Happy 7th Birthday Maddy!!!

I can't believe my baby girl turns 7 today! Where does time go?! Today is the first birthday I had to send her away for the day. And, it doesn't help that it's a church night so we can't do anything even this evening. :( Kinda sad. I wish we could spend the day celebrating with her but we have special things set up for the times during the day when we will be together. And, we are all looking forward to her party on Saturday.

I asked her if she wanted me to come eat lunch with her today. She said no. I tried to bribe her with bringing McDonalds. Her response-"why don't you just pack that in my lunch". After explaining to her that it would be bad by lunch time she suggested that I just bring up McDonalds at lunch and then leave. Goof ball!

We entered the world of orthodontia yesterday. A bit young you say? Well, not in Maddy's case. She has a bilateral, posterior crossbite meaning her teeth in back don't bit correctly which is causing her to shift her jaw to the side to get at least one side to meet. This is all because her upper jaw is more narrow than her lower jaw and it should be the other way around. If left untreated it could cause serious problems. If they expand her upper palate at a young age like this it isn't painful and more easily and more quickly corrected because it is all still cartilage. Between the ages of 12-15 it starts to turn to bone and as you can imagine, the process is painful. I can't even begin to tell you the anxiety I have dealt with and put myself through over this thing. But, you can't tell me even the most worry free mom wouldn't have some kind of freak factor when they are told their 6 yr and 364 day old little girl was going to have this shoved in the top of their mouth which will cause her to talk funny, have to learn how to eat and swallow again and oh, it was your job over the next 2-4 weeks to stretch apart her palate. I mean just think that your upper jaw isn't just floating around in your head. It's all attached up there so it is going to affect her entire facial structure. I would always blow it off as no big deal when Maddy talked about it. And, we prayed a lot. I prayed A LOT! But, behind closed doors, I had a hard time not totally freaking out about this palate expander.

About 2 hours before her appointment yesterday I finally realized that all my kicking and screaming with the Lord on this wasn't going to change anything. I finally realized that all the stories I read on line (bad idea), stories people would tell me about someone they knew that had it (not helpful in the least especially since those were experiences from 15-20 yrs ago and things were made different now) and all the moans and groans I would get when I told people about it-none of that had any affect on the journey the Lord was taking Maddy through with it. None of that mattered and none of it was going to affect Maddy's experience.

And, her appointment went far better than I could have even imagined. Not one ounce of pain. Not one flinch. Thumbs up the entire time. She left the dentist office and it was like she didn't skip a beat in her day. I told her that the more she talked the faster her voice would sound normal again. So she did just that and didn't stop talking until she went to bed. Her speech improved greatly over just those few hours. You can completely understand her it's just a bit "cotton mouthy", you can tell she has something in her mouth. Another concern of mine was getting used to swallowing because your tongue doesn't touch the top of your mouth anymore. She had absolutely no problem. Our biggest hurdle is solid foods. They get stuck but she is quickly learning how to make it work. It is obviously annoying to have in but she will get used to it and it will be out before we know it!

I was a bit frightened to enter this world of orthodonia. I never had braces. Jeff never had braces. It was new. It was scary. But, it is all going to be worth it in the end! (and it really isn't that bad so far :D)