Teething Bites

It really, really does. The little one has been very cranky since the whole process began but thankfully some days are better than others. Some days you simply can't get anything done because she's very needy and clingy when it hurts the most. Who wouldn't be? She has also taken to chewing her hands all.the.time and she's so aggressive too! It would be no problem for us and we wouldn't care at all since it does comfort her but she has SUCH a strong gag reflex that she gags 100% of the time and all her food comes up. The reflex is caused by her spending so much time with the vent and feeding tube down her throat and it happens when she's trying to "talk" too since she uses some of the same muscles. Therapy should help with this and it is a very common problem among preemies. If she spits up these days, 9 times of 10 it's due to her sticking her hands in her mouth. We have been spending a lot of time holding her hands and playing with her hoping to distract her but the second you stop, she gags herself. Yesterday I changed her and went to wash my hands and she gagged in the minute I was gone.

Finally, this was the solution that we came up with:


We used those after she came home and was scratching her face all the time. I was not her favourite person after I put them on but she's had them on most of the morning and has not gagged once. She's still sucking but can't get her fingers into her mouth. She gets so frustrated when it happens, especially when she's squealing and laughing. It's as if she's saying, "Why does that keep happening? All I want to do is talk and chew my hands!"

As my friend Rebecca said, "Being a baby is *almost* as hard as being a Mommy." How true.