Just when I thought teething would be at a momentary standstill since Nathan’s bottom two teeth finally broke through after two months of misery, it has come back with a vengeance.

Now, it’s Nathans top two teeth that are causing him pain.

The little guy is miserable and has been quite grumpy the past couple days; I don’t blame him, however. I vividly remember the acute pain I endured when my wisdom teeth came in. I was grouchy, irritable, and simply miserable… who wouldn’t be? My entire mouth was swollen, I couldn’t eat, and I stayed nauseous. I can truly empathize with how my son must be feeling, and to think that this process is going to take a while is heart wrenching. I hate that he he has to feel such pain.

I try to hold the little guy and he screams to be put down; I put him down and he wails to be picked up. He doesn’t want to play, not even in his exersaucer. Blue’s Clues has not provided much of an outlet either… he’ll do well for a short period of time before he realizes how badly his gums hurt and then the tears start flowing.

I’ve been using his teething medicine religiously, and that seems to take the edge off temporarily. I keep telling him that this, too, shall pass… but not only does he have no comprehension of time, he barely understands what I am saying. He knows the words “mama,” “daddy,” “kisses,” “food,” “Blue’s Clues,” “exersaucer,” to name a few… but “hold on and deal with the pain” is not included in his vocabulary. 

Nathan is quite theatrical about letting us know he’s hurting; he’ll cry with tears streaming down his wet cheeks like a flooded river, and he’ll dramatically throw his left arm over his eyes much like something Scarlett O’Hara would do. Then he’ll whimper a few times and slowly raise his arm to see if we’re watching his torment.

Because, ya know, it’s not worth it UNLESS WE’RE WATCHING.

When he sees we are, he continues with the dramatics to ensure we understand the scope of his misery. My little miniature thespian wants us to commiserate with him, so he’ll occasionally ramp up the theatrics by adding some squealing here and there, sprinkled with a smattering of back-arching and head flopping, and topping it all off with rapidly flailing arms and legs.

This, too, shall pass… right? Right?

Of course it will. And then the cycle will repeat itself when the next tooth is ready to erupt. In the meantime, Nathan is able to hone his dramatic thespian skills and this mommy has an abundance of time to work on figuring out how to soothe him.

Perhaps this is good practice for a future career as an actor…

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