A Tooth

I’ve gotten a couple questions lately that made me realize we had a life event happen here that I completely skimmed over on the blog. It happened while Brandon was deployed, so there was a lot I missed. The questions I keep getting are all along the lines of- “Ford’s so cute, but what happened to his tooth?” or “I can’t believe your one year old hasn’t gotten his front tooth yet!”

He has.

He got it. It was a good tooth. He chewed with it, smiled with it, and bit his brothers with it. The latter was his favorite use for it.

See Ford is my crazy child. The one who climbs everything, escapes when you’re not looking, and is generally just very active. Because he is little and gets into everything, I have to make sure he’s always within my sights, even if it’s just for a minute.

One day in November, after he’d turned a year old, I needed to use the bathroom. I figured I was only going to be gone about 30 seconds, our bathroom is about ten steps from the kitchen, where he was, and he usually follows me anyways, so I ran to the bathroom, and as soon as I was standing up to come out, I heard a loud bang followed by crying.

I immediately ran to the kitchen to find him laying on on our of dining room chairs which was now on the ground as well. Sawyer said Ford had climbed onto the chair and I’m assuming he tipped it over backwards reaching for something. When I picked him up I could see a little blood but he was crying so much it was hard to tell, so I grabbed a towel and held him for a minute. When I leaned away to evaluate the situation it took me all of .05 seconds to realize he was going to need stiches. I couldn’t get a good look but his chin and mouth were both covered in blood and it was still coming. Take a deep breath, call someone to watch the big boys if possible, and get ready to go.

Luckily my Aunt who lives very close was able to drop everything and be at my house within two minutes, which made going to the E.R. so much easier, and Ford even stopped crying on the way. We checked in, I sat down with him on my lap, and then he turned his head to look up at one of the TV’s in the waiting room, and when I looked at his face I could see inside his mouth. There on his sweet little chin was a gaping hole where his front teeth had gone through his skin. It was gross. Luckily while waiting, he fell asleep and they were able to glue it shut which was a miracle because he would not have done well with stitches. We were sent home with instructions to keep an eye on it and to go see a dentist that week to check on the teeth. We did the Dentist that week and even did a follow-up two weeks later to make sure the teeth weren’t loose or infected and I was so relieved that he wouldn’t have to lose his teeth.
This was a few weeks later; if you look close you can see some of the scar under his lip.

Christmas and New Years went by a few weeks later he smiled at me one day and his gums were all purple and swollen. Cue the phone call to the dentist. Cue the day spent at specialty dentist and the antibiotics and it all culminated with having surgery to have his left front tooth removed. Here he is the day before surgery:

and after:

My sweet little boy is bound to look like a hillbilly until he is about six or seven.
We can laugh about it now, but I’ll admit, I was sad to see that tooth gone and know he’d look like a goober for so long, but that’s life, right? I’m always grateful that my kids are healthy, and in the long run all we lost was one baby tooth and any hope at using the bathroom by myself in the near future. Here’s to looking forward to his tooth fairy days!