My Little Buddy is teething right now, which means that he’s in tears a lot of the time, and I’m in tears some of the time (e.g. today). His boob preference (he prefers the left), which I have just about almost (barely) come to terms with, has turned into outright boob rejection. He would feed for just a few minutes (1-3 minutes), then pull away, then wail, and he would cry even harder and turn tomato-red if I try to put him back on my boob.

I try to burp him in all the various ways that different people have suggested. He would often burp and regurgitate what sometime seems like all my milk. I attempt to put him back on the boob, switching sides to tempt him with a fresh serving of milk. Wails again, pushes me away. Maybe he has a wet nappy – I change him. Then try to feed him again. Louder cries, pushes me away. I rub teething gel on his gums, or pour a satchet of Teetha into his mouth and soothe him. He quietens down, then starts smiling toothlessly at me – the tragedy of half a minute ago, forgotten. I try to feed him again (Mummy gets credit for persistence). Screams, pushes me away. I give up, and think: ‘Maybe he’ll eat more at the next feed’

The problem is, he doesn’t. And after several rounds of battle of wills, including some ineffectual shouting back on my part (“STFU!!”), my nerves are completely shredded and I end up in tears. The Boy tells me I shouldn’t cry over unspilt milk, since Baby will eat eventually, if / when he’s hungry. He won’t starve himself to death – especially not with my genes, he won’t! I’m sure he’s right. But emotionally, it’s difficult to accept.

Other casualties:
i) Baby has infected fingers: I clipped his nails too deeply (Ouch!) and now 3 of his fingers are infected. I’m putting topical antibiotics on GP’s prescription. I keep him in mittens all day to prevent him from ingesting the antibiotics, which is not ideal as this is the time when he’s supposed to be learning to grasp things, and also it means that he’s chewing on his mittens instead of his fists to alleviate his teething discomfort.

ii) Baby has infected toes: I did NOT clip his toe nails and now the nail of his big toes seem to have grown sufficiently long to begin to be ingrown. They look reddish and slightly swollen. So I’m also applying topical antibiotics on them, on my own initiative.

iii) Baby had a red, swollen tip of willy: This just happened once so far, yesterday evening. I think he spent too much time in soaked nappies (I’m using cloth nappies). I’ve put Sudocream on it and am using fleece liners to keep Baby’s bits dry. Little-Ao is looking aye-okay now.

iv) Mummy has eczema: As a result of my constant hand-washing and some additional washing (e.g. poo-ey nappies), my childhood finger-eczema seems to have returned – at least on one finger. I’m putting steroid cream (which GP had prescribed me after a bout of post-natal eczema that has subsided) on it and moisturising. I feel abused by the Little Bug 🙁

v) Baby got his 3rd set of inoculations today: He’ll now have a break from jabs until he’s 12-13 months. Yay!