The Ballard Bunch

What a night!

We went over to Shanna's house to play games last night and had a calm evening until about 9:30 pm. The kids had been playing in Braeden's bedroom and I hear a cry. Now, all of you mom's out there know what I'm talking about - you know your own children's cries, but you especially know the difference between a hurt cry, a fake cry or a tantrum cry. It was definitely a hurt cry and it was definitely Tatum. Out she comes in hysterics with a mouth full of blood. At first glance, I think she's just cut her mouth, but once I get her upstairs and get a good look, I see that she's not only knocked one of her front teeth totally to the front, but it's poking out so far that her lip is protruding out pretty far and her gums are ripped to shreds. Beau tries to see how loose the tooth is and finds that it won't budge easily. So off we go to the emergency room again!

After some examination from a couple of different doctors, they decided that the best course of action would be to pull the tooth completely out and cut our losses. Luckily, because she's only almost 2 years old, it was a baby tooth and won't cause any permanent damage to her mouth. They had to anesthetize her, which meant a baby hospital gown (too cute!) and being hooked up to all kinds of monitors. She never went completely out, but she was sedated enough that the nurse and Beau were able to hold her down (mom wimped out) and the doctor got the tooth out. My little trooper!

She finally went to sleep at about 1 in the morning, but would only do so in our bed. So she and Beau ended up in our room and I slept in her bed until Beau went plowing at 3am. She's taken a liking to Beau lately so I was quickly kicked out due to the lack of room (she's a thrasher in her sleep). Today she seems to be doing much better and is on a prescription pain medication for the next few days. Plus, she's gotten one of the earliest visits from the Tooth Fairy that I've heard of, so she had that to be happy about. Now she won't stop touching her gum where the tooth was and asking for her tooth to look at. I think she's a little excited by the whole thing now that the painful part is over!

I'll post pictures when I can get some of her - she's not too cooperative about showing me her mouth. I was kind of bummed that I didn't have my camera with us last night - her tooth was unbelievable!