The joys of teething

E GOT HIS FIRST TOOTH LAST NIGHT!

And it was quite traumatic for him and me both.

It only took Mommy four hours to figure it out. 

I picked E up after work around 4:00. He was in a super weird mood. Usually he's excited to see me and playful. Yesterday he was unimpressed by my appearance and fidgety and fussy. Nothing was making him happy. He'd been in a weird mood for the last couple of days, very clingy. But I blamed it on his six month shots. The doctor said six month shots were pretty awful. Weird for his moodiness to last two days, but possible. Usually if he's in a funk we can pick him up and walk him around and he snaps out of it. Not yesterday. Chris lucked out and was at the fire station last night. Isn't that amazing how that works? I chalked up his abnormal moodiness to being tired. So once we got home I put him down for a nap. He slept about an hour and woke up crying. COMPLETELY abnormal for little man. He usually wakes up bright eyed, bushy tailed. When I fed him he fussed during his whole meal. Feeding time is usually a peaceful time, E loves to eat! Red flag should've gone up then. His crying was intermittent, so I thought maybe his tummy hurt. After he finished his meal he was fairly easy to console. So we played for about 45 minutes, that's when the tears really started to flow. I picked him up and tried to calm him down, but NOTHING was working. I became frantic at this point. I started crying. It is the worst feeling hearing your baby screaming in pain and you can't console him. I called my mom (usually my saving grace). She answers, couldn't hear a single thing I was saying because I was crying with E. Finally she made out what I was saying and she suggested a warm bath. Why didn't I think of that?! Bath time came early. Once in the bath E calmed down. I did our usual routine. Soapy up, cleaned face, cleaned ears, felt for teeth. In that last little step I realized the root of all E's pain. A tooth had popped through his little gums. So unexpected. I make a ritual every night to check his gums. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that in the front of this gums I could see teeth coming in. But during our usual nightly gum checks I never felt any bumps. It's like it magically appeared over night. Definitely not what I expected. Being a new mommy all I'd heard is that their gums will swell, they will get bumpy, and usually they'll have diarrhea. So I was patiently waiting for the last two. I was going to be prepared...wrong. Poor baby. I felt like the worst mommy ever. How could I not think of that? I promise next time it will be the first thing I check.