Friday, June 27, 2008

Teething woes

I am very sorry to report that Lucy has begun the long and arduous process of teething her first incisors. Happily, it seems to be the same gradual and intermittent exercise that it was for her big sister, so we do get some days off. We had one truly horrific day of it earlier this week, where she was basically unable to sleep for more than a half hour and experienced great difficulty sucking on a bottle comfortably. Since Lucy is only 2 months of age, I was looking for any and all alternative explanations for her suffering, but her sudden silence when given a frozen wash cloth to gnaw on was quite telling. Because she is so young, most of our tried and true teethers will not fit into her mouth just yet - so the good old-fashioned knotted washcloth, dampened and tossed in the freezer seems to be the best solution. She is also gnawing on her hand, and hopefully that grants her a measure of relief. Lucy bats at her ears and makes the sudden cries of seemingly random pain that were so characteristic of Rebecca's teething experience. While it is nice to have a sense of what exactly is going on, it is still so very hard to see such a sweet little cuddler enduring something like this. The teeth have not worked themselves up very high yet, so the copious drooling is still to come. I had hoped that teething would not start for another few months, so that getting Lucy on a schedule would be easier, but I guess it's not to be. Oh well, life continues.
Lucy and I have been having "conversations" for a while now. She likes to lie down on a blanket while I lie beside her. She then begins to smile and making gurgles and cooing sounds, as well as little yelps and vowel-like noises. We go back and forth in this manner for quite some time. The best part is that this occurs predominantly in the evenings once Rebecca is asleep - so I am getting some very high quality one on one time with Lucy.
Sometimes I feel as though I have days where neither girl is satisfied with the level of attention they receive. This is exceedingly frustrating for me, because I want so badly to do my best. But, then there are other days where everything is delightful, so all in all, these things balance themselves out.

No comments: