Holly's first tooth

Holly's been dribbling like a maniac for the last few weeks, which is generally a sign for a number of things, including teething.

This morning, Sue yelled through to me quite excited that she could feel a tooth coming through. This would explain the dribbling. We bought a box of "toothy powders" a couple of weeks ago as we assumed the dribbling was caused by this, but now we know! Queue the screaming pain as the teeth start poking through. 

With Emily losing teeth and Holly's coming through, it's quite an oral time in the John household!

Emily's dental hell

This past weekend has been an utter trial.

Emily has an ulcer in her mouth, exasperated by the fact that she keeps touching it. This wouldn't be so bad if she washed her hands or didn't stick her hands down her nappy. God alone knows the level of infection her ulcer has.

She was sent home from school late last week as she'd made herself throw up. We realised quite quickly, this was because she had rammed her whole fist in her mouth, in a sensory attempt to sort out the ulcer problem.

Over the weekend, however, the problem really came to a head. You just can't tell a child like Emily NOT to eat on one side of her mouth. She was fine for a couple of random mouthfuls of random food, but then it would hit the ulcer and all hell would break loose. It was quite problematic, because Emily would then view the remainder of the food on the plate as the item which caused her immense pain.

We tried everything - from wet sloppy stuff like soup, to things like raisins and the like. It turned out that just about ANYTHING that went into her mouth caused her pain.

Thankfully when she came home today from school, as we furtively gave her something to eat, she gobbled it up completely and utterly. She's now making up for lost time and her dental-issue enforced fasting of the last few days.

Dental irritation

With most four year olds, dental pain would be accompanies with a "Mummy/Daddy (delete as appropriate) my mouth hurts". With Emily, that is not the case. She imbibes and consumes and then screams in pain when the food and/or drink has hit whatever in her mouth is causing her discomfort. 

Things came to quite a head last night at dinner as there was more moisture on Em's face (due to tears and the ensuing snot) than in her meal or drink (or fill in other things with fluids... soup?) 

We called the trusty NHS Direct to get advice. An Emergency Dental Nurse rang us back around midnight to direct us to Rose Hill today and the emergency NHS Dentist that's working bank holidays (lucky him!)

Long story short, Em managed to open her mouth about a microsecond, but this seemed to be long enough for the dental assistant to either a) see the problem or b) not see it but pretend she did. Either way we got the diagnosis that there's nothing visibly wrong, so it could just be new teeth coming through. There was an additional theory that it was also just an ulcer but we were whisked out of the surgery so quickly we didn't have time to raise this hypothesis. Keys in the door, and jacket on the receptionist told the reason for the hasty hoiking out - lunchtime. 

Anyway. We went to the supermarket and bought loads of "tooth friendly" things for lunch and dinner, so Emily enjoyed a lunch of soup and a dinner of my wonderful home-made turkey bolognese (apparently pasta doesn't aggravate whatever the hell her mouth is going through). 

Here's hoping the oral discomfort settles down soon. It's going to be quite fun for school and Helen otherwise.  

Lost a tooth

Well this was a bit odd.

Emily lost a tooth tonight, a few years before she should have, according to websites.

She'd been complaining for a while whenever she bit into an apple, but we just put it down to mouth ulcer or similar.

Sue thought her tooth was loose earlier today and on her recent trip back from her bookshelf, she was missing a tooth and had quite a bloody mouth.

Not really sure what's going on as Em doesn't eat that much sweet stuff (barring apples and pears). Conjecture includes genetically "interesting" teeth, or perhaps some hidden trauma to that particular tooth that was missed (someone knocking it perhaps).

Whatever the case, we're just hoping that Em's gappy smile won't last long.

Grinders and the fine art of bruxism

Emily's been grinding her teeth on and off for the last few months, and when we've noticed we've tried to stop her. Emily's quite adamant at continuing and has even cried at some attempts to stop her.

This led me to do what every parent in this age would do - consult the internet. Sue and I fear that if she continues, she'll have nubs soon where she used to have teeth.

Of course, the Internet has proven this half-assed theory completely wrong. It's also given a name to Emily's new  habit "bruxism"! Apparently, the worst thing about Emily grinding her teeth is the noise we have to put up with.

The Internet, that bastion of truth, even said that Emily's not alone in her grinding and that kids generally start around 3 - 3.5 years of age. Finally, Emily's not developmentally delayed at something. Take that nature!

The quite search on the web has alleviated my fears that Emily's doing something that could be harmful, so I can go back to worrying about everything else. Yay.

