The Wonderful Journey of Teething

About a week ago, our Pediatrician confirmed Molly is indeed teething! Initially I was excited because I was envisioning our baby girl having the cutest pictures with only those first little teeth present. This past Friday I was brought back to reality...the journey through teething can be a tough road!

I had taken the day off work to have a girls day with Molly. We were going to lounge at home, have a lunch playdate with one of Molly's friends and then have a leisure afternoon of endless playtime. 

The morning started off rocky. Molly decided to wake up at 4am...those are always promising days =). She also decided naps were just out of the question...another promising sign of a good day =).

We survived the morning and I had hoped she would fall asleep in the car on the way to lunch so we left early. As we drove to our destination, she proceeded to SCREAM the entire way. This was very unlike her, so I pulled into a random parking lot that had some shade (remember, this is one of the 100+ degree weather days) and I parked the car so I could calm her down. First, I tried shushing her (like that ever works, but I still always try it), then I took her out of the car seat to nurse her. Normally this works, but today she was too worked up for nursing to calm her down. Finally I got her to sleep by bouncing her in my arms (yes, this was very tricky and probably amusing to watch). I managed to slip her back into her car seat without waking her up...success!

Now I was dreading lunch because I knew this probably wouldn't go well. The restaurant was packed so we settled for a table on the patio (looking back, this wasn't a smart decision because again it was 100+ degrees outside). Molly woke up pretty quickly and started to fuss. I held her as she sucked on a corner of her blanket soaked in ice cold water. I, again, bounced her to sleep in my arms (another amusing sight as I am the only one standing up at the table). When we leave I try to transfer her to the car seat still asleep but this time she woke up.

On the ride home she cried herself to sleep. I felt so bad for her. I knew this day was VERY out of character for her, so her pesky teeth had to be causing her a lot of pain. The evening wasn't much better. I was happy to have my husband home so he could assist....gotta love teamwork (& Motrin)! 

For all those parents out there who have teething babies, hang in there! We have to continue focusing on soothing our babies and how adorable they'll look when those teeth finally show up!