I’m amazed that my mommy denial led to the following events:
Benoit’s parents were here a couple of weeks ago visiting from France. Along with the usual grandparent advice and remedies they offered to us parents of a non-napping child, my father-in-law made the case that perhaps Gianna was teething. Since we had just been to the pediatrician a week before they arrived and the doctor had assured us Gianna’s drooling and sucking on her fingers was completely normal, we thought nothing of them. In fact, it may have been nothing more than coincidence that her grandfather called it teething and then a tooth popped up two weeks later. After all, she didn’t have a fever, didn’t cry uncontrollably, didn’t have diarrhea or any of the other symptoms of teething. No, it seemed the sucking on her hands was just the organic version of a pacifier and the drool, the commencement of the salivary glands like the doctor predicted. But, the other day, she finally allowed me a glimpse into that lower jaw space and I clearly saw the grain of rice everyone tells me is surely a tooth. And, then I shook my head that I allowed myself to believe more in the baby books that predict first teeth only at 6 months rather than listening to my baby and her knowledgeable family members.
So, at 3 months and 2 weeks Gianna has sprouted her first tooth and she did it with such aplomb, such confident nonchalance I have hope this whole teething business will be a piece of cake! (Yes, I’m knocking on wood as I type this.)
**Update: I didn’t knock on wood hard enough and the past two days now, in the time it took for me to report these events, Gianna has been waking three times a night looking for comfort and has been fussy with loose poopies and diaper rash. Yay! I’m off to find some good ole Hyland’s Teething Tablets (much to the chagrin of my aunt Karen who thinks Dr. Jack Daniels ought to be paged from the liquor cabinet before bedtime).
