Saturday, November 08, 2008

One sucker down, one to go

What with all the appendecto-mania this summer I never recorded another big milestone: We are now a Nuk-free household. After all my hand-wringing, all it took was accidentally (we really didn't do it on purpose, except maybe in the Freudian sense) leaving the Nuks behind on our Fourth of July weekend trip to Grammy's house. That was four nights of "we left the Nuk in our car at the airport, remember?" and somehow Opie fell asleep each night without it. I don't even remember it being that difficult.

When we came home, we stashed the car Nuk before it could be seen and never brought it out again. Done and done. Color me shocked, especially since we couldn't have picked a worse time to break that habit--almost as soon as we returned from that particular trip, I left for a business trip on my own and then right after that we went to San Francisco, kicking off three weeks of hospitalization, disruption, and aggravation. And he was seriously fine the whole time. Once in a great while he'll say "I miss my Nukkies" and we'll agree and reminisce about the good times we all had. And then move on.

Now, the thumb is another story, especially now that Jo has lost her two top front teeth. Anticipating yet another stern lecture from the dentist, we ordered these thumb guards, which we've been using for about a week now with a fair amount of success (by which I mean she is able to fall asleep with them on; but the minute she wakes up she extricates herself and we find her on the couch slurping away).

So Monday we go to the dentist (aside: genius over here scheduled her kids' dentists appointments for three days after Halloween) and I am already on the defensive. Instead, we get the best hygienist ever. She told me that yes, Jo has a cross-bite, but it's not necessarily related to her thumb habit. And she said that she should go to the orthodontist after all 8 of her front teeth (4 top, 4 bottom) fall out and grow back in, which "may not be until she's past 8 years old." I wanted to kiss her on the spot for buying us two more years!

8 comments:

Lady M said...

Nuk-free, whoo-hoo! Congrats. That was such a huge step for Q-ster too.

One note about the other one: I was a thumb-sucker and didn't braces. My sister was not, and she did need braces. So sometimes it doesn't make any difference at all.

GHD said...

I think it just goes to show that no matter how much hand wringing we do, things just happen when they need to happen... and it's AWESOME!

Kirsetin Morello said...

Wow, I know a lot of moms who would envy that Nuk story! With all of the other stress this summer, I'm glad that was relatively pain-free.

And, hey, two years more to save up for that unusually expensive hardware. Very lucky! Who knows? Maybe the price will drop for those, too. Wouldn't that be great? Then, if she doesn't need them, it'll be like getting a bonus out of nowhere. Hmmm, maybe I'll try that myself.

Heather said...

It is SO hard to get rid of the sucking comforts! I don't envy you on that.

Julie Marsh said...

Oh, I am so glad to hear that (about the hygienist). As we discussed, I think it's pretty much BS that your dentist waved the threat of orthodontia as justification for giving you hell about the thumb-sucking. Just about everybody gets braces these days anyway.

motherbumper said...

You dodged the orthodontic bullet for a couple of more years - HIGH FIVE.

And isn't it amazing how those hurdles that appear huge (like Nuk) can be so easy to jump. If only all challenges were so easy.

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

Hey, that's awesome! My son lost his 'binkie' and we suffered, I mean suffered, for a whole week. Even now -- three years later -- he has trouble falling asleep at night.

Anonymous said...

I guess there is something to be said for just waiting until it's time, but I HATE that Myles uses the pacifier even though we only let him have it when he's sleeping. I weaned him from car paci a few months ago and I wondered for a few weeks if I was just making things harder on myself and shouldn't just let him have the damn thing.
So glad it all went down with no drama, that's awesome.