First trip to the dentist!

Well we put it off long enough considering Donovan turns 3 in 2 weeks and they recommend you go by their 1st birthday, but we finally did it! The juice stains on his front two teeth finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get him there. Today I had the day off work so I had Tom take Reese to Grammie Q's like normal and I took Donovan to his dentist appointment. I was VERY nervous about how he would do. A couple weeks ago when I started talking up the idea to him I asked him, "Do you want to go to the dentist?" to which he responded in a weak, pathetic sounding voice, "No, I'll just brush my teeth more." Unfortunately for him, I was not taking no for an answer. After doing research on dentists offices, then our insurance, we found this husband and wife team of dentists only 15 minutes away. I read that little kids do better in the morning so I luckily got him into a 8am spot less than a week after I had called the office. For the past week I have been hyping up this day. How it is "so exciting" that he gets to go to the dentist and have his teeth looked at and and how they were going to take pictures of his teeth and make them all shiny and pretty. It also helped that I added that after the dentist he would get to go to Grammie Q's and then spend the night at Grandma's and Grandpa's house.

So this morning he woke up on his own at 7:15 (which is a good sleep in for him) and actually sounded a little excited to go to the dentist. We got there a little early so he could get used to the idea of being there before anyone did anything to him, just like I had read to do. I also let him bring his 2 blankets and pillow in (his guys) for comfort in case he needed them (never touched them once we got in and he handed them to me!). They had an aquarium in the office so we looked at the fish and got to see a shrimp, which was Donovan's favorite. They had "A bugs life" playing so we watched a few minutes of that and he that got him laughing. Then it was time to go back. Ms. Lauren was our hygienist, and when she called his name he went right up to her, didn't pause and wait for me or anything. She introduced herself to him and asked him if he had a tractor on his shirt (it was an excavator, geez Ms. Lauren, don't you know anything?) to which he replied, "No. I rode on a tractor when we went apple picking." Where does this kid come up with this stuff? His memory is insane. We did ride a tractor when we went apple picking... IN OCTOBER, but I don't think we have talked about it since. Crazy.

So we went on back and first we had to get x-rays of his teeth. They had him put on the heavy vest to protect his body and then he had to wait like that for several minutes while they found the piece of the machine they needed. I was nervous that he would get antsy but he held still just perfect (see below). Then they had him put the thingy in his mouth and they had him hold his head down for the first picture and up for the second. She put the camera on his face and he tolerated it just fine. Perfect gentleman.

Then she took us over to the teeth cleaning area where first she just sat him so she could show him all her cool tools and tell him what they would do with those tools. She asked his toothpaste flavor preference and in a shock to no one that knows him, he picked chocolate. The thing they use to polish your teeth looked like a penguin so she told him she was going to put chocolate on the penguins nose and then tickle his teeth, and she let him feel on his hand what the tickle was going to feel like. Then she laid him on back and started working on him. He did everything she asked and never once whined or cried. It also helped that they had T.V.'s hanging from the ceiling that were showing the bug movie still.









After Ms. Lauren was done, she gave Dono some cool sunglasses to wear for when Dr. Lindsey came over so she could use her "sun" light. Dr. Lindsey was very nice. She encouraged me to make sure we were brushing his teeth twice a day every day, not just when we can remember which is what we do now (mornings our our week point). Also we need to stop sippys, which we already had in motion for his 3 yr birthday (because at 3, you are big so you don't need sippys and you give them all to your baby sister). Also we are to cut back on his juice even more and try to only give it with meals if at all. He probably gets around 8 oz a day now, over 4 servings and it is the first thing he asks for when he gets up and the last before he goes to bed (before he brushes his teeth) so it is going to be hard but I think with cutting out the sippys soon, it will be a little easier.

All in all Donovan did AMAZING!!!! I was so proud of him and he got lots of compliments from the Dr. and from the other girls. In 6 months I take him back, but next time Reese gets to go to for a baby appointment so big brother gets to show her the ropes since he is a pro! That will be interesting.