One of the Worst Parts of Motherhood

I really hate seeing Aden in pain. Especially when it's something I can't fix. It's so hard seeing him cry and scream, all inconsolably ... and there isn't much in my power to fix it. I do all I can, and he's still hurting ... and I'm out of ideas. It's awful.

Today, I discovered Aden's one-year molars are breaking through. He got up from a nap, and he was PISSED. We changed his bum, gave him cold juice, took his shirt off to cool him down (it's a good 30 degrees in here) ... and nothing helped. He was screaming and crying and rolling around on the floor ... it was so awful to watch. He's not normally a whiney kid, so we knew something must be wrong. We did not, however, know what it was.

Richard picked Aden up, and he spotted Richard's tape measure on the shelf. He wanted it, so, because he was so upset, Richard gave it to him. Aden started gnawing on it immediately. Richard pointed out that that wasn't something necessarily normal for him, so I felt around in his mouth. I knew he had a front tooth pop through a few days ago, but that shouldn't be bugging him anymore.

Sure enough, two little points in the back of his mouth told me his one-year molars were coming out. GREAT. We gave him a teether that was still in the freezer from the last teeth, but since it really only reaches the front ones, it didn't help. We served him dinner as usual, but he wouldn't eat it. No way. I gave him a different teether from the fridge, and it reached further back, but he still didn't want it.

I tossed some of his longer spoons in the freezer, and have some yogurts ready to be frozen with spoons in them (like a popsicle) ... but those won't be ready until tomorrow. Tonight, nothing we could do really helped. We gave him some Tylenol ... but that is all we can do.

Bed time was the worst. After giving him that Tylenol, I laid him in bed, gave him his water, gave him a kiss ... and he was just bawling and reaching out to me. I tried to comfort him without picking him up, but nope, he didn't want that. He just bawled and bawled, and my heart just broke and broke. I hate when he cries. It's the worst when there's nothing I can do to help. After turning our backs on him and turning out his light and stuff, I just ... cried. I wish I could help.

And THAT is one of the hardest parts of motherhood.