Teething Bites into Parents’ Sleep

Dear Sleep,

How are you, old friend? I hope life is treating you well, as I lay awake at night, readying myself for the next scream of pain coming from the room of my 1-year old.

What’s the problem, you ask? Have you heard of this thing that babies do, it’s called teething? Oh, you have? Good. Then you should know where I’m coming from, ears ringing from teeth fighting, clawing, scratching and tearing their way through my kid’s gums.

You’d like to know exactly what’s happening? Well, friend that I see all too little of anymore, it’s simple really. Our youngest daughter has three of those little demon teeth pushing their way through her gentle baby-gums AT THE SAME TIME. Those demon teeth are pushing her temperature sky-high, making her uncomfortable at every turn, forcing her to scream for mercy. She just wants relief, Sleep. That’s all she wants. She wants those teeth to stop imposing their will on her gum-line. Just pop through and be done with it, DEMON TEETH!

Let me tell you, Sleep, this whole teething thing is for the birds. Just last night was the worst we’ve experienced to this point. The clock struck 12 and the demons came to play. One whimper turned to an hour of screaming. Then to a short amount of sleep, back to an hour of screaming, back to short amount of sleep, and on and on and on it went until the wee hours of the morning. No amount of Advil or Tylenol or Orajel could soothe her. Shortly before the alarm clock beeped to wake us for the day, our poor little girl finally fell into your awaiting arms, Sleep.

One day, this whole teething world will be a thing of the past and all of us will finally be able to re-connect with you, Sleep. It will be a joyous occasion. One where we all well-rested and free of pain and demon teeth. Until then, dear friend, rest easy and be well.

Yours in exhaustion,

Nick

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nick Browne is member of our Philadelphia Dads Group. He is a dad to two daughters and writes the parenting site PapaBrownie.com, where a version of this first appeared. Photo via photopin (license)