Cupcake's teeth

And we thought Princess Eee's teeth were going to be a mess because of how much time she spent in Guatemala drinking coffee and eating sugar packets and not brushing. Turns out that teeth are a great example of nature beating out nurture in that ol' argument. Cupcake has horrible teeth. Horrible two year old molars at least. And she was home by the time all four of them came in. Her four older siblings have never had a cavity so I think our dental hygiene is pretty good. Hopefully it was a mishap, illness, binge on something bad by her birthmother while she was in utero developing the early beginnings of those four teeth. I really have no idea how all that happens, but we hope this mess is isolated to these four teeth and not the road we will be on with Cupcake until all of her teeth are fake.

The worst one is absessed and the antibiotics are not doing all that they could/should be. She is in a lot of pain which we KNOW because this is one of the toughest kids I've ever seen with physical pain. If she says something hurts, it really hurts. This really hurts. She was scheduled for day surgery in Concord (where the pediatric dentist is) for February 3rd. After her cheek swelled up again on day two of antibiotics, we started thinking we would never make it til then. Then this weekend she finished the course of antibiotics and within hours, her cheek swelled up and she started crying about how much her tooth hurt again. Having a four year old crying to go to the hospital and not being able to take her there is definitely one of the hardest parts about being a parent. Might even trump sibling rivalry.

So this morning after a couple hours of not waiting for the doctors' offices to return my call and being the annoying mother bear that calls back after only waiting a few minutes, Cupcake is scheduled for surgery this Friday. Phew! Got her pediatrician to squeeze in a pre-op physical on Wednesday. Put her back on another round of antibiotics to at least keep the absess from entering her brain and eye socket before Friday. Now we just have to try to remain calm about putting our 30 pound baby girl under general anesthesia in a few days. Cupcake is so excited about the whole thing. That'll probably hold until they start prepping her at the hospital, but for now it is good because she is processing what will go down on Friday. At least she'll be willing to get in the car that morning.

She is excited for the tooth fairy to come. Personally I think the tooth fairy should credit our account in the amount of $X thousand already pre-paid to Concord hospital, but if she wants to bring Cupcake $2 for the ordeal, I guess that's okay too. Cupcake is also very excited to show all of us her shiny new teeth. In addition to having the absessed tooth extracted and a spacer placed in teh gum, she will be getting two silver caps on two other two year old molars and then a regular, simple white filling on the fourth. She is excited to wear a Pull-Up during the day because that is a novelty now. She does pee pretty much every single time she falls asleep, so better safe than wet. And most of all she is excited to not have her tooth, mouth, cheek, eye, and neck hurt anymore. Me too!

Here she is last weekend showing off some new hand-me-down jeans before the last dose of antibiotics wore off.