Nub Needs Filling

Ugh. Nub had a dentist appointment today and it confirmed what we thought: he has a cavity that needs filling.

That can be difficult enough to accomplish for any kid, as evidenced by the growth of dentists specializing in kids' teeth and sedation dentistry. (Myself, I'm completely neurotic about it.) But for kids with DS, it can be especially tricky.

First off, Nub's only 3 years old, so he's not going to hold still for 1) a shot in the mouth, and 2) a drill in the mouth. Plus, he'd be too uncontrolled and violent if we tried. (Heck, I feel violent at the dentist.) Normal sedation doesn't work for him, so he requires an actual general anesthesia IV sedation, which can only be done by a M.D. not a D.D.S. Just to make it interesting, Nub's veins tend to be too small to stick in the arm or leg, and they roll; therefore the stick (for blood draw, anyway) is in the forehead.

There is exactly one dentist in the area who has an agreement with a M.D. from the hospital to come out one day a month to do anesthesia for kids like Nub. Oh, and the M.D. doesn't take any kind of insurance.

To top it off, I was forced to spend all my flex dollars when I quit my job last week, so that's not an option. So that's gonna cost me big: $$$$. Grrr!

Nib's Got Teeth

My little Nib is slowly but surely making her way into her one-hood. People may talk about one-ness, but in this case it's not unitive so much as descriptive: the girl is one year old. I mean, she's been one for a while now, but it's not over yet, right?

Long story short, she had five or six teeth for a good long time. Now, after a quick trip to Denver -- Boom! -- she popped out another lateral incisor and a couple of of bi-cuspids (one-year molars).

Since I am the official tooth counter in the family, I am officially taking note.

What I had forgotten however, is how cranky teething kids are. (You'd think I'd be accustomed to it by now.) Short nights, fitful sleeping, fever. The girl who wouldn't be caught dead putting anything, much less food, in her mouth, now picks up anything from the floor and puts it in her mouth.

Nib still breast feeds some, but Mrs. Nod just keeps giving her the eye. "If she bites me, she's cut off." Not that I blame her, those suckers are sharp.