Conner's Thweet Thmile

Gammie (Bret’s mother) came when Joey was born and stayed until Saturday morning, when my parents got here. After a fun and exciting day, we were beginning to settle down for the evening. I was walking down the hall toward the living room when I heard a thud, followed by a cry, obviously Conner’s. I didn’t really think anything of it until I heard Bret ask if he was okay, and then the sound of people jumping up and running. I, of course, quickened my pace and entered the room to see blood streaming down Conner’s face as Bret scooped him up and ran into the kitchen.

Apparently, Conner had fallen and hit his face on our ceramic tile floor. Kids falling on this ceramic tile, which we have through the entire house, is a daily occurrence, but this time was obviously different. After a few minutes of calming Conner down enough to let us look in his mouth, we discovered that he had landed on his front teeth and pushed them up into his gums. Yes, eew, gross, ouch! We quickly decided to take him to the ER (after having spent last weekend in the hospital, too!), thankful that my folks were here to watch Micah and Joey so that we could both go without having to call anyone else in.

As we were getting in the van to leave, Conner was finally starting to calm down. By the time we were about halfway there, I was having to work pretty hard to keep him awake. He was so tired to start off with, and I guess the adrenaline was kicking in enough to knock him out. After we were seen in triage, Conner fell asleep in the waiting room, and actually slept for the entire hour and a half or so that we spent waiting. We were so very thankful that he was able to sleep, instead of spending the whole time freaking out.

When they finally called us back, the doctors in the ER really weren’t very helpful. They confirmed that Conner had, indeed knocked his teeth pretty hard, gave him some Tylenol with codeine, and advised us to take him to a dentist on Monday morning. That was pretty much it. Bless Conner's sweet heart, as we were leaving, he said, “Well, that wasn’t too bad. No shots and no finger pricks!” He fell asleep on the way home and slept soundly until the next morning.

We spent Sunday waiting for Conner to tell us that his mouth hurt…it never happened! They gave him one dose of pain meds in the ER, and we filled a prescription for it, but he hasn’t taken anything since he was in the ER. In fact, I kind of think he had forgotten anything had happened when he woke up!

Instead, he spent the morning “eating.” (He has been on a liquid diet.) He asked for breakfast first thing, and when we told him that he could only have something like ice cream, yogurt, pudding, or popsicles, he was so excited. “You mean I can only eat junk food?! Yay!” Within the first three hours that he was awake, he had eaten yogurt, sherbet, and fourteen popsicles!!

We got him into the dentist yesterday afternoon. When she asked him what happened, he told her, “Well, I fell in the living room and I hit my teeth. The floor was very hard.” She told us that it was his top two front teeth that got the brunt of the blow. We decided to just leave the teeth as is, and see what they do. One tooth is very loose, and more than likely will fall out before too long. The other one will probably be able to hang on…we’ll just have to see. A couple of his bottom teeth are a little loose, too, but should be fine. He was given an antibiotic to ward off an infection that may be starting, and we’ll go back in a month. It looks like he’ll be fine -- his sweet little smile will just look a little different -- a little funky -- until those permanent teeth come in. You can see it really good when he makes a "piggie" face:
Conner isn’t bothered at all by the way it looks. He is a little bothered that it thounds funny when he thays words with an “eth” (s) in them now, exthited about the pothibility of the tooth fairy coming to thee him thoon, and dithappointed that the dentitht thaid that he can eat regular food now, as long as it is cut up very thmall and doesn‘t hurt him. (“Aw man, you mean I don’t get to eat jutht junk food anymore?”)

The tooth fairy did make a visit last night. She left him a couple of quarters and a note:

Dear Conner,

You did such a good job at the hospital and at the dentist’s office. You are the bravest four-and-a-half-year-old I know! I think you have beautiful teeth, and I hope that you will leave them under your pillow for me someday. But, I think they are especially beautiful in your mouth right now, and I hope they will all stay there for awhile. Make sure and take your medicine and let your Mommy and Daddy brush them good. Here’s a few quarters for the good job that I know you’ll do.

Love,
The Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy's note and gift were a hit. We continue to be thankful that this really didn't turn out bad...just a little bump in the road along the way!

Update: http://wellsbrothers.blogspot.com/2008/04/yesterdays-adventure.html