I finally heard the clue phone ringing and picked it up. Little chap is teething, of course.
Drooling? Check. Gnawing fingers? Check. Biting whilst nursing? Check. Slight rash around mouth? Check. Shitty mood? CHECK.
So, I’ve bought him some baby acetaminophen and a tube of baby Orajel, and we shall hope for the best.
When the light finally came on for me last night, I at least had a couple of those freezy teething rings to hand. I gave him one of them and he glommed on to it like it was the treasure of his heart for which he’d been waiting all of his life (five months). So, at least I know that freezy teething rings are on the Good list at the moment.
I feel like a total heel, because for the past three or four days, I’ve been wondering why Joseph has been in such a foul mood and has been so inconsolable, fussy, and shrieky. Poor little rat. I suppose he’s been feeling like hell for several days running and I was too clueless to figure it out. But he is five months old (just) and it’s not outside the average to be working on teething now.
It just started a bit earlier than I was expecting. I’ve been mentally adjusting my expectations to fit his six week prematurity, though in most things he’s been right where he would be expected to be chronologically anyway. So pretty regularly he’s been surprising me with perfectly normal developmental progress.
Get used to this feeling. It is hard damn work trying to figure out the pre-verbal when they are restive. Yay for cold things to gnaw on and acetaminophen.