Tristan is teething!

Jean-Louis noticed a small white tooth coming out at the bottom of his gums this weekend. Today, it is clearly visible. He's a big crank today too so I can't stop thinking about the pain he might be feeling as a result of teething.

We felt his gums awhile ago and didn't feel anything and we haven't bothered since. We're not sure exactly when his first teeth started to poke out. Now, that I think about it the last 2 weeks, Tristan has been showing a few signs of teething. Well, he has been drooling and gnawing on stuff for months but he's been doing it more lately. One and a half weeks ago, Jean-Louis got sick and I was scared that he would give his sickness to Tristan and I. When Tristan had a coarse voice, was extra fussy, had a hot temperature and a bit of diarrhea, I thought he was sick. We were measuring his temperature but it was never to the point of a fever. I guess you can say he had a slight fever but now he is better. At the time, I was starting to feel a bit sick myself and had the chills. It turned out I was actually coming down with another breast infection. So we weren't getting sick, but the timing of everything seemed like Jean-Louis passed on his illness to us.

Tristan now has a chin rash. It appeared a day or so ago. He is also sticking his tongue out a lot. What he is doing is actually feeling the tooth with his tongue because he is curious. I find it so interesting that he is such a typical baby. After all, why wouldn't he be? For some reason, I keep thinking he is different sort of like how I think I am different.

I'm not sure whether to give Tristan something to help relieve his pain from teething. The problem is I don't know how much pain he is in or if he is just fussy because he wants attention or is going through separation anxiety. It could be so many things really. Anyway, I would like to resist giving him Tylenol or anything until I know he really needs it. I want him to deal with the pain on his own because this could go on for awhile and I don't want him to be dependent on drugs. Usually, the pain is just hard to deal with for the very first tooth and then for the first molar but every child is different too.

To help Tristan right now, we have lots of teething toys and rings for him. I refrigerate some of them too before giving it to him. I also let him bite on a clean washcloth that I wet under cold water. Now that I know he is teething, I do spend a bit more time comforting him during the day. I'll continue to hold him a bit more until he can get past this hurdle. We are lucky to have sleep trained him before all this happened. Phew!