Teeth

“Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething” - Mark Twain

It began with a soggy hand shoved into her mouth, and then the wailing.  I initially thought it was just that Maeve had at last found her hand, and had enough motor control now to put it in her mouth.  But then came the rivers of drool, and my visiting dad put one and one and one together, and asked "Could she be teething?"  

I had no idea, just none, that it would start this early.  Maeve was just 3 months old when all this started.  She hasn't even cut any teeth yet (although this morning I dreamed that she did, and I was so bummed to wake up and find this wasn't the case).  The worst thing to me is that she's going through all this pain and doesn't have a darn thing to show for it, not one little tooth!  What a gyp!

Here is what we use to help our little Maeve cope:

*Frozen pacifiers: Thanks, Mariah, for suggesting this; we freeze her Soothie (all silicone) pacifiers, which gives her some quick relief when she's really in pain.

*Fingers: hers or ours.  The best thing is when she has DH's or my finger in her mouth, she always wants to babble, so she talks with her mouth full of finger.
*Hyland's teething tabs: Thank you, Tamra!  These little homeopathic dissolving tablets can work absolute wonders.

*And as a last resort, baby ibuprofen.  If nothing else, it takes the edge off the panic and pain in the evenings and helps her sleep.  But we usually don't have to use this, we manage without whenever we can.

DH asked me when teething ends, and I regretfully told him it goes off and on for another 2+ years.  You should've seen his crestfallen face.  I'm not thrilled either, I just generally hate teeth and would take a full set of dentures if I had the choice; I bet Maeve would say the same right about now.