacifier; he is was still miserable.

When the erratic waking started, I got (really) frustrated.

chaseteething1_terribleteething_momconfessions_dallasmomsblog

We all kept saying how awful it was going to be when they finally came, because they’d all come at once, but I honestly had no idea how terrible it was going to be for him, and for me. The waking in the middle of the night is what gave me my first clue. C has never been a good sleeper, but this was different. Waking up two times and worst yet, not wanting to go back to sleep alone. Screaming crying, tantrum-throwing-in-crib, standing up sobbing, clawing to get out of bed. Same with naps. I’d get maybe 50 minutes and he’d wake up crying and cranky. I’d be frustrated and tired and nothing, nothing I could do would cajole him back to dreamland. Sometimes it seemed easier to give in the to the rocking and co-sleeping I knew he wanted— and it did happen, mostly out of sheer exhaustion—but I tried to keep up with his good sleeping habits, or at this point, not-sleeping habits, which included staying in his crib, trying to make him self-sooth (because it’s a stage, right?). I knew it was important, but it sucked for a lot of reasons.

I let him cry it out…and I was still exhausted and frustrated.

I remember one early morning, he started crying again. And I just couldn’t deal. I was exhausted, like the way I was when he was a newborn. Bone-tired. So I went in and made sure he was comfy and I told him he needed to go back to sleep. And he cried. And I let him, and then felt really, really guilty. So back to the night time/nap time rocking and cuddling. 

He completely lost his appetite.

The food on his plate didn’t include much except yogurt pops, bananas, squeeze smoothies, and avocados. Basically, he turned his nose up at anything not soft and chewy. I didn’t blame him. I knew what was going on and after a month or so of giving him food he wouldn’t eat, I gave up and started feeding him the same thing I knew he would eat, over and over again. 

chaseteething_terribleteething_momconfessions_dallasmomsblog

It was a very trying three months and thinking back at everything going on during this terrible teething, I wonder, could I have done something differently? When you are in the middle of it, it’s hard to look past more than a whiny toddler who won’t eat and won’t sleep and won’t let you cook dinner, and DON’T YOU DARE walk away!  So what’s better? To drop everything and every habit to ensure your little people are as coddled and comfy as humanly possible? Or try to keep some resemblance of order to your life and think, “it’s just a stage, it’ll pass?” 

After our experience with terrible teething, I’d like think it’s a mix of both. There are a lot of ways to make your little one more comfortable while they deal with a new tooth (or nine), but you can’t do everything, and your life can’t stop. There are going to be tears and clinginess and while you, as a parent, are going to have to be loving and understanding, you’ve also got things you have to do, other kids or partners that need you too, jobs that have to get done. So while loving and cuddling and extra attention is a-okay, putting your head under the pillow after you’ve done everything is okay, too. And guess what? He’s sleeping and eating like a champ once again. 

Except now we are dealing with our first double-ear infection, our first immune system overload. Which is, as all parents know, a different experience and tale all together and one best saved for another day.

Do you have a terrible teething experience you’d like to share? Tell us about it in the comments!

—Gabby Cullen 

2 COMMENTS

  1. I’m glad you got through this teething experience! It can be really stressful for both the parents and the child but it is important to try and relieve pain as much as possible – what worked best for us was amber teething beads, you can get these in the form of necklaces, bracelets and anklets. They are great as they’re all natural – a person’s body heat triggers the release of a minute amount of oil that contains succinic acid which can help relieve pain on sore gums. This healing oil helps to aid the swelling. This along with the use of teething gels definitely helped when mine were going through this.

  2. My son now has 4 teeth (2 top 2 bottom) and only the second bottom tooth gave us any trouble. I didn’t even know the other 3 where there until i eventually felt them. The second bottom one was a doosey though. He was a total fuss pot most of the day. I gave him a little tylenol before he went to bed when he woke up the next morning the tooth had popped through and i never heard another peep out of him about it. I am not looking forward to the bigger teeth though.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here