Last minute doctor visits...

Last week:
Monday - Elise @ orthodontist
Tuesday - me @ midwife
Saturday - Stephen & I @ midwife (class)

This week:
Monday - Elise @ orthodontist
Wednesday - Lincoln @ dentist
Wednesday - me @ midwife

Next week:
Monday - Mason @ doctor
Monday - Sammy @ doctor
Monday - Elise @ orthodontist
Tuesday - me @ midwife
Friday - Elise @ doctor
Friday - Lincoln @ doctor

Next next week:
Monday - Elise @ orthodontist
Tuesday - me @ midwife

Elise is in phase one of getting braces. Yeeha. Or not. She's getting fitted with an roof-expanding device over the next couple of weeks, which I get to turn twice a day for two weeks. Once that is in place we'll leave it there for a couple of months and have her fitted for a retainer with a spacer to hold her mouth in place and move one of her permanent teeth back. It has shifted forward because her molar in front of it is fused to her jaw bone (another extraction in 6-12 months--but not something so easy as Lincoln's--see below). We can't have that tooth extracted until her permanent tooth waiting above is more developed.

A few weeks ago Lincoln fell in the bathtub and did two things: 1) cracked his normal tooth and extra tooth into two teeth (vertically), and 2) cracked his extra tooth in half (horizontally). Today his extra tooth was extracted. Lincoln was a champ! He didn't cry at all, and only fussed a little bit when they gave him a numbing shot in the gum. That is always the worst part. He had to be fastened with a baby straight jacket (more like a sleeping bag with velcro) and breathe in nitrous oxide (to relax him) during the procedure, which took all of 3 minutes.

First of all the dentist removed the bottom loose part of the tooth, and then he pulled out the rest of it. Fortunately there were two separate nerves for the two separate teeth, and the normal tooth's nerve wasn't exposed, so the dentist just smoothed out the tooth's rough edge (and chipped corner). Lincoln was climbing all over, just like normal, as soon as they let him loose! Hopefully, hopefully that was the last dentist bill for awhile!!

On the plus side, I'm learning more than I ever thought possible about dentistry, orthodontics and our amazing teeth and mouths!

All the doctor visits are to catch up for the last year and a half that I haven't taken anybody in. Lincoln and Sammy are due for immunizations (but don't mention that to Sammy!), and since insurance covers well-child visits, I figure I'll take them all in...before there are 5 to take with me. :)

And of course, the midwife visits. I'm 37 weeks today (only 4 more weeks! That's not a typo, btw), so have weekly visits to look forward to. This baby isn't crazy about the head down position, but I'm hopeful he'll get that way by the time he's born. His somersaults are painful sometimes, and I'm getting lots of practice contractions. I'm in the home stretch!