Teeth 101

I've been slacking in the blogging world due to several factors:
- Summer's over and I'm still somewhat pouting about that
- Summer's over and I'm adjusting to work life with 2 little ones at home
- Summer's over and every minute the boys are awake at home, my time is with them
* Did I mention summer is over?
- Getting back into a work routine with a new batch of kiddos is always tiring - especially towards the end of the week
- Getting back into a work routine with my hubby coaching football is similiar to being a single mom
- Getting back into a work routine also means night time, free time is spent catching up on my shows rather than going to bed (which I always seem to regret in the morning)

- Not to mention the hours spent per day nursing/pumping & a quick side note: whomever said "There's no use crying over spilled milk." Clearly never breastfed. {I saw that on pinterest; my new hobby/addiction}

Anyway, I know, I know...pity me, right?! Did I mention that I really do love my job, but I love my boys so much more, so it's hard getting acclimated every August. I mean, who wouldn't want to be surrounded by this as much as possible:

So, the bottom line is, I'm really wanting to get back into a groove of updating my blog more often. So, in the meantime, bare with me.

Teeth have been quite the topic in our household lately. About a month ago, Nolan was in a bounce house at a friend's house. He ended up hurting his tooth. He cried. It bled. We gave TLC and he seemed fine. It did feel slightly loose, but over the next couple of days it tightened back up. Approximately 2 weeks later, I started noticing that it looked like it was becoming a very faintly tinted grey color. Over the next few days this tinting became more and more apparent that it wasn't just my imagination and the color was, indeed, darkening. We called the dentist and got him in right away. They did x-rays and took a look. He did GREAT for the x-rays and it was pretty neat because we got to see his adult teeth sitting patiently on top. The dentist pointed out that the roots of his front baby teeth were becoming shorter, meaning the permanent teeth are starting to push down. Did I mention the damaged tooth is one of his central incisors? At the visit, he also explained to us that the tooth is filled with blood, which is the culprit of the darkening...it's just sort of pooling together inside. Ultimately, we went in thinking they'd end up pulling it. Not the case, our dentist prefers to not do anything too tramatic to a child unless absolutely necessary due to ruining their perception of the dentist. He told us things to watch for on the gums that would signal infection is taking place and that if we wanted to color the tooth, that was certainly an option, however, he could just as easily loose the tooth on his own within a year or two. The days following the appointment the tooth began to darken a bit more and I feel so upset about it. I know there are far worse things that could happen, but I hate the thought of him entering Kindergarten next year with a "black" front tooth. I work in a school. I know how kids can be and it breaks my heart to even think about someone hurting his feelings. Currently, he is completely unphased by it. He noticed it's color is different the other day and was quick to inform me that it was not due to "sugar bugs," but because it got hurt instead. Today, we called up the dentist and they said if we went the route to color it, they'd want to do a veneer. Expensive...I know, I have 2. Seems silly to us for a baby tooth, too. If it were permanent, then there'd be no hesitations. In the meantime, here's his new looking smile:

On another tooth note, my little baby is quite certainly getting bigger. Over the past week he's been chewing like crazy...at home...at the sitter's. I simply assumed that he was going to follow suit to Nolan and start teething early (Nolan's 1st tooth came in at the end of his 4th month and the matching tooth came along always within a 3 day period each time). Tonight, when putting Parker on the couch, I noticed something on his gum, I thought it was spit up, etc from his reflux (which by the way is not improving, but instead is worse than ever). I swabbed my finger in his mouth to wipe it off and to my astonishment the white spot was hard...his left central incisor cut through! I cannot believe my 3 1/2 month old has his very first tooth. Time truly is flying by in front of my own eyes.

PS: If there's a bunch of typos, please disregard...this Mama is ready for bed and NOT going to proofread. (oh, how the teacher in me is screaming about this)