First tooth!!!!!!!

Well, we now have our explanation for why Keenan has been sounding and acting like he was just stabbed by the witch king on Weathertop!!!! He’s cut his first tooth at 16 weeks + a day! That’s about 2 months ahead of schedule. I spotted the tooth this afternoon when Keenan and I were settling into a feeding session. He opened his mouth wide and I noticed the jagged little white protuberance in his lower gums near the front and just off center. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I poked my finger around in his mouth, which didn’t please him much since he already had his eyes on the boob. I have to admit that sharp little tooth didn’t make me feel too happy about sticking my boob in there! It’s pretty tiny though (the tooth, my boobs are huge) and I didn’t end up feeling it after all.

Sean and I have recently had the solid foods discussion (as in when we are going to start Keenan on them). The mid wives here have told us that we could start him on juice at 2 months, soups at 3 and solids at 4 months. That might explain why Japanese babies are so round. The hospital has been really good with our views on when to introduce solids. We have decided on letting Keenan take the lead but we both agree that we’d like me to breast feed Keenan exclusively until 6 months. Everything we’ve read clearly identifies that babies don’t have the digestive system for solids until around then and they usually don’t cut their first tooth until that time anyways. I’m not sure if that theory works the other way around but like I said we’re going to let Keenan lead us in the right direction. If he seems like he’s not being kept satisfied with the breast milk then we’ll start the solids earlier.

So this first tooth explains a few other things too. As of this week bibs have become a permanent addition to Keenan’s daytime attire. He drools a nearly obscene amount of oob and it gets everywhere. He likes to chew on the bibs too so they serve as a convenient, tethered down teething device. Everything he can get into his mouth he sucks on. My shoulder, Sean’s fingers, all his toys, the shoulder straps on his car seat. Two days ago I found him on his side in his crib sucking his own forearm. I can’t wait to tell his first girl friend that he gave himself his first hicky! He’s been chewing on his tongue and rolling it around his gums non-stop the last two days. And he’s been breast-feeding like crazy. Probably because it feels good on his tender gums. It’s been impossible to get him to nap for more than 5 minutes for the last 7 to 10 days. He gets himself so worn out that he goes to sleep by 6:30 pm, gets up for a 2 am feed and diaper change then sleeps until 5 or 6, and then I bring him into our bed and he gets fed again and sleeps until 7 or 8 am. I’m pretty sure that even the weather has changed for the better because of this tooth!!

Keenan was carrying on this evening with the “eeehhhh, eeeehhhh, eeeehhhh”, “eeeeeeeeeyaaaaeeeehhh” business so we dug out the Anbesol I asked Pat to bring for us (thank you, thank you, thank you!!!) and put a wee bit on his gums around his new tooth. Poor guy, the first thing he gets to taste other than breast milk is yucky Anbesol. He pulled a very unhappy face but then the pain went away and he started in with the yawning. He was so tired that he didn’t even finish one boob and he was conked out. He was totally limp and sound asleep by 6:10 and I don’t suspect we’ll hear from him again before midnight. Poor boy, vaccines last week and his first tooth this week. Maybe I’ll make him some breast milk popsicles to make him feel better!