Sleep regression and 2 teeth for Christmas !

Teething is horrendous it's awful and stressful and has left me in tears,mainly because I can't take the pain from her when she's screaming , and the fact she uses my boob as a teether. Its especially hard when your both shattered and she has lost all patience with the constant ache in her gums (I write this whilst trying to pacify my growling , yes growling 4 month old to sleep). What tips have I for a teething baby? to be honest not many! use scratch mittens as they claw at their own little faces in desperation fighting tiredness and sheer miserableness.

I should put 3/4 months sleep regression to be honest. I don't quite know what happened to our bedtime routine. I honestly feel like we had a solid routine by the time Emelia was about 4 weeks old ! I knew when she would nap when she would have her feeds I bathed her everyday at the same time, and even if we couldn't quite do her routine to the dot due to being out she soon slotted back into it the next day ,and it wouldn't affect her at all. I guess it was a bit of a shock to the system when at nearly 4 months Emelia just stopped sleeping. It literally felt like some days she hadn't slept at all .. and I didn't know how such a little person could manage on no sleep never mind myself ! ..although I was still feeding at night she would of before happily been layed back down in her crib and gone back to sleep pretty much instantly, whereas now it is taking a lot more work to get her to resettle. Some nights she just wants holding. All night! I understand that there are many reasons as to why a baby stops sleeping , or seems unsettled but as there parent you are conditioned and made to fix that problem (whatever it may be). I can tell you now as a parent this impossible baby diagnosing thing is exactly that. Impossible, when you dont know the cause of the "problem" or why suddenly out of the blue this has happened. A manual would be handy. I'm not going to lie I even questioned wether I was feeding her enough or if she was half starving and I didn't realise (completely irrational but I guess somewhat possible if she was going through a growth spurt.) I sanctioned myself to just going with the flow and just seeing how things went and then on Friday of last week completely out of the blue I noticed Emelia's first tooth had cut through! I honestly couldn't believe it . I mean the signs were all there with the crankiness, dribbling and hands in the mouth, but I know how long other babies go through teething and nothing comes of it till much later on. Since 10 weeks we have had all the signs and symptoms and I've brought so many different things to help ease discomfort for her. I would say as a quick fix product Ashton and parsons teething powders seem to help so well and almost instantly aswell. I have attached a picture of the box at the bottom of this post just because it can sometimes be quite hard to find. But as soon as the tooth has cut it seems as though a switch has been pressed and she is so much more content, rather than being generally wingey and unsettled, These little toothy pegs have a lot to answer for !

I am so glad that I began to write this blog post before we had reached a resolution because it really does go to show that sometimes you really do have no idea where things are going! Teething really is hard work on baby and mum, especially if they are suffering with pain. This I think goes hand in hand with sleep regression because of the discomfort. On googling what a "sleep regression is" it is simply explained as when a normally well sleeping baby suddenly starts to wake regularly for no apparent reason. Emelia's was definitely down to her teeth, and on speaking to other mums whose babies are similar ages this seems a common trend. Honestly toothache is bad enough for an adult so I can imagine how uncomfortable it must be for little ones even when they are just starting to descend.

As Emelia approaches 5 months I am getting her settled back into a night time routine, she has her bath and then feeds before settling back down. Her second tooth has just cut and we had a slight regression again however it seems to be panning out.

My top tips would be..

Have something that they really love to chew on handy, funnily enough Emelia has several teether toys but her favourite is the nose of her blue elephant ! Poor guy!

Anbesol liquid/bongela, good to apply before a feed if your breastfeeding

Ride the storm and keep busy, this helps you both keeps you sane and distracts baby.

Remember its just a phase and you will turn a corner.


Thankyou though for all the great tips people sent me about teething though because they really have worked well.
Robyn x