We've had what seems like three weeks of tooth pain hell and it's not over yet! My poor little boy has had his first premolar come out about ten days ago and the second one is on its way. I've never ever seen Yannick cry so badly before. When the pain strikes he tenses up completely and starts to throw his little body everywhere (and hurts himself that way too). And of course the siren comes on; this is the worst part of it as it drowns out any coherent thought you might have. All we can do is give him some paracetamol fast - which I actually hate doing, but it's the only way to make him feel better and let him sleep. It takes about 45 to 60 minutes to really kick in. The paracetamol also helps with the slight temperature that he is running every now and then due to the teething.

Side effect is that when Yannick is not on paracetamol he often is very clingy and won't even allow me to stand up without him. This is very tough as I need to carry my 10kg baby while making food or similar. Thank goodness for baby wearing, without the pouch this would be impossible. I've given up on preparing dinner or doing much house keeping (apart from laundry and toilet cleaning…). Frank has taken on dinners (and is still on hoover duty), the rest has to wait.

The weird thing is that he's had all of his incisors (for a while already) but there's no sign of the canines yet.

Update: Looked up teething in the Wikipedia and it seems to be quite normal that the premolars appear before the canines.

The last nights were trying. Yannick either only slept in very short intervals, like 30-60 minutes or he was totally awake with pain. Poor child. Then of course during the day he had to catch up on lost sleep and slept for two to three hours at midday - but of course I had to stay close for the first one or two hours to get him there. I am not even sure which teeth are getting to him, it could be the top middle ones or some of the other teeth moving around in the gums. In any case he is a bit cranky during the day as well now that my mum has left for home again and there's less attention. With the days getting shorter we are not really able to do much after the long midday sleep. This whole situation gives you a headache at best.

On top of that, Yannick has completely changed his daytime sleeping patterns. He used to be awake for two hours, then sleep for 30 to 90 minutes, depending on whether I'd be there with him or not. Now he can stay awake for three to four hours. Sometimes he even manages five hours. It's weird and tiring for mummy as fire hours of being awake mean a meltdown at bedtime.