All I want for Easter is my two front teeth!

Well, well. What an exciting Sunday evening we had! Those of you that know Carter know he RUNS everywhere. We are constantly telling him to slow down even though he has no idea what we are saying. We have baby proofed as much as possible, but he still manages to get hurt. Last night Carter was running into the living room from the kitchen (it's basically one big room), and he fell and landed face first on the tile floor. I picked him up, and took a good look.
"It's bleeding. He busted his lip. Oh, it's really bleeding. Oh my gosh! His teeth are missing!!" It started out a calm statement and ended in crying hysterics. Only one tooth actually fell out, but the other one was pushed so far back it looked like it was missing until I got a really good look. Monte and Lexie found the missing tooth, and we loaded Carter up and took him to the ER. We were all crying on the way to the hospital. Carter was screaming. It was so heart breaking to watch him cry from pain and not be able to do anything to help him.

The ER doc checked him out. He said the tooth was tight enough that he wasn't worried about it falling out and Carter choking on it, so he left it in for the pediatric dentist to evaluate. The only thing they could do for Carter last night was give him Tylenol with Codeine. Carter loved the codeine. By the time we left the ER he was waving and flashing his snaggle tooth smile at the nurses. (They were all very good with him and us.)

Carter had a hard time going to sleep because he couldn't have his pacifier. I finally took him for a drive and he crashed for the rest of the night. We put him in the pack and play in our room so we could watch him closely. I don't think Monte or I slept all night. I got up several times to check and make sure he was still breathing. I was worried that the tooth would come out or he got too much codeine.

We went to the pediatric dentist this morning, and they had to pull the other tooth. We took the missing one with us, but they informed us that they don't replace baby teeth. They said the success rate was very small and the risk of infection is very high, so it would increase the chance of damage to the permanent teeth. They did tell us that when Carter gets more back teeth (around age 3) that they can give him prosthetic teeth. Right now I would say we will definitely be doing that, but we'll see how things go between now and then. He might like the tough guy look and not want new front teeth.

I did get a picture of him this morning, but it was too sad to post. Once all the swelling and bruising goes away, I will post a picture of his new cheesy smile.