Monday, September 17, 2012

Two Teeth

Friday morning (Sept. 14), Matt opened Cooper’s and Conner’s bedroom door to wake them for school.  He was surprised to find Cooper banging his bar shoes on his face while he was still sleeping.  We had wrapped foam and tape over the hard metal bar for protection, but Cooper was not only banging the foam-covered bar across his face, but also the hard metal attachments to the shoes.  OUCH!

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I heard Cooper crying, which isn’t normal for him, to I ran to see what the problem was.  It wasn’t that he was banging his bar and metal brackets across his face, it was that he had lost a tooth.  And most likely swallowed it.  (We never found it.)  Perhaps he was banging the bar shoes on his face because he was trying to knock his tooth out?  We didn’t even realize it was loose!!!  These are things we’re learning as we face life with non-verbal kiddos.  It’s a little different than an infant who can’t talk because infants don’t lose teeth…and other things. Smile

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Above is a pic of the tooth Cooper lost Friday morning.  He had already lost the two lower middle teeth sometime in Ukraine—his adult teeth had already grown in by the time we met Cooper.

 

So Friday night, after I put Cooper to bed, I stayed in the room to watch Cooper to see if he was planning to bang his bar shoes against his face again.  Sure enough, shortly after I turned out the light, Cooper started banging his shoes and bar against his face—violently.

 

Now, both boys have MANY self-stimulating institutional behaviors, some self-injurious, but this was a new one.  I started wondering if maybe Cooper was teething, as it appeared he was also chewing on the foam of the bar.  So, I shined a flashlight into Cooper’s mouth to inspect his gums to see if any molars were erupting.

 

I didn’t see evidence of teething, but I did find that Cooper’s upper middle tooth was totally loose, just dangling there! It wasn’t dangling during supper or during teeth brushing before bed!  In fact, we didn’t even know it was loose!

 

I decided to pull the tooth in an effort to keep Cooper (age 7) from swallowing it.  Cooper was a trooper!

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Two teeth in one day!  Wow, what a big boy!!!  He is growing up and changing so rapidly.  It’s hard to believe it’s just been six months since Cooper joined our family!

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By the way, Cooper always takes his pajama shirts off.  We even put him in a one-piece zip-up footie pajama suit, and put it on him backwards (so he couldn’t unzip it), and he STILL got it off!!!  He won’t keep blankets or covers on.  He even gets out of those sleep sacks that you zip onto them.  That was all fine and dandy during the hot summer months, but when it gets cold, I sure hope Cooper decides to keep some pajamas on!!!

 

Oh, and Cooper hasn’t been banging the bar of his shoes on his face since I pulled that upper tooth, so maybe that’s the only reason why he was banging it.  I sure hope that’s not a habit he takes up!!!

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