Baby Teeth

If you had asked me 6 months ago if I ever wanted Cade to get teeth my answer would have been "no". The whole teething process didn't really make sense to me. I didn't understand "cutting teeth", that just sounds too gross and painful for me to grasp that process would happen to MY baby. On the other hand, I don't remember my own "cutting teeth" period growing up, so can't be that bad. Really though, the thing for me was imagining my little gummy bear with pearly rocks in his smile. I couldn't imagine the cuteness in that. A gummy smile unexpectedly sealed itself in my heart as an irrestible charm. How special to get a smile from this creature that doesn't even have teeth yet? I would think. I would sit for hours holding him when he was a newborn and wait for the moment he would give me his first gummy smile. It's just too precious a thing, so short-lived in the grand scheme of things. And so sweet when he would mistake my pinkie finger for a binkie and soothe himself by sucking on the tip. That gasp he does when he smiles fills me up. It's a little inhale and his mouth opens wide into the biggest grin. The innocence of his gummy smile took my breath away and I feared the day it would be lost to me forever.

Last July



December 2009 - bottom 2 teeth only

The teeth growing process for Cade has been a trip. His teething pain hasn't been that bad....probably thanks to Hylan's Teething tabs and baby Orajel. (Come to find out teething tablets have trace amounts of belladonna in them...a hallucinogen or something. So for Cade, he's really been tripping out while teething. Oops)

So we lived through most of the spring February till just after his birthday with Vampire Child. His top center two teeth did not make an appearance until about 12 months old. I'm SO glad that Twilight has been a hit this year, my vogue baby rocked that vampire look for quite awhile.

April 7, 2009 His birthday...He was graduating from fang boy and had the beginnings of "real" boy teeth.


June 2009 - we've got 6 top teeth (4 center and 2 upper molars) plus 4 bottom teeth (2 center and 2 lower molars)... .Um, yes molars at 14 months old. And the crazy thing is that they came in in pairs... insane, right?! So THAT explains his 5:30am wake-up call this month. Such a beating, it was early bird month for the Lamb household. When Cade wakes up, the world better be ready to play for him. Waiting until 7:00am Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and then Special Agent Oso was grueling some mornings. Toys that sing and talk should have a setting that prohibits anything above "mute" before 7:00am. I digress.

So how have we worked through teething?
1. Hylan's Teething Tablets (these little suckers dissolve in the mouth and calmed him INSTANTLY when we were traveling last summer)
2. Baby Orajel (though now that he's a fighter when it comes to my finger in his mouth I question the point. I'm probably just numbing his tongue and it's going to cost me years of therapy later when he thinks mommy messed with him when he was in pain).
3. Teething rings (on occasion he'll suck on them for 10 straight minutes, howev he hides them in couch cushions and in his toy baskets, so again, I question the effectiveness. I'm sure one day I'll catch him giving them to Izzy, the dog loves ice!)
4. Frozen blueberries & frozen peas. The frozen peas are like CRACK COCAINE to this child. He can't get enough these days. He points to the fridge, walks over, hangs on the door until I open it and digs around the drawer until he finds the peas bag. Then he squeals, laughs, stomps his feet really fast and claps his hands all at once --- so I don't resist. Healthy addiction I suppose.