On Christmas Day we discovered that both Teagan's bottom- middle teeth were loose. We thought they had a month or so to go before readily available to pull...as was her older brother's situation. It seemed like they took forever to be ready to come out. However, this past Tuesday the tooth was practically bending halfway over. All of her diligent playing with it and wiggling it must have paid off. She was primed and ready to yet again catch up with her older brother of 16 months.
When her Dad got home she approached him with the dilemma. He looked at it and told her he didn't think it was ready. Then Teagan proceeded to prove him wrong and say, "Uh-huh, seeeee" as she bent it over. James amazed at the loosing progress said, "Wow, okay-let's do it!"
Teagan, all excited, ran upstairs into their bathroom and began to assemble the proper tools. She had witnessed the deed before when her Dad pulled out James's first tooth so she was well educated in tooth extraction 101. She got out the floss, anbesol, and tissue and neatly laid them out on the counter as though she were the scrub nurse for her own oral surgery.
Meanwhile, Daddy came into our room and told me with a cheeky and proud grin, "She sure knows how to get to my heart. Ahhh..." Then he went into their bathroom with Tea, shut the door, and proceeded with the task at hand...err tooth.
For a time, all I heard was laughing and mumbling. About 10 minutes later, much longer than I expected, James paged me to the OR......or rather BR. "Beck, we need your help for a minute here." I scrubbed in and received the report. I see this frazzle haired little wee Tea standing in the corner with a big long floss string hanging around her tooth. James told me that he couldn't get a hold of the teensy little tooth and she's complaining it hurts and the floss was stuck under there and he couldn't get that out either. Hmm...well, we decided that she couldn't go to bed with the floss in her mouth because she'd probably choke or aspirate it and we weren't going to stick any sharp objects in there...though that sounded kind of fun to nurse Becky... so I told her that it had to come out tonight.
With that said, James said he'd be right back and ran downstairs. Teagan got herself worked up into a crying tizzy, and told me that she didn't like the taste of the blood and that it hurt. Moments later James returned with a popsicle! Genius! Teagan perked up immediately when she tasted the fruity toothy treat. With anesthesia in place for a few minutes and Teagan's spirits positive, James grabbed on to the tooth with a washcloth and started wiggling, pulling, and prying and Teagan started...crying...again. He stopped, stepped back, and said "I quit."
I was ready to take over with my more dainty hands as Teagan stood there crying and thinking that she was going to have to live with floss sticking out of her mouth until her next birthday! James said, "Hey Teagan" held his hand out in front of her and opened up the washcloth. To Teagan's surprise she saw....drum roll please...her tooth! Then she started laughing hysterically amidst the tears and wet cheeks. She was soo happy and started jumping up and down and yelling for her brothers so she could share the good news.
She asked if I could sneak into her room tonight and give her the special "Mama Tooth Fairy" treat since "Daddy is too loud."
Ahh the human child experience.
