Bless her heart

Sugar darlin' Caroline had 2 teeth pulled yesterday. She woke up Sunday morning with half of her face puffy and complaining her tooth hurt. When she was little, she had back to back ear infections coupled with some high fevers that resulted in one of her teeth being discolored (mottled?) When I looked in her mouth Sunday, I couldn't see anything different looking, so I called our friend and orthodontist, Tom Phelan. He was so sweet to help us and put a call in to a dentist we had been to before that he has a great working relationship with. In no time at all, Dr. Nayla Hatley was offering to meet us at her office to check Caroline out. After talking for a while, we decided to start her on antibiotics and come in first thing Monday morning. I was so touched that she was willing to leave her family on a Sunday to check on Caroline.

Long story short . . . the mottled tooth had some decay and infection and so she decided to go ahead and pull it and another tooth that Caroline needed out to make room in her teeny tiny mouth. Bless her . . . she has NO ROOM!! So, yesterday my drama queen acted like such a big girl and had her teeth yanked out (well, she kind of freaked out during the shot but was a total champ after that). I won't gross you out with details or pictures, but let's just say those two baby teeth looked like they belonged to a saber tooth tiger and I totally lost my appetite changing her gauze out. Meanwhile, Caroline was excited to "have to" eat ice cream and lay around.

This morning we discovered the tooth fairy had been very generous and she has earned a treat trip to Target. Unfortunately, there will be more teeth pulled in the future and retainers and braces to try and compensate for the bum oral deal DNA dealt her. I am also dealing with a little bit of mommy guilt that I didn't take her in a few weeks ago the first time she said her tooth hurt. At least I could have saved her the pain of infection and mump looking cheeks. Ah, the balance of correctly reacting as a parent gets me again. I'm willing to bet that I will overcompensate the next few times with our kids and run them to the dentist or doctor over nothing just to be safe. Mainly, however, I am so thankful to Tom and Nayla for taking such swift and wonderful care of my baby girl. There is little in this world that blesses a mama more than people going above and beyond for one of her kids.

Well, I'm off to brush Bo and Sascha's teeth for the 4th time this morning and then do full body checks to see if I need to overreact about any potential bodily threats.

Just kidding. It's just the 3rd time.