teething

Atticus is definately teething. Those first teeth may still be months away, but he's slobbering all over everything and everybody, biting on everything and everybody, and the poor little guy is suffering some pain here and there (hence the unusual crying). He's also had a runny nose and diaper rash, which I've learned from several people can also be side effects of teething.

Some other things going on that may or may not be related:

• He's become fond of sticking his tongue out the last week and half or so. It's super cute (we'll have to get some video of it up soon). I just hope he doesn't clamp down on that tongue and hurt it.
• He's taken to grabbing himself now. As soon as I unfasten his diaper, his little hand starts rooting around. And when I'm trying to fasten the new diaper, I sometimes have to pull that hand out several times. That's kind of cute too, except when his diaper is very poopy, then it's just worrisome. (Chris has his own set of worries regarding this new habit--that Atticus will be sticking his hand down his pants in school when he's four. I'm pretty confident though that this is perfectly natural and doesn't at all mean that Atticus will be oblivious to social norms and niceties.)
  
• He's sleeping pretty terribly at night these days. I felt haggard today, and it's only Tuesday. He woke me up four times last night, the first at 11:30 pm, barely three hours after he'd gone to bed.
• He's sleeping much better at daycare, taking 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps some days. It turns out Lisa is putting him to sleep on his belly, and she credits this for his new napping success. I don't know whether we should be concerned about this or not. The pediatrician, like most of them these days, says to never allow a baby to sleep on his side or his belly. Of course, not long ago, everybody put their babies to sleep on their bellies. Not to mention that I know a number of people whose babies roll over onto their tummies after being put to sleep on their backs. And his head is to the side, after all. It's not like he's face down into the mattress. Still, I feel nervous about putting him to sleep on his belly at home since I'm asked about it every time we go in for a pediatric appointment.