7 down, 13 to go

My finger, feeling for new teeth

For the past two weeks, Zeben has been teething. Actually, I suppose he's probably technically been teething for his whole life, for the past 16 months, 3 weeks, and 1 day. But it wasn't really until a couple of weeks ago that the teething really took over our experience of life with this otherwise bouncy and chipper little guy.

There are extra tears, and extra melt-downs, and extra high-pitched screaming episodes. But the main symptom of Zeben's erupting teeth is lots and lots and lots of extra nursing. He is nursing pretty much all night long, and at least 30 times a day--no exaggeration! Aside from the occasional banana binge, Zeb is still nearly exclusively breastfed, so some part of this huge amount of time spent at the breast is certainly due to nutrition. But I never could have imagined that he could nurse as often and for as long as he has been lately. Some days he pretty much just nurses all day long. He is happy when he's nursing, and for the time being my nipples are mostly up to the task, so I guess I should just feel grateful that I have this perfect solution literally built-in to my body. But while I do feel a huge amount of appreciation for my breasts these days, there are also times when I feel a bit exasperated and fantasize about being able to temporarily remove them and leave Zeben blissfully nursing without having to hold him in my lap.

One new tooth has appeared so far, bringing the total tooth count up to 7. There are 13 more to come. Hopefully, at least a few more of them will appear within the next week or so since it's hard to fathom that all this fuss and neediness has been due to one measly little tooth.

Along with his newfound love of breastfeeding, Zeben has developed a new appreciation for his amber teething necklace. The thought behind the teething necklace is that the baltic amber is said to act as a natural anti-inflammatory and provide pain relief within the vicinity of the necklace. So, a baby wearing amber around his neck should feel some reduction in the pain associated with teething. The necklace is not meant to act as a teether itself. But Zeben doesn't know that.


I'm sure letting him gnaw on his necklace is both dangerous and likely to lead to the necklace breaking apart, but it's hard to stop him from doing anything that makes him smile these days, especially when it has nothing to do with my breasts!