This week Baby Girl attempted to let go of the furniture she has been holding on to while cruising around and take a step. She tried to walk. All on her own. However, as is often the case with trying to walk, she has not yet succeeded.

No, instead she bumped her cheek. When it happened I picked her up, hugged her, wiped her tears and comforted her. Once she was ready I then helped her try again.

As I did this all the kids were worried. They rushed over and wanted to make sure she never fall again. They asked “Can’t we make it so she doesn’t fall ever again?” They wanted to protect her, to care for her, and part of that is desire is wanting to make her world one with as little discomfort as possible.

While, I would love as a parent to have the ability to know she or they would never fall I could not tell them that it wouldn’t happen ever again. Because the reality is we all have falls in life. We get bumps both real and metaphorical. But we have to get back up, accept help up when we need it, then try again and be ready to work toward our goals.

Baby Girl will walk all on her own. She will grow big & strong like her brothers & sister, she will also face other challenges in life like they will. There will be bumps, big and small, in the journey of life. And when they happen we will all be there for each other, comforting, guiding, helping back up & cheering each other on until steps we take become ones we have worn through.

Recently, I received the opportunity to review Baby Orajel Naturals Teething Tablets from BlogHer and have a $100 Target gift card giveaway!

I have turned down several other review/giveaway offers because I did not feel they would be good fit. However, with this offer I jumped at the chance to review the new tablets because as you might remember I have a teething tyrant in my house.

Err, I mean I have an absolutely adorable, sweet, angelic baby who happens to be teething right now, and teething makes her a tad cranky. OK, it makes her an adorable teething tyrant.

I also love Target {or as we call it around here Tar-gay} and figured many of you might feel the same.

As a mom of 5, Baby Girl is my 5th teething baby! And as a result of having done this momma of a teething tyrant gig before I do have lots of tricks up my sleeve to help soothe her–from cold teething rings to frozen washcloths to wooden teethers and so on.

But in my quest to add to my bag of tricks, I thought it would be a good to review this product. I could get some real-time, real, hands-on experience with Baby Girl and share with other parents.

Baby Orajel Naturals Tablets is the first and only homeopathic offering from the #1 teething brand, Baby Orajel.

Breaking down the details…

I like that Baby Orajel Naturals Teething Tablets are homeopathic teething tablets. I prefer to try to use natural elements with my kids, especially my babies.

Another plus for me is that the tables have chamomilla as one of the key ingredients for soothing a teething baby. From my own experience chamomilla is a calming agent for all ages. For example, we use chamomile tea before bed to help relax on days when everyone is all revved up and have even used chamomile tea as a treatment for colic.

Also, Baby Orajel Naturals Teething Tablets are belladonna-free, benzocaine-free, dye-free, alcohol-free and paraben-free. The focus on removing these elements from their tablets speaks to the crunchy momma wanna-be in me!

The tablets were very easy to place under Baby Girl

In use…

And yes before I go any further…I truly did use them with her! And not only I did I use them with Baby Girl, Mike also gave some to her on two different evenings when I was lecturing.

Because trust me, she was having a rough one. If you have ever been around a teething baby you know those rough ones are the days/evenings/middle of the nights when you are up walking back and forth across the floor with your little sweetheart, who is anything but sweet and is very fussy, and you are trying to do anything you can to soothe your baby.

These teething tablets turned out to be a wonderful addition to help with those rough ones.

Another great benefit of these tablets is not only was it easy to get them in her mouth, under her tongue, but the tablets feature a quick-dissolve rate of about 10 seconds. Meaning no worrying about them falling out right after you pop them in, and her not getting the relief she needs. It also made it harder for her to spit them out before they dissolved; instead they dissolved before she could try this little trick {and oh how babies will try}. So BAM! Score one for the parents!

Love these moments, she cracks me up with the faces she makes!

Now for the big answer did they work?

Both Mike and I concur that yes, yes they did actually work. I was glad to have Mike’s feedback to see how she reacted when I wasn’t around because I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just my perception.

Nope, it was not just me.

The truth is she seemed so much calmer and soothed after receiving them on the days when her teething was out of control. She was then able to gnaw on her teething ring or a frozen washcloth with glee.

