Teething woes

Past 2 days had been living hell for me and K (almost)... Bean started to have fever on Tuesday morning and I stayed home to attend to her. I did not bring her to the doctor's since I am very sure Dr Tan will surely give Panadol syrup which we already have a bottle on standby. I sponged Bean with tap water and stripped her down to only her diapers. Also tried the cooling pad (which kept falling off). Ok her temperature went down. She was grouchy the whole of Tuesday but nothing I could not handle. We thought the fever was triggered by the 2nd dose of Pneumococcal jab she did the Sat before. By evening, her grouchiness got worse. Fussed, whined, cried, did everything unlike her usual behaviour. It was only then we deduced she was teething and hence felt the discomfort. She couldn't drink nor eat well. Each time she sucked on the bottle teat, she would drink hungrily only to stop herself promptly after she felt the pain and discomfort at her gums. It was so heartbreaking to see her like that. It was the worse night in the past 6 months she cried non-stop. We applied Bonjela on her gums and I think this made the pain worse and she screamed really hard whenever we did that. (I joked to K: So sometimes when we heard neighbour's baby crying badly, it could be due to teething eh?) She could not sleep well at all. She would sleep and wake up every 1-1.5 hours to cry starting from about 10pm. The whole family can't sleep at all. At 330am I was awakened by her cries and I went over to carry her. She was feverish again. Same thing, we stripped her down to only her diaper. This time I used ice wrapped in plastics bag covered with towel to rub her whole body and put the pack on her fore head. All done in our airconditioned room. Sounds very 狠心 but this is a very effective way to bring down her temperature. Better we do it now than the nurses do it at the hospital. Sorry Panadol syrup does not work anymore since she is on milk strike and forcing it down her throat with the syringe does not work every time. We were contemplating to bring her to Mount Alvernia A&E. 24 hour clinic was not a choice since they (highly possible) could be giving Panadol or refer us to KKH A&E. Anyway using the ice method, we were able to bring down her temperature. By this time it was almost 5am. I can't remember what happened next cuz I dozed off. K had to take the day off for her since we could not possibly send her to daycare and I can't possibly take yet another day off. I was getting ready to leave for work when K woke up and asked me to prepare cereal for Bean's breakfast. No choice. Since she could not suck from her bottle, we had to give her cereal early in the morning. Anything to fill up that little stomach which had not much food from the day before. Well, she did not want cereal too and cried so hard. We decided to bring her to the doctor's. While waiting for the Q, I went off to work. Later on I found out from K there was no medication given. Not even teething gel or tablet. They waited a long time and Dr Tan had no solution for us except to try to feed her slowly. (Dr Tan is a GP not a PD. We don't send Bean to PD.) K had a tough time the whole day. Bean keep wanting to be carried, refused to be put down, refused milk. He spoonfed her some milk and succeeded but he claimed that have to pour the milk into her usual Avent bottle if not she refuse to drink. Reason being: she will keep staring at the bottle to make sure is her milk and then when almost left 20ml she will call for stop (Bean has the habit to leave 20-40ml milk in the bottle. Trying to act lady and don't finish the whole bottle.) The other way to sooth her (besides continue to carry her) is to put her in her pram and bring her downstairs for walks. Haha the last walk I bumped into them while I was on my way back from work. K said that was the only way she can stop crying. By late evening things seemed to have gotten better (although she still rejected cereal and milk and still whiny) and I was able to put Bean to bed by 845pm. She slept only for 30min which gave us time to shower, hang her laundry and sterilise her bottles. Another 1hr+ to make her sleep again. This time she slept from 11pm all the way to 3am. K actually managed to bottle feed her 1 feed of milk and she continued to sleep till 7am after which the whole family woke up again. Me, my usual wake up time. K, to start to entertain Bean in case she cranky again. Truth is: He couldn't wait to "dump" her to daycare! Hehe. Anyway the worse part is over and she was feeling much better today. Feedback from the teachers in daycare, she wasn't her usual cheerful self but not too cranky either. Cereal and milk feed was ok but she drank lesser milk than usual. Best part is she slept all the way from 11am to 3pm. See how sleep deprived she is! She managed to eat half her cereal during dinner time. Slept at 915pm till now (1050pm). Now we are anticipating when she will wake up for her next feed. K has a night job tonight at 2am. Gosh I am on night shift tonight. Very fearful now!

P/S: By the way, the Heinz teething rusk wasn't very useful. Bean was not that interested in it and soon throw it aside.