Cutting Up and Out

Ellie started cutting her first tooth yesterday (apparently I was mistaken before). It's a sharp little nub on her lower right center. She's handled it with no fuss except she seemed to have trouble sleeping last night. She woke up 90 minutes after going to bed – during which time there were several near wake-ups, and then 90 minutes again after that. The second time was mere seconds after I had laid my head down for the night. She does seem to have a 6th sense about these things.... The second time, I figured I'd try to be proactive and I grabbed the Orajel before I went in. She only nursed for 6 minutes and never opened her eyes, so when it seemed like she was really out, I jabbed some Orajel in her pie-hole to hopefully numb the nub. She didn't take the intrusion kindly and I suspect she doesn't like the flavor or possibly the numb tongue sensation. It's the "natural" Orajel with the main active ingredient being clove oil. I tasted it a little this morning after she fussed about it again. It tastes a little like licorice, which is one of my least favorite flavors. So, maybe she takes after me. Luckily, the flavor dissipates pretty quickly. And, after getting Orajel-ed last night, she slept for 4.5 hours and then another 3. Which was good, since Mom doesn't handle 90 minute intervals well. Hopefully the morning nap will be of the longer variety also...

We also have eliminated the nipple shield finally (I hope). We've only used it once in about 36 hours and that was because she was incredibly fussy. In that instance, she wasn't rejecting naked boob, she had some really stubborn gas that the magic baby hold got rid of. The timing is good though because we're supposed to fly to a wedding in a few weeks. And, while we've learned how to keep the nipple shields on hand and clean at home, traveling with them is a pain since they must be cleaned and packed away constantly. Naked boob is much much much easier. She was getting to the point where she was playing with it an awful lot. She'd blow into it and also peel it off and chew on it like a pacifier. As a matter of fact, I'll probably keep it in the diaper bag for a supervised diversion.