First Molars BITE!

Isabelle is a very happy baby with one of the most cheerful dispositions (so we have been told) that a 14 month old could ever have but that disposition has been leaning more towards Bi Polar the past few days...ever since those molars of hers decided to officially cut through and show themselves.

Since we were all blessed with Isabelle having a pain free teething process for her first 8 teeth, three days ago we did not think that she was hmmm lets call it "moody", because she was cutting her molars. Now she had been drooling quite a bit but she wasn't gnawing on her hands, furniture, her dog, sidewalks, trees or anything else that really triggered us to think that this is what it was. If anything we thought that her ear infection and cold she had 2 weeks ago might be coming back!

On Tuesday she hadn't eaten much all day but again, that didn't ring any bells since she is not that big of an eater to begin with. She was sort of clingy, playing with her ears a bit and was getting easily frustrated when her toys wouldn't "work" for her. Later that evening I noticed that she felt really warm so I took her temp; 102.6 in one ear and 101.9 in the other so immediately I started pumping Tylenol in her. That night we could have sworn we were back to having a newborn in the house. I put her down just before 8pm and she was up every hour to two hours just sobbing. We would give her more Tylenol as soon as 6 hours passed, and even tried Triaminic in case it was a cold, but still nothing seemed to soothe her. I would be rocking her in her room with lullaby music playing and she would be crying with her eyes closed, tossing and turning in my arms just trying to get comfortable to go back to sleep. Michael and I felt completely helpless and just wanted our baby girl to feel better. After a 2:30am wake up, she finally went down and stayed down until 6am. Since I was already up getting ready for work, I got her and put her in bed with Michael. So with a bottle to fill her belly and her Papa at her side, she fell asleep for another 3 hours and woke up as her usual chipper self....like that night of pain never even happened.

That day, Wednesday, she was with Grandmama all day and was running all around her house as usual but about 2 hours into it, the fussing started up again. Mom gave her some more Tylenol and a bottle (again, she hadn't eaten much) and Isabelle went down for a 2.5 hour nap. We thought about taking her to the doctor but decided to wait it out. Mom brought her back to the office for the hand off and then Isabelle and I headed to the store so I could get her Motrin to take in conjunction with the Tylenol, since she still had a low grade fever. We got to the store and grabbed the Motrin and some more Tylenol and as we headed for the cash register, Isabelle started crying, I mean huge crocodile tear sobbing. Again...helpless! Nothing I did would make her stop...car keys? my wallet? the Motrin box? Nothing :( The guy in front of us gave a consoling smile and told her it was alright and when I told him that we think she is cutting her molars and may have an ear infection, he said he did not envy us a bit. Needless to say, the moment we got to the car I couldn't get the Motrin out fast enough. The every four hour Tylenol/Motrin switch seemed to work (thanks for the suggestion Caryn), along with chewing on Otter Pops. Her fever broke completely and that night she only woke up twice. However after the second time, I pulled her into bed with us. She tossed and turned a little bit and fussed a few times but it was so much easier to put a hand on her back and "shush" her back to sleep before she woke herself up completely.

The next morning I called and got her a doctors appointment just in case it was more than just her teeth. In a very good mood, Isabelle went to daycare for a few hours and when Michael picked her up to take her to the doctor's, she had eaten, took a good nap and didn't fuss once. The doctor gave her a clean bill of health and off we went. That night she was in bed at 8:00pm and slept till 8:30am the next morning...right back to her old routine :)

Now when you get a really big laugh out of her, you can see three out of the four newest editions to her mouth. Did you all get that? Three out of four...yes, we still have one more of that set to go plus whenever the other molars and her eyeteeth decide to come in! OUCH!