Teething pains

Em was in quite a mood today and it really finally dawned on me when we got home that she probably IS teething.

When we got home, she was incredibly clingy and wouldn't let go of me to even get a drink. We were watching a Smurf movie (Smurfs and the Magic Flute if you care - and the animation was TERRIBLE) and I kept having to check to see if she was awake as she wasn't moving all that much.

Over the last few days she's become so used to having Calpol that as soon as she saw the eyedropper filled with the medication, she was eager to take it.

It's sad that she even needs to know what it's for.

About 20 minutes later, she got up from the setee, announced "bed" and proceeded to climb the stairs. About 10 minutes later, sans dinner, she was fast asleep.

God-bless you Calpol.

All the signs now point to her teething - the pink cheeks, the blood curdling screams at breakfast as I know assume her cereal was hitting some open nerve. I imagine the fever and the rash over the weekend were symptoms of this now, and not anything swine related.

I can't remember what teething felt like and if she's in this much pain, I'm quite glad that's true.

More teeth

Emily has been quite grouchy the last few days. We put it down to the cessation of the evening feed.

However, it came to Sue's attention yesterday that Emily actually has two need teeth. Both on the bottom, either side of the existing middle-four that are there.

This would explain all manner of unhappiness on Emily's behalf, and I'm beginning to feel guilty in that I assumed it was just Em complaining about no milk.

When I picked Em up from Katharine's last night, she asked if I knew about Emily's FOUR new teeth. Apparently there's two MORE on the bottom row nearer the back.

Now I REALLY feel guilty!

Teething. Again.

Thankfully, Em seems to teeth during "business hours" (i.e. when Sue and I are awake). This has occasionally included evenings when we've put Em to bed and she's woken herself up with pain.

Last night was the first night she started teething outside of business hours. It was about 1.30am this morn when we were woken with her pain-induced cries. A bit of drink off mum, some cuddles from me, and some baby Tylenol later and she was back asleep.

We've got eight teeth so far, and I hope this latest bout brings about a couple more at least. I just don't know how much more sleepless nights Sue, myself or Em can take.

My baby the cling-on

In the past week or so, Emily has developed the habit of clinging on to Sue or I for dear life. I realise that clingyness is a phase of childhood, but Emmers has quite the grip and we're really not sure what's brought it on.

She's also drooling quite a bit at the moment and crying loudly for no apparent reason. We're assuming it's another bout of teething, but can't be too sure.

She's a good kid who has tanties or gets upset only as a last resort, so to be drooling or clingy, we're hoping it's for an obvious reason.

Fruity little miss

Having picked Emily up from Katherine the child minder's today I was told that Em couldn't stop blowing raspberries. This comes as quite a shock (or very least surprise) as she's never really done this before.

I assumed it was a daytime, with the child minder thing and left it at that. Lo and behold, we're not home an hour before she's doing it for me too, complete with soaking wet, spit-soaked chin. I've heard tell of other children doing this, and I guess it's a developmental stage, but I just don't know what it means.

Will have to investigate further.

Update: Apparently, Emily blew razzies before at around 6 months and then stopped. We've surmised it might be something to do with teething still.

dribbles the clown

The last couple of days going to work, I've had interaction with Sue only, as Emily has been fast asleep. Not that she's slept through the night... oh no. She's happily awoken around 5 am only to pass out from exhaustion long before mummy and daddy have had the chance to catch some zees.

Today, though, mummy rang me to let me know that Em is dribbling a storm. This can mean only one thing - teething. And that's NO fun for anyone involved. With four teeth almost here, I can imagine she's going to have a whole set of pearly whites in no time now! Of course, this will cause no end of trouble for milking mummy.

Having arrived home tonight after a work function, the little dribble magnet was already asleep. I do feel a bit bad for leaving Sue so long on her own with the drooling Emster, but I also feel bad that I miss out seeing the droolster myself. Of course, it would be idiotic to wake her to sate my own desire as we'd be stuck with a half asleep little bag of unhappiness and that doesn't tick boxes in anyone's book.

Now I'm down with the ill

The great thing about having ill kids is you can pretty much assume correctly you'll come down with what they have at some point.

This scares me, as I really don't know if work will be lenient with me taking sick days whenever Em gives me the lurgie. As it stands now, I'm feeling quite wretched today, coughing up a lung as well as hard green stuff. The ills have moved from my head to my chest, which I guess means we're on the mend.

In actual Emily news, she's begun babbling. She continually intones "da da" over and over again. At first, I took it to heart. You only have to hear her in pain screaming da dad to realise you don't want any part of that recognition.

