Emma's teeth

..zzzzzz....oh, excuse me I must have dropped off. As if 4 hours of Luton airport and going to Geneva every day weren't enough, Emma has had the worst week's sleep of her life.

She has 4 molars all coming through at once. After months and months of no teeth at all and our imaginations of a gummy adulthood, this is good news. The bad news is they are taking ages to actually break the surface, lying tantalisingly underneath like fleshy icebergs. As a result she constantly has her fingers in her mouth, is very grouchy and wakes up every night screaming and crying inconsolably.

And what have we done to get her back to sleep? Answer: everything. Teething gel - check (though why is it impossible to apply? Why do I get it smeared all over my fingers and not over the affected area?) Drugs - check (Calpol) Water, monkey, cuddles...and worst of all, but most effective, one of us eventually gets into the spare bed and sleeps with her.

Let everything that has breath call me 'hypocrite'! I pretended that I could take-or-leave-it, but I lapped up The Contented Little Baby Book, especially the bits about babies sleeping in their own beds and at regular bedtimes and I have been smug as anything about Emma's previous 7-7 habit plus two hour daytime naps. "Whatever you do, don't take the baby to bed with you," I have said sagely to pregnant friends. And now look.

I want to file down those gums with an electric sander.*

*does this make me a bad mother?