SpyGlass: Back in the grind

Meet orthodontic apperatice of which I have no idea how to pronounce its name #1. Roughly a year and a half or two ago this is what the doctor had us try to use in Mic's mouth to help push and pull things into shape. ...She threw up on the doctor when he put it in. We gave it a sincere try even though it was miserable. The life literly went out of my child's eyes, she shut down emotionally, she drooled through a bib an hour and by day three she was so completly dehydrated that she hadn't urinated in 18 hours. At that point we called the doctor for a heart to heart and the thing came out and stayed out.

Meet orthodontic apperatice #2--much more user friendly and lower profile. This is an "expansor", though I think that is a generic term for several types of gizzmos all of which look differently but are used orthodontically to expand different areas of the mouth. This little guy goes up on the palate area and covers part of the upper teeth as well. In theory it stays in all the time except for when brushing teeth and that little screw gets a half turn twice a week for six weeks slowly pushing out the part of her palate that is majorly caved in.

Mic has come a long way since we tried to use #1 on her. Someday she will need to use gizzmo #1, but it may be another couple years before shes ready for that. In the mean time we are very thankful for a WONDERFUL, experienced orthodontist who understands treating the whole child and not just a crooked mouth, so much so that all this time from the try with #1 to today he really has simply dedicated himself to making friends with Mic and gaining her trust putting his medical agenda on hold as much as possible to allow her to mature emotinally and for her oral aversions to lesson.

However, we are also against the clock. The younger all this molding takes place the more flexible her mouth is and the better end result will be had. So, today was the BIG day. A restart in orthodontics, with the introduction of thinger #2.

...She didn't throw up on the doctor when they tested the fit. But she also absolutely would not open her mouth again to put it back in, it came home in a pocket in the diaper bag. SOOOOO...we have some major work ahead as over the next couple weeks we need to find the way to help her overcome her "stuff" and in a healthy way be able to accept this little thing-a-ma-jig in her mouth.

This is just how tiring the day was physically and emotionally, my babe hasn't had a nap in ages and this afternoon she slept for over three hours!