My favorite part was seeing my sweet, smiling Baby Girl after she was soothed. And to see the two teeth she is now sporting {Yes, TWO teeth!!}. I love these moments as a momma.

Well, I don’t love the teething tyrant part {because man that part, um, SUCKS!} but I do love seeing the squirrely faces she makes and her brand new two-tooth smile as she is chomping away on her morning snack.

I also love getting to know the beautiful little person my Baby Girl is becoming!

And now that I have shared my review and one of my favorite moments as a momma how about you…

What was your favorite moment as a new mom? Or maybe you are, like me, a seasoned mom with a new baby? Share your moment in the comment section to be entered for a chance to win a $100 Target Gift Card, courtesy of BlogHer and Baby Orajel Naturals!!

Rules For Entry:No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/1 – 5/31/2012.

Be sure to visit the Baby Orajel page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win.

Orajel® is a registered trademark of Church & Dwight.

Baby Girl has learned at a young age to share.  Apparently, she even thinks her Daddy would love to suck on her fist as much as she does, which of course was totally true {OK, maybe not totally}.

I don’t think I have ever shared this photograph of all my kids.  Getting all 5 in a photo as I have found would be from this moment on a mighty challenge. Forget having them all look in the same direction.

The photograph was taken at the hospital after Baby Girl was born. The older kids were in awe of her.  They had to check her out head to toe.

I cannot believe it has been almost 9 months!

{here another favorite of her after her birth, it is of Baby Girl & her proud Daddy}

She has been under the weather.  Not feeling herself.  We have been having nurse-ins and snuggle fests. She nurses down, she snuggles in.

Close

Soft

Sweet

Heaven

The door opens

I close my eyes. I know what is next. I know they think they are sneaking up on Momma.

It is our morning ritual.

I hear the pitter-patter of little feet {which if I am honest sounded more like the running of the bulls} up the stairs and into the room.  Giggles. I wait for them to pile in.

I hear something different…

“Shhhh…I will take it”

Take what? I think

I wait a minute.

I open one eye.  Only to see my other children smiling down at me with Chester cat grins.  iPhone in hand {darn I thought I put that up}. Looking at their handiwork.

Everyone piles onto the bed. Under the covers.

Close

Soft

Sweet

I look around at my handiwork

Heaven on Earth

I snuggle in

Looking through my iPhone photos from earlier this month and saw this one. It is a tad blurry but looking at it makes me think of she has a little Zoolander going on.  Except in my totally unbiased opinion she is way cuter. Just sayin’.

Baby Girl has been teething. For what has felt like FOREVER!! FOREVER I say in all caps no less!

Then this week, as we were all hanging out, she suddenly grabbed Mike’s finger to out in her mouth. She has no teeth yet so what can it hurt? So he didn’t think twice about it and if it makes his sweet baby happy then he rolls with it. He, like I, have learned the babies ALWAYS win.

There we were talking away. When suddenly Mike stops talking. Then his eyes started to get wider. And wider. And wider.

He looked at me, smiled, and said: “She has a tooth!! One is starting to pop through!”

“What?”

“A tooth, Beth. It is finally poking through.”

Sure enough I peeked at her mouth there it is the tiny top of a brand new first baby tooth. I am not sure when it popped through, except I hasn’t noticed it {good thing!} when she nursed earlier that day. She has been pretty fussy & wanting to gum away on anything & everything. We have been doing our best to console her and so we knew it was coming. We knew at least one had to finally make it’s way out. And there it was. Her first little tooth’s tippy top.

My oldest told me that he just loves his baby sister to pieces & it looks like she agrees.   He is such a good big brother.  And I am a very happy Momma when I catch these moments.

I think this is what she was thinking when I took this picture: “Cannot get enough of this toe. Must lick. Must do it. Just.So.Good!!” For real this little girl loves her toes and feet. Any time she gets her diaper changed she tries to go to town on them. Now if only this week she had loved sleeping & went to town sleeping the WHOLE night then I would be a very well rested momma.

Or maybe clean bowl club? Either way the baby is now officially moving into solids.  She is also now moving forward when she crawls. Not backward, not side to side, not scooting around but crawling. Full on crawling. Hold me now.

{And yes I just posted an update that is essentially what I ate for breakfast baby style. Why? Because I could.}