Teething?

Evie slept with us on bed last night. She had been waking few times after she settled for night sleep at 9. Her Dada decided to keep her with us because it might help her get a good sleep. But still, she fussed a little bit. The patting and with her knowledge that she's beside us kept her get a better sleep.

It's almost been a week now that she showed teething symptoms...well, aside from drooling which started when she was only 2 months old. The drooling seems endless. As far as the symptoms go, she has:

• low grade fever - Just holding her gave us a clue that her temperature is not normal. It goes on and off.

• eating problem - Her appetite waned. Normally, she eats 5oz each feeding. It went down to 4oz. But, there are times of the day where she ate 5oz (which made us rejoice!). I also noticed that when she's sucking the nipple, it looks like she covers her lower gum with her tongue. A lot of times she pushed away the bottle after few sips, and then, grabbed the bottle back to her mouth, acting so hungry. Sometimes, she'd only put the upper part of the nipple in her mouth while sucking.
  
  
• clingy and irritability moments - Most of the time she wants to be held and would insist it. She would cry if we don't immediately pick her up at the first signs that she wants attention.
  
  
• pleasure with chilled teethers - At times when she cried, we gave her a frozen teether. Amazingly, the bawling stopped once she chewed the chilled rubber. Her actions and the enjoyment she felt with something "cold" in her mouth is very evident on her face. She looked relieved and happy.
  
  
• perpetual chewing/biting - Anything that she grabs goes to her mouth. She's manifesting an interest and insistence of wanting to chew on something she has on her hand. She even wanted to chew on her Dada's cheeks and nose. Our fingers most of all are not exempted. So, keeping the hands clean is very necessary with a teething baby.
  
  
• ear rubbing - She has been rubbing her ears more frequently than normal. Many times she'd end up pulling the neckline of her onesie.
  
  
• crying while asleep - As I wrote this blog, she's asleep and few times cried while eyes are closed. This has been the scenario for few nights now. By the sound of her cry, I can tell that she's in pain. As her eyes were shut, she continued making low sounding cries and sobbing occasionally.

I do not have a clue when her first tooth comes out. I wish it would be sooner so that she no longer has to go through the discomforts longer. On the other hand, this stage of her growth teaches me PATIENCE. Taking care of a teething baby is a little bit challenging. The thing that needs the most effort for my part is the feeding. As much as she shows disinterest with food, I need to make sure that she is eating enough. I have to think of ways on how to resolve the obstacles. So far, the initiatives work.