Handley lost a tooth!

Today was a VERY big day for Handley.  She had a tooth pulled and will be getting her first visit from the tooth fairy tonight!

A little history:

When she had just turned two years old she fell coming into the house on the steps and chipped her front teeth.  One was barely dinged and the other was pretty noticeable. We saw a pediatric dentist who did x-rays, filed the tooth to smooth it down and told me a best and worst case scenario of what might happen with the tooth.   (click HERE and HERE for the blog posts about what happened almost 4 years ago) Over the course of a year or so the tooth darkened and our regular dentist kept an eye on it.  A few weeks ago when we were at his office for our regular cleanings he noticed that the tooth seemed loose.  You'd think it might not be anything out of the ordinary since a lot of friends her age are loosing their teeth already, but her bottom ones (which should normally fall out first) aren't the slightest bit loose and the dentist also noticed that her gum was a little red and swollen around the top, dark tooth. I honestly hadn't noticed because Handley brushes her own teeth these days and without lifting her lip to inspect it, I never would have seen.  He did some more x-rays and after seeing those referred us a to a pediatric specific dentist to have them take a look, but he warned me it was probably abscessed and would need to come out.

We saw the pediatric dentist last week and after one quick look she confirmed what I had already been told - that the tooth definitely needed to come out.  They put her on an antibiotic for the infection and we scheduled the extraction (which, by the way, sounds way more painful than the experience actually was for her) for today.

During the last week I got busy finding tooth fairy ideas on Pinterest, making a tooth pocket pillow for her to put her tooth in and prepping her for how today would go.  She woke me up this morning saying, "Today is finally the day! I get to get my tooth out!"  To say she was excited would be an understatement.  This girl was pumped.  A lot of her friends have already lost teeth so she has been anxiously awaiting a visit from the tooth fairy.

Gigi came over to keep Hudson and Harper so I could really focus on keeping Handley calm.  She did AWESOME!!!  She was so brave and although she seemed a little nervous as she was sitting in the chair waiting for the process to begin, she didn't let anyone else know it.  We left the office, tooth in hand, and went straight for frozen yogurt for lunch.  She was proud to show off her toothless smile to everyone at home and all her friends at playgroup today.  She kept commenting on how funny it felt to not have a tooth up there, but that she thought she looked "really grown up" without it and couldn't wait to see what the tooth fairy brings her tonight.

Although this is obviously not the ideal situation for loosing a tooth, I'm just happy that the experience was a good one for her and that she wasn't traumatized by her experience today.  If anything, it was a positive one and I'm hoping that when she wakes up tomorrow to glitter pixie dust spread around her room and a nice sparkly glitter dollar bill she will be just as excited when she comes to wake me up.

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