Warning -this is a novel. I want to have it documented for myself so I went into a lot of details!
Laney lost her first tooth in a less than ideal way. We were at our neighborhood pool with the Stilley girls. mid-July She had on her puddle jumper. There is a 2 foot tall metal railing in between the baby and big pool. She had leaned over the railing and the puddle jumper flipped her right over. She nailed her mouth on one of the metal poles. I put Piper in Jenny's arms, picked Laney up and the blood started flowing. She was screaming, non stop screaming. I couldn't figure out where the blood was coming from in her mouth. I abandoned Jenny with her 3 girls and my other 2 kids at the pool. I hopped on the golf cart and was so happy to see Adam's car in the garage when we got home. We got the bleeding to stop and once we saw the injury, we decided to call the dentist. Of course it was 5:00=after hours. The after hours number was my dentist's personal cell phone. He had me take a picture of Laney's mouth and send it to him. Here's what I sent him...
He called right back and said to meet him at the office in 30 minutes. See that white piece in her gums?? She had pieces of paint from the metal railing stuck in her gums :(.
She was so so brave! We were so proud of her! Seriously, she was amazing! I was in tears but she just laid there and let Dr. Lillis do his work. He had to pick the paint chips out of her gums and do a lot of cleaning on the area. He even commented on how calm she was.
When driving to the dentist, I looked back at her and just knew that she was going to lose a tooth. Dr. Lillis confirmed that and pulled the tooth. Bad news was that it was a clean break meaning the roots were still in the gums. Dr. Lillis wanted us to come back the next morning for x-rays to check on the roots in her gums.
We went to my parents afterwards to pick up the Cooper and Piper. She was having a hard time talking after the numbing medicine and missing a tooth but other than that, she was happy. Going to bed that night I just kept thinking about all the pain she must be in. Sure enough, the next morning she walked into my room saying, "ow, ow, ow, ow." She laid on the couch all morning and wouldn't swallow. She would just drool or go the sink to spit. It was getting sad. I did get her to drink a juice box but she threw it all up 30 minutes afterwards.
We went to the dentist but he decided to send us downstairs to the pediatric dentist who couldn't have been better to us! In fact, the nurse was someone from our church! Laney wasn't very cooperative...not defiant, just wouldn't talk. Dr. Parks wasn't too concerned about the roots still in the gums. We would come back for several follow up visits to check on healing. At this point late in the afternoon she had only had a juice box for the day and then threw it up. She also hadn't peed for the day...she hadn't eaten since lunch the day before. We got her to drink another juice box and take some tylenol at the dentist.
At that point I expressed my concern to dentist in regards to her not having anything to eat/drink all day, I was afraid of dehydration. She still wasn't talking, starting to get very lethargic. He referred us to our pediatrician to get her checked out and make sure Tetanus was up to date since the pole she knocked her teeth on was rusted at beginning of summer. As soon as our pediatrician saw us at 5, she wanted us to head to the ER. Our pediatrician is Dr. Mary Hamm and I adore her! Laney was showing signs of dehydration and since she wasn't even swallowing her own spit we needed to get her some pain meds and hydrated. Then Laney threw up again in the pediatrician's parking lot :(.
Here we are at Children's Mercy ER waiting room. We were sending funny face pictures to my sister.
This girl is usually the life of the party at our house. Her lips rarely stop moving. We were so sad to have her like this :(. They gave her some pain meds...can't remember what and then she fell asleep.
Adam met us at the ER. It was a big day at Urban Air, all the trampolines were being installed and he was one of the main installers...crazy day. The ER visit was not what I was hoping for. I thought we would get her an iv to get her completely hydrated and then we would walk out with a different kid. Not so much. They had her drink a Gatorade, she didn't throw it up so they sent us home an hour later with Oxycodone for the pain.
Here was my thought...oxycodone can't be good on an empty stomach. So, Adam and I spent almost 2 hours that night getting her to open her mouth and swallow 1/2 of a squeezable yogurt. Ugh.
Nothing worse than seeing your child in pain. This bunny delivered from Mamaw and Papaw was a fun surprise when we got home from hospital.
These 2 spent some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa since Adam was basically living at Urban Air. This way I was able to just take care of Laney. Pippi got up in the middle of the night and ended up in bed with Grandma and Cooper. I am guessing Grandma didn't get much sleep.
The next morning she got up and asked for orange juice. Then she threw it up all over herself 30 minutes later. I gave her a bath and she crawled (literally) into bed. I had decided when she woke up I was taking her back to the ER. She had gotten no better and was now on day 2 of not eating anything and barely peeing.
Then she woke up, walked downstairs (I was on the phone with the dentist) and opened the freezer. My mom had brought her a milkshake the day before. She grabbed a spoon and went to town.
I took her to Sonic for a slushie.
Adam thought it would be a good idea for her to get out of the house so we took her to Urban Air that night. The trampolines had just been installed and it was the kids first time to jump! Because I am sure the dentist would approve of that activity after her last 2 days ;). I was hovering over her the whole time she jumped. This was her giving me a thumbs up. She was still holding her mouth open in a funny way and wouldn't swallow much.
Yay! The next day she was eating on her own! She still wasn't swallowing much, carrying around a towel and spitting in it. I sat her down and talked to her. I told her that if she didn't start swallowing on her own, we would have to go back to the doctor. We talked about being brave and just trying it. And BAM! she did!
Awww, this is the Laney smile I love!
Due to my awful memory, I was taking notes during her couple days of trauma.
We had lots of cuddles on this couch!
More post nap cuddles in bed. This weekend I was supposed to be in Vegas for my annual conference with Stella & Dot. I was pretty bummed to be missing because it is always so.much.fun, but my Laney Faith needed me and I wouldn't choose to be anywhere else.
Saturday morning we had Lakeyn's ballerina birthday party.
Laney, Lakeyn and Gia - adorable girls!!!!!!!
Then I became obsessed with getting pics of her and her new smile! She's so cute!
We have been back to the dentist a few times and the root has absorbed to the adult tooth. That was best case scenario so we are thankful for that! Everything is healed! Occasionally she asks for her other tooth back or wants to know how many days until her new tooth is in. Oh, just a few years Laney ;).
If you live in KC and need a dentist for yourself, I highly recommend Dr. Patrick Lillis. It's a very small practice and they are great people! If you need a dentist for your kids, I highly recommend Dr. Parks. We have great experiences there over the last few months. These 2 guys work together occasionally in instances like Laney. They both called/texted me in the days following Laney's accident to check in.
So if you are keeping score, we are 2 for 2 with our children knocking out a front tooth way before it's time to go. See Cooper's story here. He didn't have his tooth pulled out until 3 years later.
