Midnight Molar Meltdown

Exhibit A: short-tempered
[excuse poor-quality cell phone pic]

Monday night Merit woke up screaming.

I went to him and found him more distraught than ever before. He was screaming. He was flailing. He wouldn't try to talk. He wouldn't look at me. I couldn't tell if he had had a bad dream and was scared or upset with me or if it was something else. I had noticed some short-tempered behaviors and other things that made me think his molars were coming in. He had been refusing food and putting his fingers in his mouth a lot.

I tried to comfort him and offered him everything I could think of to get him to calm down. Finally, he started asking for 'daddy' through a weirdly stiff mouth.

My heart was breaking for the boy. I could tell he was in a tremendous amount of pain. I would kiss him on the cheek and he would scream even louder. Kicking and flailing.

We brought him into our bed. We put clove oil [natural numbing oil] on his teeth. We tried to give him ice water [a favorite], tried to get him to take his medicine [tastes like candy]. After more screaming we just held him down and poured it into his mouth.

He would ask for ice water, and then throw it when he got it. We began to offer anything we could think of to help. Favorite toys, blankie, ice, cold wash cloth, milk, food, ice cream. Every time he would say he wanted it and then refuse to put anything in his mouth.

I finally snuck a spoonful of ice cream [pureed frozen bananas] in his mouth. I knew it would help his gums. He ate more.

He finally began to calm down, after almost an hour of screaming. He asked for more ice cream. Progress!

I will never forget that: all of us in our bed, in the dark, feeding him ice cream. 

Eventually we got him calmed down and he drifted off to sleep with us. He tried to roll over and couldn't and that woke him back up. He asked to be held, so I stood, rocking him, until he fell asleep in my arms. I took him back to his bed this time. He woke up just before I closed his door and wanted back in our bed. The compromise was that I would sleep with him. He was happy and slept the rest of the night. He slept in a little too.

I woke up a little after 4am and found him sleeping on the floor, flat on his back, alongside the bed. I was afraid of what would happen if I woke him up, so I left him there and went back to my own bed.

The days since have been pretty normal. He is more short-tempered and quicker to meltdown than normal. We have been giving medicine before bed to get through the nights. After these 2 molars are through, Merit will be done with teething!

And we'll start all over again with Lee.