where's the pain?

This week has been BEYOND rough. Probably one of the most challenging weeks thus far for this wife and mama to two babes. I am already quite exhausted at the end of the day after being up a few times a night to nurse Evie then to work all day and, on Monday's, go to class for 4 hours. Evie has been trying to get over a cold for nearly two weeks now. On Monday we thought she was surely turning a corner and starting to feel much better. Then Monday night after daycare she became more stuffy and upset than she had since the cold began. B and I rolled it off our shoulders, I kept sucking her nose out, using saline spray and doing what we could to keep her comfortable. That night, however, she was up ALL NIGHT LONG. Crying, arching her back, fussing in her sleep. There was no consoling her. She was in pain. I gave her tylenol, rocked her, nursed her, swaddled, un-swaddled...we tried everything and nothing was working. Evie would fall asleep between spurts of pain and discomfort. The night was rough and by morning I'd barely had 3 hours of sleep and had to go to work.

I dropped her off with her daycare lady with some more tylenol and instructions to call if she needed to. Evie had a good day. No phone calls. Huh. Maybe it's just a fluke? Nope. Tuesday night she continued to reel in pain. B and I took shifts with her. She didn't have a fever and otherwise, no other signs or symptoms to indicate that something was seriously wrong. I made plans to take her to the doctor Wednesday morning. She was checked out and given a clean bill of health other than getting over a cold. No ear infection, either. So now what?

Thursday morning we were becoming increasingly worried. Evie's crying and lack of sleep was becoming more worrisome. I dropped her off at daycare and told our provider to call if she cried more than 10 minutes. She called me within an hour of my arrival to work. I called her doctor and with that I was on my way to pick her up and take her to the ER.

B met me there. We did not have to wait long which was nice. We went through the normal check in process while I was trying to keep the knot in my throat from coming up. I was terrified. What in the world could be causing my sweet baby so much pain?!

The ER doctor came in, checked her out and confirmed once again that her ears were clear. She had vomited that morning so we could only think that something was going on in her tummy. We did an abdominal xray and thankfully, no issues there. Not even noticeable gas bubbles! After four hours, we left without any clue as to what was ailing our sweet babe. We laid on the couch, snuggled. B got some more gas drops for her and that seemed to help. She slept better, only waking to nurse every 3 hours. 

Then this morning while I was changing her diaper, she was happily trying to shove her toes into her mouth and I thought I should feel around in there. Where there had been nothing the day before, was now the edge of a tooth. That's right, friends, this girl was in so much pain all from a tooth! We can see and feel it now. It was NOT there yesterday and even the ER doctor said that he did not think that a little baby could be in that much pain just from teething. Well, she was.

And now we know. I really hope that every time she gets a tooth that it is not this hard on her or us. I had actually made up my mind that teething was really not that big of a deal. Logan never had a hard time until he got molars.

So, Evelyn has rounded her 5 month birthday with not only having rolled over for the first time on Sunday, but by also getting her first tooth! A full 4 months sooner than her brother.