First, the "down": I had to take my 13 month old to the dentist yesterday. Jim and I used to joke years ago that if we ever got married, our kids would be doomed - we both had so many problems with cavities and such - and evidently (dentally?) it's not so much of a joke when it actually happens. LW has two cavities behind her front middle teeth, and now it's a race to try and find a second opinion as far as what to do about them. Dentist #1 was brusque, uninformative, performed a sealing procedure without asking or explaining first, and is insisting that we night wean (and preferably stop feeding on demand in the daytime as well). Of course, as I know from previous experience, dentists really would be most happy if they could get all their patients to be fed via stomach tube and never have anything touch their teeth... Anyway, that is the current crisis of our days. I really don't want to night wean her yet, as she's still nursing 3-4 times a night, receives quite a lot of calories that way, and it gets us all the maximum amount of shut-eye. SO.. prayers, please, for healing and also for us to find a decent dentist who is willing to work with the whole baby, not just focusing exclusively on her teeth (side note - this has been a bad year for this particular topic; we had to shell $2500 out of pocket in March when Jim had a dental abscess, so this came as a particularly annoying blow).
The literal "up": LW is standing up on her own (as in, in the middle of the floor, without anything to pull up on), and taking a few steps from there! Her toddle-waddle is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. She is pushing "further up and further in," in the form of climbing everything (chairs, couches, people) in sight. She's also beginning to master more words (like "bath"), and every day becomes more like a little toddler-person rather than a baby.
Also literally "up": the garden is entering into its full glory:
We recently harvested the first of the tomatoes and peas:
They are *super* tasty. I had forgotten how good a cherry tomato or snap pea straight off the vine can taste. My buds have gotten used to the bland store bought stuff.
The peas are actually kind of funny, because when we left for 4th of July weekend, there was one bud about to bloom; when we returned, the whole tops of the bushes were covered, and the next morning, there were full pea pods waiting to be harvested.
This might, of course, have something to do with the "all around": the all encompassing heat wave we've been experiencing. Remember this post? It's even hotter than that now, and ridiculously high humidity levels as well. Yesterday, I gave in, and let Jim put the AC in the bedroom window (being mistress of frugality, it has to be seriously hot for me to allow the use of the AC). It was worth it, though, for the three of us to actually get a good night's sleep.
In one other piece of "all around" news - our BG's are working great! She hasn't been any redder than she ever was in the disposables in weeks, and we've got a good wash/dry routine down. The only problem is that with this hot weather, she's been running around in her diaper, and has now figured out how to open the Velcro tabs. I'm super excited about not spending all that $$ on the disposables anymore (although, technically, it'll take 6+ months to recoup the investment in the BG's). We're still using one sposie at night - any suggestions for good overnight solutions? She might be OK overnight, I just haven't dared risk it yet. That being said, she pretty routinely leaks out of the disposable at night anyway...
Oh, and the other "up" piece of news: we're looking at a house that we actually really like, which might even be in our price range! 5.5 acres of a land, an older farmhouse that needs some renovations but would be livable until we were able to do so, and only about 30 min from where Jim works (not ideal, but better than it could be). God willing, we're hoping to move on to the house inspector step, after taking one more look at it.
Now... time for that laundry :)
Posts
5 comments:
Yay for gardens! Yay for standing babies! Boooo cavities!
Pregnancy rotted my teeth half to death. I went to the dentist while pregnant and he blamed the cavities on me eating mars bars and candy mints. I was like what?!?! According to him, me being preggo had nothing to do with the sudden flood of cavities. These professionals... some of them just don't THINK before they talk!
P.S. I wasn't eating mars bars or mints. That's the funny thing lol! Hello Dentist, are you able to see what "all pregnant women" are eating??
I actually did get such a big cavity during pregnancy because of candy mints that I needed a crown on a back molar. Because I was nursing I had to get it without nitrous oxide, a big trauma for me. However, it was a small price to pay for some slight relief from the constant heartburn I had for the last 22 weeks of pregnancy. Sometimes one picks one's poison.
Do you have an appt. to look at the house again?
Abby one thought, even if a family dentist might not fill cavities in a baby this young, they might be willing to see her for the rest of the care, and simply send her to the pediatric dentist for fillings. In any case, even if you chose to stay with that group for fillings, you can at the very minimum insist on another provider within the group. Jim might even throw the words informed consent around a little bit if necessary to get you transferred to a different hopefully younger and less brusque provider. Hopefully one of the other names I gave you will work.
Obviously, this dentist looks only at the teeth, not at the whole child and certainly not at the whole family. There are clearly dentists out there who have worked with moms who continued night nursing as late as 4 despite early cavities. There are apparently therapies that not only help prevent further cavities, but are restorative to some extent, whether this dentist is aware of them or not.LW is about more than her teeth, and nursing continues to be important to her overall health (both physical and emotional).
Coffee Catholic, our family dentist would never, ever believe that Abby's oral hygiene was the best in the family because she kept getting cavities. This continued until she stopped growing. I'm actually a little surprised that pregnancy and nursing haven't made the problem crop up again, but I'm figuring it's because her oral hygiene now is probably as good as if not better than any dentist's.
Yay for fresh vegetables, and a cute toddle waddle. She's walking right in the middle between the age you did it and the age Gabe did it.
I've never heard of little ones getting cavities that young while being breastfed... so I looked around the web. Dr. Sears' has a good explanation http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/bf3.asp. I hope you don't have to night wean and I'll pray that you find a good holistic dentist :)
About night cloth diapering. We used disposables at night for Monkey for the longest time because he peed so much at night. Once I started using an AMP hemp insert in his nighttime cloth diapers we had no leaks. Hemp has super absorption capabilities! For Sweetpea I simply put the two inserts her BG dipe came with in her diaper and so far no nightime leaks. Hope that helps!
You're garden is beautiful!! I can almost smell it...sigh... You're dirt looks so beautiful and your veggies so fresh...
And a house? Wow, it sounds wonderful-- any chance for pictures?
My sister-in-law is a doctor and I remember she did a dental anesthesia rotation and said she saw all these children coming in for work on their front teeth due to "bottle teeth." Apparently, they would fall asleep with a bottle in their mouth and the milk would linger behind their front teeth causing cavities. I suppose the same thing can happen if LW falls asleep while nursing -- boo :(
I'll pray that you all find a good dentist and that it isn't too expensive and that LW doesn't have to night wean yet.
Post a Comment