The Dream Where Your Teeth Fall Out Is About Mortality
Added 2023-01-21 05:48:15 +0000 UTCIf you’ve ever wished me pain, you might want to know that last evening playing with her cousins, my baby stacked it down some stairs (overexcited, running with a book) and knocked her little tooth out.
I’ve experienced some real proper shame and guilt in my life before, but seeing her little tic-tac-tooth lying on her tongue in a pool of blood while she screamed at me with panicked eyes is right up there with the most dread-filled moments of my life. I’m aware that this is entry level parenting; and I’m lucky that it’s taken this long to get to our first proper injury, but those moments of not knowing how bad it was and whether it could be fixed are an absolute chasm.
The process of putting the little peg back in the raw hole (under FaceTime supervision from my dentist uncle, with JiuJitsu brother holding her arms down) and feeding her with her bright red blood running down my chest, and finding an emergency dentist in a small coastal town and watching her all night paranoid that it would come loose and she’d spit it out or swallow it, interspersed with brief sleeps where I kept dreaming that I’d put it in back to front… just knock some pain off the debt I owe the universe, if that’s how it works, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t.
Pro’s: Laser herself is almost entirely chill about it and apart from warp five screaming for a minute when it came out and also when I put it back in, calmed down very quickly and doesn’t seem to be bothered. She’s maybe slightly more clingy and looking for breastmilk more than usual today and definitely not enjoying being offered only squishy foods like a baby (wanted spicy stir-fry), but apart from that doesn’t seem to be worried. My brother and sister-in-law, who I’m staying with were very comforting and made me tea and chocolate once I’d put her to bed and told me I’m not a terrible mother.
Dentist uncle and emergency dentist both say it should be fine and even if it isn’t, that it’s just a baby tooth, and they agree on the risks and possible treatments, so that’s reassuring, and also both slightly patronisingly acting like it isn’t a big deal whichever way it goes (her perfect little mouth! How Dare they be relaxed about it). It’ll most likely take back in or it’ll fall out. I’m hoping it sticks, because otherwise I’ll have this little gap staring out of her milky rosebud mouth reminding me all the time.
Anyway, writers meeting this week will be
8am Sydney Time on Monday. Broad strokes conversions below. Open to all levels, I’ll send through the link just before.
Comments
I have raised four children. The first two, sons, when I was in my twenties and thirties. Those were the practice kids I'm afraid. The second two, my daughters in my forties and fifties. I like to think I did a better job, but I expect the important thing for all of them was that I did my best with humility and honesty. Somehow that seems to have made up for all the all too human mistakes I made along the way.
Paul Lyon
2023-01-22 17:16:12 +0000 UTCDetached retina is some parental nightmare fuel.
Mitch SuperKnot
2023-01-21 22:08:25 +0000 UTCI feel like BJJ is good for pinning
2023-01-21 20:19:53 +0000 UTCMy dad broke my nose dropping me on the telephone table when I was one, which I don’t remember. And I got my retina detached in a “sword fight” with my brother at the age of 5, which I do remember. Pretty sure those things were both far more traumatic for my parents than they ever have been for me
2023-01-21 20:19:32 +0000 UTCFor whatever reason I'm zeroing in on the Jiujitsu usage and wondering about that particular word choice and if there is an optimal martial art for restraining children. But then I suppose the results speak for themselves.
2023-01-21 19:56:32 +0000 UTCWhen my daughter was still just crawling, I dropped a dining plate on her head while I was drying it. Serious damage - zero. Although there was some screaming for a while, and frantic calls to medically qualified relatives to ask for advice. The fact that I still remember this over 30 years later probably means the memory won't fade for you either, but kids are tougher than we think and I'm sure you and Laser will be just fine 🙂
Tim Parsons
2023-01-21 17:21:30 +0000 UTCKnow exactly how you feel. Poor you. What a shock. (If it’s any consolation, I cried when I saw that my baby had slight tan lines from his little sandals because I realised I had lapsed in the sunscreen reapplication and his milky, perfect skin was ‘damaged’)
Vivienne McCallum
2023-01-21 12:54:36 +0000 UTCSo sorry to hear this. It’s a huge stress and guilt-load when our kiddos get hurt. It’s *my* recurring nightmare. Like when my then toddler walked into a wall and split open her forehead. Or when she had anaphylaxis at 11 mos or uncontrollable asthma attack at age 4 and I kept having to slap her feet to keep her awake on the way to the hospital. Take good care. Hope the tooth sticks.
2023-01-21 12:22:51 +0000 UTCI am sorry that you both (well, all of you) went through this. It is terrifying when your little one is in pain. It’s not great when your larger ones are in pain too. I am glad for everyone involved that it has been handled without too many long term complications.
2023-01-21 12:00:06 +0000 UTCBe reassured that, despite her short term pain & your longer-term guilt, she will be fine, and that it happens to all of us. My worst experience was losing my daughter, then aged two & a bit, in London's Natural History Museum at a busy time. It is a giant grid, so each junction has four possible choices, and I was going *spare* after only a couple of minutes' frantic searching through the crowds in ever-increasing circles, trying to second-guess her toddler randomness, and spot her tiny shoes and bright pink tights through the gaps between everyone's legs. All ended well, thankfully, as she had simply climbed up a fence to get a better look at the blue whale & other stuffed creatures, & so hid herself and her feet behind an adult. But I'll *never* forget that fast-rising panic of doom & personal guilt !
2023-01-21 11:43:47 +0000 UTCWoof, I really hope it takes back in, Alice. But, to be honest, I doubt you'll forget about the incident either way 😅 Sending positive vibes —George
2023-01-21 09:11:09 +0000 UTCIt’s not my favourite time of parenting so far
2023-01-21 08:16:20 +0000 UTCI shudder to think if this ever happened to my baby boy. I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
Mitch SuperKnot
2023-01-21 06:26:40 +0000 UTC
