June 26, 2006

My little man was 14 months old exactly. Here he is pictured with his older brother and sister. (my gorgeous step-kids)

Eddie and I were at my mom's having dinner (I was about 7 mos pregnant with Alexa at this time). Eddie of course ate like a little bird, so he was finished with dinner before everybody else. He went to play in the living room while we finished up. The living room was adjacent to the kitchen, so we could still hear him and peek at him from where we were. He had a cardboard poster tube that he was playing with.

He must have fallen because he began to cry and scream. I went in there to check on him and pick him up from the floor. He opened his mouth and the bright red blood started running down his lips. My panicked heart began to race as I swooped him into my arms and ran into the kitchen. I quickly turned on the faucet and started to rinse his mouth as he screamed. He had blood and water that had drenched the front of his shirt. I kept rinsing. My mother was crying, my father was white as a ghost, and my brother said that he might throw up and left the room.

When the bleeding stopped, I took my finger and pulled back the side of his lip. I wanted to see where the blood was coming from. I felt instantly ill when I spotted one of his teeth was completely sideways in his mouth. He started making a funny movement with his lips and tongue. Instinctively I put my hand up to his little mouth. He spit out one tiny perfect little white tooth, root and all. I looked at it in horror.

My 14 month old baby just knocked out his own tooth. I couldn't believe it. And what's more, I couldn't believe that I held it together when all of this happened. My little man was bleeding and crying and losing the tooth that just finished growing in! I was so upset.

I called the dentist immediately to ask for advice. After our brief consult, it was decided that we do nothing. He said that if he was going to do something like that, knocking the entire tooth out was best since he didn't expose any nerve endings. He recommended he be seen for x-rays in the next day or so just to be sure, but it sounded like he did a great job at his tooth extraction.

Eddie was playing with the cardboard tube. He had it in his mouth and then fell down directly on top of it. The force from the tube hitting the ground, and then subsequently his tooth, was enough to knock it out.

Ever since then, I have been right on top of both of the kids and reminding them not to put anything in their mouths, much less running around with anything in there. Both of my kids have fallen and hurt themselves in the mouth since then. And there have been 4 or 5 times where blood has been shed, and each time I relive the moments when my little baby knocked out that tooth. I cringe on the inside as I peel back their lips to check for broken or missing teeth. I cringe and pray that it hasn't happened again. Once was enough. It's still fresh in my mind because I relived it again last night. Alexa fell down and came to me with blood on her lips. After a quick inspection, I knew that she was fine.

Eddie has been to the dentist 3 times since then, and things look great. He actually looks like a little hockey player now. And honestly, it's his signature look. He's missing a tooth. But that wouldn't be Eddie, not any other way.

Here is the last picture we have of him with of all of his teeth. Taken just 2 weeks before the incident.

And here he is today. Well, not actually today, but recently. Even missing a tooth, I think he's rather handsome. Oh and the little guy that made me a mommy turns 4 on Sunday. (sniff, sniff.)