The cruel world of teething

The whole process of teething seems cruel to me. I guess I don't have a better plan for how to go about getting teeth, but I don't like this system. Teeth push their way through the tender gums of a happy baby, which renders them unhappy. And in turn, unhappy parents. I'll admit, we had it pretty easy with Jacob and Clara and teething. It was actually my mom that noticed that their first tooth had come through, which was kind of embarrassing. They just never really fussed' any more than normal anyway. I guess the first round with Jacob, who was only 4 months old, he was fussier, but after that it wasn't too bad. As with everything else, Isaiah proves to be his own boy. We've been feeling a tooth under his gums on the bottom, waiting to come through. A couple nights ago, he was up, wanting to be held all night long. Fussy as a cat in a pillowcase, up every hour practically. I noticed in the morning in my half-awake state that a tooth came through on the top. Then the next day, I noticed the tooth next to it on the top coming through, and the one of the bottom. That's right, 3 teeth all at once. We figured this would happen since he's almost 9 months and hasn't gotten any teeth until now. But it's a bit miserable around here right now. We've got the whole arsenal for teething (which I'm still not sure any of these remedies really work or not) on hand: ibuprofen, tylenol, teething tablets, baby orajel, cool teethers. He's still pretty happy when he's awake, chewing on everything in sight. It's mainly when he's tired and wants to sleep that I think he's really noticing "hey, my gums hurt, I want to be held". He's hasn't been a good sleeper to begin with, and wants to be in bed with us, but now he wants to be in bed with us all night. (Although I do remember thinking he was a pretty good sleeper in the beginning.) Poor guy. Maybe they'll all come in all at once, and we'll get this whole thing over with for awhile.