It Begins

In some ways it seems like a million years ago, but in others it seems like just yesterday that I was at my orthodontist's office pitching a fit because he wouldn't take my braces off when I wanted him to do it.

Now my child is there, in that same orthodontist's office, getting her own set of braces.  Or at least, her own set of dental torture devices.  We haven't quite gotten to the braces yet -- those come in two weeks.  We started off this Monday getting two teeth pulled... 

(I say "we."  I mean Tyler.  I would have been a big, fat baby about this whole ordeal, but Tyler handled it like a champ.  I am really proud of how well she did!)

Poor girl bled all afternoon after getting those teeth out.  She had to walk around with this gauze in her mouth, and I couldn't understand a word she said.  Little did I know that that was just practice for later on in the week...

On Wednesday Ty got to skip the entire day of school because she had to go get her torture devices put in.  The first one is a palatal expander.  I escaped ever having to have one, but both my sister and brother had them, and I remember the horrors my mom went through turning the key in that thing every night.  Now I'm doing it.  It's not fun.

Tyler also has this contraption in the bottom of her mouth that is supposed to pull the bottom of her jaw forward.  It has this big, plastic part that covers all of her bottom teeth, and so she sounds like she is talking with something in her mouth at all times.  That and she drooled all over the place for the first two days.

This is what her mouth looks like now:

Or it is what her mouth looks like until we go get the braces on her top permanent teeth in two weeks.

And to think, this is only child 1, phase 1...we get to do this at least 3 more times!