Adeline met her new doctor on Tuesday for her 18-month visit. She did pretty well, all things considered. She was pretty hysterical for a bit. I think she recognized the room from the last visit when she was poked and prodded when she wasn’t feeling well, and when the nurse brought in the cart with the scale on it she totally flipped out. She regrouped after she realized that stethoscopes and scales don’t hurt, though :). She weighs 23 lbs, 13 oz, putting her in the 39th percentile for weight, and she’s 33” tall, putting her in the 82nd percentile for height. She is long and lean :). No shots, just a regular physical and now she doesn’t go back till she’s two! I can’t believe it! She’ll have a little sister by then :). We also learned that she is indeed advanced :). Most children don't put together two-word phrases until at least 2 years of age. Adeline already has several ("No juice", "Bye-bye Daddy", "More please"). Brag brag brag :).
In other medical (sort of) news, I was forced to find a local dentist yesterday when I succumbed to a pregnancy craving: Milk Duds. (“Can I get you anything?” “I’d love some Milk Duds.” “We don’t have any. I could send out for one.” “Oh don’t be silly. If you’re going to send out get a whole box.”) Anyway, while enjoying the aforementioned Duds I managed to pop out a filling. It was one of my rather large fillings from my bottom back molar to take the place of all the tooth I’ve ground away over the years. I actually thought it was an inlay, but I guess my last dentist just put a gigantic filling in my tooth.
Anyway, the loss put a gaping whole in my tooth – basically it was a shell of a tooth with nothing in the middle. I called Alan, crying, expecting I was going to be in a lot of pain soon (it turned out there really wasn’t much pain at all). Alan asked around at the office to find out where people go to the dentist and he found a practice literally 5 minutes away down the street and made an appointment for me for 2:20 yesterday afternoon. I was terribly anxious but had to go by myself so Alan could be home with a sleeping Adeline.
So with much fear and trembling I headed to the dentist not knowing what they were going to do. Being five and a half months pregnant they can’t do x-rays and don’t normally give anesthetic either so I was incredibly nervous, especially given my dental history (what with ending up in the ER from the dentist’s chair and all one time...). But they were all very kind. The dentist listened to me as I related some bad experiences and didn’t chide me for having not been to the dentist in a LONG time. I told him about some other sensitive areas in my teeth and he looked at all of them and gave me options for what we could do that day and left it entirely up to me. He took digital pictures of my teeth with a really cool little camera and showed me on a computer screen up close and personal where the problem spots were.
It turns out the sensitivity continues to be the result of my bruxism. I had not been wearing my bite splint for the last 4 months because it would aggravate my nausea. I just started wearing it again this week, ironically enough. He said the filling that came out in the Milk Dud that I proceeded to crunch on had been cracked and weakened by the grinding and the tough caramel was able to just pull it right out.
He fixed the gaping whole (with porcelain again – still no precious metals in this cavity-free mouth!) and fixed a cosmetic filling I had that fell out last year. (Never got that one fixed because I couldn’t find a dentist thanks to MassHealth and health care being required in the state of Mass... just a little tidbit on why I think universal health care is a terrible idea and will prevent people from being able to find doctors/dentists/etc. and/or see them in a timely manner.) The molar he did without any anesthetic at all. The facial filling he used a tiny bit of epinephrine-free anesthetic and went very slowly and gently so the pain was very manageable. For those of you that know me well you know this was a huge deal to be able to feel anything at all!! But all in all I must say it was a really good experience and I felt very satisfied when I left the office – even though we had to pay out-of-pocket. Thanks to all of you who gave us Christmas money. It paid for my teeth :). Alan and I have cleanings scheduled for next month and I’m actually slightly looking forward to it :).
In other news entirely... Adeline figured out she can walk on her knees. It’s very cute. And Alan’s new day off is Friday! He now has a two-day weekend and will no longer have his days off split up by Sunday each week. This is exciting because it will free up our schedule a bit.
Also exciting, Johanna and William are coming for a visit in about 10 days! Johanna and I are thinking we want to tour the hospitals in the area, talk doula stuff, and I can’t wait to see William and Adeline play together again. Be sure to check back for those pictures!
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