Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Crying Baby

What a day? My daughter has been showing all of the teething signs- drooling, low grade fevers, increase fussiness, excessive biting...  It has been very hard to get a good night rest and since I am by myself, trying to pack for my move, preparing for my boards ... it has been quite a challenge. 
Well every night has been different sometimes she is fussy and some nights she is not fussy at all and goes right to sleep but in the morning she is a different person-very jovial usually.  My daughter is so jovial that it is very sad for me to watch her even be slightly troubled by this that I at first challenged myself to help her get through this (Now I'm sure all the mothers are starting to laugh at me).
First I let her bite my fingers and that didn't work because it started to hurt, then I tried my palm but that didn't work either, then I refrigerated a wet washcloth and every night I would go find it and let her bite on that and that only worked for a short while.  And then I dug out each teething toy we got at the shower and refrigerated some and it worked for some time and then stopped, then I went out and bought some more teething toys.  You may laugh but I was very determined, her cry hits me hard that I feel like I should be doing something.
At these point I'm thinking oh boy! what do I do now.  Then I went to the food for thought store and found a numbing balm, that seemed to work for only a few minutes and then I tried tylenol, which is by the way a battle to get her to swallow it but that helps some.  I'm now exhausted and well I now realized that like I tell my patients it is a phase she will pass.  So everyday around the same time she begins to fuss I give her a warm bath which perks her up like in the picture.
Then after I dress her then I read to her and then she breaks out into her crying spell and I try to help her by dancing to classical music, nursing, holding her close to me.  When all fails, I gently place her on her crib and kiss her good night and she fusses for a little bit (while I sit behind the door with my hands in my heart and my ears piercing at her via the video monitor hoping that tonight will be shorter than last night)- it feels like forever.
But today started off different she woke up screaming ahhh (with her hand between her gum) and did this all day except when she was asleep, any caller was annoyed by her constant ahhh.  I was very confused as to why she would change our routine and so as the doctor I am I started to search for a different culprit but found nothing.  I was exhausted and needed a break until I saw this missed call- it was from a good friend of mine, Jon.  I hadn't heard from him recently, it was really nice to catch up with him and his family.  He makes me laugh and talking to him usually takes me back to college.  For some reason my daughter was mostly quiet throughout my conversation with uncle Jon.  It is fair to say that this conversation was the highlight of our day-we learnt that he and his wife are expecting a baby boy yipee! (I am constantly hoping that all my friends get pregnant and lately I've been having some interesting dreams-I actually dreamed about this one) and our other friend Matt and his wife also had a baby.  We also got to see a picture of his sister's twins- gorgeous! I was so happy that my daughter and I chatted about it through bath time and tonight she must have overwhelmed herself with her all- day-ahh, that tonight was less screaming.
How do you or did you deal with your crying baby?

5 comments:

Natural Nigerian said...

I hardly ever say this but I find that it is the truth in this case: your daughter is so cute! I could look at her all day.

Good luck with this phase. It will pass...

9jaFOODie said...

She is adorable...awww...It's difficult for me to imagine her crying, I can imagine how helpless you felt.

Abby the Tiny Traveler said...

OMG what a cutie. I could just stare at that cute face all day!

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Could ypu please do a post on birth control, if you plan to use them/ and which one you would best recommend. H ope the baby feels better, she is cute :)

Nenyenwa said...

@Natural Nigerian thanks and I hope so that it will pass
@9jaFOODie it is true and that is why it is so difficult
@Amy thanks it will be your turn soon
@Anonymous thanks for stopping by I will work on it- thanks also for the compliment