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Diary Of A New Mum -
Week 24

Tedious teething!

This week Jessica-Ann has been displaying all the signs of teething – dribbling like Homer Simpson, chewing her hands, and griping constantly. Her cheeks have a rosy hue – another classic sign – and when we rub the teething gel onto her little gums you can feel the ridges already starting to appear.

My heart goes out to her, it really does. I remember when my own wisdom teeth were coming through, and the pain was horrible; nagging and dull, ever-present and tedious. When you think about it, babies do really well with their teeth. All those sharp little molars pushing through the skin, it must be agony!

Still, this week I found the sound of her griping cry about as painful as those wisdom teeth I mentioned. I know it’s not her fault. I know she’s only baby. But I found myself thinking on more than one occasion that the screaming of the colic days was actually preferable to the constant moaning of teething.

And then Friday arrived. Jess was all set up in her little chair ready for her lunch, which is usually a happy and easy meal. I gave her some milk first. Fine. Then I gave her a mouthful of my lovingly prepared parsnip, cauliflower and potato medley. She chewed it. She swallowed it. Then she screwed up her face and proceeded to scream the house down for the next fifteen minutes!

I didn’t know what to do. It has been, literally, ages since she’s cried like that. In fact, she’s never cried like that before because she is older now and, therefore, stronger and louder. Boy, she can scream! All I could do was carry her around and around the house, telling her it was okay, while thinking, ‘What the hell is going on here?’

I still have no idea. Eventually she calmed down enough for me to try again, but she wasn’t interested in the food anymore. Should I offer her something different, I thought? And there I was, suddenly transformed into the kind of parent who says, ‘If you were hungry, you’d eat it!’ Except, I was saying this to a five and a half month old baby, not a five and half year old child!

So feeding isn’t going to be the breeze I’d thought it was. Maybe her gums were hurting, maybe she just didn’t like my offering. Whatever. Until she can speak to me I guess I’ll never know. But the next day she downed her green vegetables like she was starving, so go figure.

The screaming fit left me more shaken than Jess, though. She was all smiles a few minutes later, while I was a gibbering wreck. I even phoned Paul to come home early from work (as it was a Friday he didn’t mind too much). What did I think he could do? No idea. It’s just hard, I told him later over a very large glass of wine, when she is screaming and you don’t know what to do. But, that’s parenting. I suppose I’ve still got a lot to learn…

Diary Of A New Mum - Week 25
Babies And Boats
In which we decide to buy a narrowboat for weekending - despite the fact that many people think we are mad to take a baby on board!

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