Tonight discovered another tooth popping through, which has caused Em some discomfort. So the count right now is 2 arrived and three on the way, which is cool.

Teething again. Again.

Emily and I had a nice evening tonight. It's been Sue's first night back at Uni for a while. We had a playful trip home on the train and a lovely dinner time.

It all fell apart when it came time for sleepies. The teething issues came back full force. Em didn't want the Calpol, and fell asleep after a bottle. ALMOST into REM sleep, she started howling ... eyes closed, in her sleep.

It was horrible.

Teething. Again.

Over the weekend, Emily has gone from the normally happy placid baby she is to a crying, drooling, almost feverish baby. Yep! Teething time again.

Last night I was trying to get her to sleep and she was happy as you like until the pain kicked in, and the tears and the drool came streaming. The look on her face would break your heart. The look was like she was almost apologising for not being a good girl and for crying and making noise. The tears came streaming while she was fighting to fall asleep, which came mercifully quick.

Emily is also eating more for comfort these past couple of days (rather than hunger). This has resulted in her vomiting not once but twice all over mummy on Sunday. It seems when she's drinking the pain is less, so why not drink forever? Well there's a hideous stench of rotten milk that would be a very good reason #1 not to drink forever.

I guess the first test of any human and their pain tolerance is teething (or circumcision if you're a boy). I'm just thankful in some ways that these early days won't be remembered when she's older.

Tales from down under

Not much to report, apart from Emily has been trying Sue's patience with her teething. Up at 3am, feed, grizzle, etc. and then exhaustedly catch a few more winks.

Sue sounds run down when I talk to her on the phone, almost like she's coming down with something. The lack of sleep could very happily play into that.

Sue's also said that Emily has gone through another growth spurt. I don't know how big she is now, but I imagine she's taller than the world's shortest man (who was only 2ft something) who was in the papers recently for the launch of the "Guinness Book of World Records".

Image via Wikipedia Sue and Em are off on the inter-Australian adventure come Monday. Brisbane, Newcastle, Melbourne, etc. So this weekend will most likely be out last Skype conversation.

I'll be happy to see my girls again when they get back. A month is a long time by any standard, but in Emily's case, it's quite a tangible amount of her life - 1/6!!

Birthday adventures

Got back from Bognor today, having attended my cousin Louise's son Harley's first birthday.

Emily was (as usual) in fine form, smiling at one and all and making sure they knew she was a content little camper. Nothing could put her off her stride, not even headbutting the birthday boy (accidentally of course).

The only downside to the weekend was Emily's teeth. We're off the gel now and trying homeopathic powders which seem to work on the teething pain much better and quicker than the gel.

She is still going from being the happiest baby ever to the most miserable in a matter of seconds, all due to the ongoing teething issues. She's also still crying in her sleep, which is hard to handle, but Sue and I both know it won't last long.

Teething Hell

Well, it's started.

We've have five months of pretty sedate happy baby up until now. When I got home today, I was told tales of grizzles, cries and the like all to do with teething.

I've just finished playing with Emily and she alternates between sucking ANYTHING furiously and mildly happy, and screaming inconsolably - obvious in immense amounts of pain.

It's no fun for Sue and I as the screams and the restless nights are really screwing with us, but it's also really not nice hearing her cry knowing she's in pain and not really being able to do anything about it apart from rubbing teething gel into her mouth.

She's got a couple of teething toys - plastic keys and the like - and due to her not too stellar hand to eye co-ordination continues to smack herself in the head with them.

A few websites have been helpful, if anything, in letting us know the symptoms are teething. Not really sure how long it'll last, but apparently the first set of teeth and the molars are the most painful. There's also a suggestion of offering her cold food to numb the gum, so I guess it's good we've started the weaning process. Just need to buy / make some apple sauce.

On a happier note, we weaned her onto new foods tonight - yam! Sue cooked and blended up one and I tried to feed it to Em. As you can imagine, with the gum pain her focus really wasn't on the food all that much.

The Crankies

From all that we've read, it looks like Emily may be in the early stages of teething. The jury's out on when it fully begins and fully ends, with the get out clause "all babies are different", but the tell tale signs are there - the crankies, the rosy cheeks, etc.

I have no idea what to expect from this, and a lot of dread and worry. I don't remember Dan going through this, but I would have only been about 8 at the time, and probably had more Star Wars on my mind that noting down teething information for a potential baby 27 years later.

High on the purchase list for tomorrow is some Bonjela, which is supposed to soothe the savage baby. Over the coming months, we'll see exactly how savage and how much soothing.

I can wait.