The first lost tooth

When MissK lost a tooth a few months ago MissG was quite concerned. She wanted to look at it, and at the space it left. She remembered the discomfort of the dental work she had done last year. She asked lots of questions.... will it hurt when I lose a tooth? Will I be able to eat? Will the new tooth be big? And most importantly, will it bleed?

MissG doesn't really cope well with blood. We have talked about how clever her body is, and that when she bleeds her body sends platelets to clot the blood and form a covering over the cut so her skin can heal underneath. We have tried to convince her that seeing blood is good because it means her body is doing what it should.  We have told her the sting is temporary, and will pass soon. These days, she can talk quite calmly about it, and knows in theory that she doesn't need to worry. But when the moment comes that she cuts or grazes herself..... she panics! It's a quick rush to cover up the wound and soothe and calm her until the initial surprise and pain subside. Depending on the injury and her general state of mind at the time, this can take a while.

So MissG and I have both been a bit nervous about her losing teeth. I have been working on "wobbly tooth readiness" for a while. We have talked about what happens to cause your tooth to wobble, how it feels, how long it might be wobbly for, and what happens and how it will feel when the tooth falls out. MisG's older brothers and sisters have been drawn in to the preparation process, and have all told stories about how cool it is to get big teeth and that it doesn't hurt much when the baby ones fall out. 

Then her front tooth wobbled. And she got excited! 

We talked about what to do if her tooth falls out at school. We told her teacher that her tooth was wobbly and that MissG wants to save it and bring it home if it falls out at school.

We waited.

She wobbled it.

We waited. 

She got me to check it.

We waited.

She ate crunchy foods. It hurt. She ate soft foods.

We waited. 

She wobbled it more.

We waited.

She said, "this tooth has been wobbly for AGES!"

And then last night, while I was at the shops, my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"MY TOOTH FELL OUT!!"

I couldn't quite tell if it was an anxious yell or and excited yell. I went with excited...

"wow! That's great!!"

"I WAS IN THE BATH AND I WAS BLOWING THROUGH THE STRAW AND MY TOOTH FELL OUT AND I GOT IT AND PUT IT IN A BAG AND I WIPED THE BLOOD WITH A TISSUE AND I WANT TO TAKE IT TO SCHOOL TOMORROW"

She was *so* excited. 

I was so relieved. Preparation had been successful, and she was happy. It doesn't get better than that!

Please, 2013, be kind

2012 is rapidly coming to an end.

2013 is looming and the first couple of months of it promise some big changes in our household!

Our oldest daughter, E, will be starting her HSC years (year 11 and 12).

Our oldest son, L, will go into year 8 and is being moved into the Gifted and Talented class at his school. Some of you know about the problems he has had with bullying over the past year, and we are all hoping that this move will provide him a more appropriate learning environment as well as a more supportive social environment (if you missed it and want to know you can search for "bullying" using the search function at the top right of the page, most of the information is in this post- Brave, Smart and Strong.....).

Our second son, I, will start High School in the year 7 Gifted and Talented class at the same high school as his older brother and sister.

7 year old MissK will go into year 2 at our fantastic local primary school with a new teacher.

MissG will start Kindergarten at the same school as K. Some of you have been following her progress through the preparation activities we've been doing with her (if you haven't and want to catch up just search the blog for "Transition to school" using the search function at the top right of the page).

And, Baby Number 6 is due to arrive in the first week of February, just after everyone is back at school.

Sometime during the first half of next year I will be aiming to returning to work in a part time capacity so that Hubby can reduce his work hours a bit in order to help him manage some health issues.

To be completely honest, I am pretty nervous about all these changes.

We've done everything we can to prepare for all the school transitions. There is seriously nothing left we can do to help the kids be ready for those. I have actually been so busy with all that preparation that I have not spent very much mental time on the fact that I am pregnant and we will have a new member in our family in about 6 weeks. Now that we have arrived at the first few days of the month I have purposely set aside to be quiet and stop this routine of attending an average of 2 appointments day making sure everyones medical and mental health needs are taken care of, it has suddenly hit me how tired I am, and how little time is left before all this big stuff I've been getting ready for happens.

But I'm mostly wondering if I've done enough to get ready for this baby? I have the physical stuff covered- bassinet, blankets, nappies, clothes, pram, etc.... it's more the emotional stuff. Not that you can really completely prepare for that. But I'm thinking about the social stories and conversations and practice visits that we do to prepare for other big changes, and I've done none of to get ready for a baby in the house!! It is probably because I've been so busy with everything else, I guess. At least I've realised with enough time to do something!

I'm thinking I'll put the car seat in the car and have the stroller in the house where the kids can see it. At least if some of the baby paraphernalia is visible that should help with awareness of an upcoming change, right? And I might be able to find some books on the shelf about new babies (I think we have some!) that we can use to talk about what babies are like with MissG. I don't think it will be as hard for the older kids to anticipate- they've at least done it a few times before. I do wonder how the change will impact the two younger ones, especially MissG as she makes her big transition to school at the same time as becoming a big sister. How are ASD and SPD going to impact her experience? It is a complete unknown.

So- it is a big year coming up, no doubt about that. I'm not really one for New Year Resolutions, or for making wishes. But, if I knew I could have wishes granted, I would wish for a bullying-free year, for a year with no new diagnoses, and for a year in which no more cuts are made to the support my kids need to attend school. It's not too much to ask, surely?

Please, 2013, be kind.