Help...Rafe has started teething!

Just when the three month growth spurt and sleep regression ended and we started to get used to having a happier baby and (marginally) more sleep...BAM! Rafe starts teething. Now if Rafe is going to get teeth anything like mummies (large and a bit horsey...although the recent trend for having massive veneers has made them more acceptable...) then it's going to be a painful process.

Last Wednesday the hell began. Rafe cried for the entire day, he didn't take a nap longer than 20 minutes and left me on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Luckily daddy was day off (not so lucky for daddy) so we had some moral support, which basically someone to hold my screaming child while I went to the bathroom for a five minute cry.
On top of the screaming Rafe barely ate the entire day. He had one large feed in the morning then two smaller ones, the last being a 5:30pm. This completely stressed me out aswell seeing as he recently dropped a percentile and I was already concerned about his weight, plus I didn't want him to get dehydrated. We checked his temperature which was fine, but then in the evening he started trying to chomp anything and everything that went near his mouth. We finally twigged he must be teething (yeah we are a bit thick, first time parents) so Rick had a late night trip to Tesco to get some anbesol teething gel. I usually don't like to give Rafe Calpol too often but I did give him some that evening and then finally...after Anbesol application, Calpol, much swaying and mummies singing, he FINALLY went to sleep...at 10pm! You never quite understand the value of complete silence until you have been dealing with a screaming child all day!

He slept through until 4:30am and had a big feed (thank God) and then went back to sleep. By this point my boobs were in agony and I was starting to resemble Pamela Anderson from his lack of feeding so I was up and pumping in the lounge at 5am. The early start meant I managed to get a workout done and some (quiet) cleaning and then Rafe eventually woke up about 7am. When I changed his nappy I noticed his urine was dark (panick!) I checked his fontanelle and it wasn't sunken and he was pretty happy in himself but I still called the doctors when they opened, and got an appointment for half 10 that morning. 
In the meantime he fed fine and produced a normal wet nappy but I still wanted to get him checked out.
We saw the loveliest doctor who examined Rafe's eyes, ears, listened to his chest and looked in his mouth. He had said he didn't think Rafe would be teething this early (he was 15 weeks at the time) at the start of the appointment but after looking in his mouth he confirmed our suspicions that he is, and that also his throat was quite red indicating he had a little virus. 
He told me to continue using the Anbesol gel and calpol if necessary and just continue with what we had been doing.

I have now purchased a large amount of teething paraphernalia including; A Nuby teether that you can put in the freezer, a wooden teething ring, a Sophie the giraffe, of course the Anbesol gel, a amber anklet and as of today some Ashton and Parsons powders which are a herbal remedy that get pretty good reviews. I will be doing a post on which items I find most useful once we have tried them all out. Since Wednesday we have had good and bad days, sometimes his teeth don't really seem to bother him at all and other days there are a lot of tears. I think he seems more upset by them when he gets tired, but he is very difficult to get to go down for a nap at the moment.
Being a more consistant and regular blogger is something I aspire to be, but I am finding it a bit of a struggle. In the meantime if anybody has any advice on how to stay sane/manage to wash your hair/ shower while your baby is teething that would be much appreciated!

Jx
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