Teething Troubles

When Grace got her first tooth at 6 months, the only issue she had was some extra drooling. Then her first molar started coming up about a month ago and I braced myself for some trouble as I have heard the molars can be tough ones, but that turned out to be no problem either. The second molar though, along with all the canines, are proving to be a bit more difficult. She always has a finger/hand in her mouth and she wakes up crying in the middle of the night. I'm convinced it's teething pain because it's a different kind of cry than the normal 'I just woke up and can't go back to sleep' cry. Poor baby.

A friend suggested giving her a toothbrush to chew on to help relieve the pain and Grace loves it. She also loves having her bib on all the time, almost like an accessory to her outfit. The bib wearing is a little ironic though since I'm having a hard time getting her to eat consistently right now. Some meals she'll impress me with how much she eats and other times, she'll hardly eat anything at all. I think part of it has to do with teething, but mostly it's just a phase. At least that's what I keep reading when I've tried to research ways to encourage a picky toddler to eat.

I hope she outgrows the picky phase soon. Mealtimes for me have become a source of unexpected stress. What do I make her that I know she'll eat? Pray, pray, pray that she'll eat it. Sometimes, even if she devoured the meal before, if I offer it again, she'll refuse to touch it. It's so exasperating!

She fell into her toy basket and instead of immediately getting out, she hung out and relaxed in there for a while.