My son has had major tooth decay in his baby teeth, so because he’s under 3 they recommend using anesthesia for fixing it all at once. It was not from a bottle, because he was breastfed, but his 4 front teeth had to come out as well as some molars needing root canals and caps. Eeek! I know.

Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto is THE best place to go if your child needs surgery. I was very concerned about payment because Dental is not covered even though the anesthetic was. Treatment of this magnitude would cost upwards of $2000! The night before surgery, I talked to my aunt about it, who is a dental assistant, and she told me to have them not do anything that wasn’t NEEDED, like cleanings etc. I ended up getting my mom to agree to lend me money in case I couldn’t cover it all…but who really wants to do that.

There is a program in Ontario called “Children In Need of Treatment” for kids under 18. I thought we were too late and too far into the process to qualify for this, but it is really an amazing program. It isn’t for general maintenance, it is for kids who are in need of treatment like cavities and extractions etc. Every time there is a need, you need to re-assess, but there are a few clinics that perform the work through the Region of York-specifically to my case.

I took my son to the hospital alone, and left my younger son with my mom for the day. We arrived in 6B, the pre-anesthesia clinic where they take vitals, get them into hospital gowns and ask health related questions. Everyone goes here first, no matter what type of surgery is being performed. Our surgery was booked for 2pm, but we had to arrive 2 hours prior. What a LONG time for a toddler to not eat or drink anything! I avoided eating also, so that I would feel his pain and not rub it in his face. We waited there before being taken with another family down to the 2nd floor pre-surgery waiting room. Which is, btw, way cooler than the first waiting room. It has 4 video game systems, and a floor full of infant-toddler toys and a bookshelf full of books. The nurses also hand out stickers to all the kids.

The 2nd floor waiting room is where you talk to the anesthesiologist about what pain meds they may or may not administer, as well as possible intubation, and the side effects of each. The Doctor performing the surgery will also come and speak to you about the procedure and confirm the consent form is signed and understood. Dr. Judd, was the dentist who was performing my son’s surgery. He had a warmth about him, and was very easy to approach about our financial problems. I asked him if there were some procedures he could leave out because of our financial situation and he advised me that all of the procedures were necessary. He went on to say that he would waive his fee on the cleanings etc. so that I wouldn’t stress over cost. He then remembered the ‘CINOT’ program and said he would make a call to his accounting department to get them to look into a rush assessment.

So he returned and told me that once my son was in the OR, I was to go see Cheryl about the program. I told him I appreciated his help and concern. He assured me not to worry about fees and left. Our anesthesiologist finally arrived and spoke to us, well mostly me, as my son was immersed in his DS, about all that stuff. Her nurse came over to ask whether there would be separation anxiety or not. I said it would most likely be due to his DS being taken away, so she said he could take it with him. She then asked him if he wanted a ride in a car or a wagon. He picked a wagon and said he was cold, so she got him a wagon, and couple blankets and off he went with a quick kiss from me. He didn’t even look back as she took him down the hall.

I was then taken to the parents waiting room where you have to check in with the Women’s Auxilliary and check out if you go for food. I had to check in and then right back out so that I could go to the dental accounting department, so I wasn’t there long. When I got in to see Cheryl, she had a big smile on her face and said, I was covered! She explained that they normally don’t accept things this way, but if you get a good person on the phone anything is possible. She also had to give our info while I was still upstairs, but assured me that the Privacy Act was in place, as always. She also told me that if I had not been accepted to the program, that Dr. Judd was going to waive his entire fee! Amazing! What great news.

I happily went on my way to get some food from the cafeteria, which is awesome btw. It’s in the atrium, and they have all kinds of food to choose from. I also grabbed a little something from the gift shop for my son and hurried back to the waiting room for 3pm. I noticed that there was a large LCD flat-screen TV with patients’ initials and their statuses. My son’s was ‘Ja. R’ – ‘In OR’. About 10 minutes later I looked up from my ipod to see a man I think is Dr. Judd, and I glance over to see ‘in recovery’ beside my son’s name. Dr. Judd does a double take and realizes he looked right at me and didn’t see me at first. He takes me into a separate room to discuss how the procedure went and praised me for my ‘brushing’ technique. Apparently I scrub them really good-even though my son hates it! He said that only 2 root canals were needed instead of 4 and that he stitched the sockets where the 4 front teeth were extracted to make healing easier on me. He said not to used sippy cups anymore, that straws are better for not pooling liquids in the mouth when swallowing isn’t happening, and told me if I keep up the brushing and weed out the sippy cups, my son shouldn’t have anymore cavities in his baby teeth. I told him of the CINOT covering the treatment and he was pleased and I thanked him again, and he re-assured me that he would’ve waived his fee. What a great dentist! You don’t hear of that too often.

Now I still had to wait for the screen to say ’see a volunteer’ before I could go see my son. So about 10 minutes after talking to the dr. about post op info etc. I was taken to recovery to see him. He was lying on his side with his Ikea kitty beside his face and looking all groggy…and cute. The nurse assigned to him was young and pretty and was smitten with him. She kept telling me what a good boy he was! My son? Obviously a side effect of anesthesia. He sucked back a freezie, learning very quickly to adapt to having no front teeth. He also seemed very annoyed with the frog in his throat which was cute and he hated having the IV pad still attached to him. After gulping an apple juice, he was detached from all the stuff, but was still wanting to snuggle in his blankets. We left around 4pm and were caught in rush hour…bleh, but he had a long nap on the way, and we stopped at the store to get him a new case for his DS because it was broken (a super awesome Nerf case btw), and a new game for the Wii. He sucked back a juice box, and was a mommy suck for the rest of the night, he was so calm and lovey, I knew it was only a side effect of the surgery, but I still enjoyed hearing him say ‘love you mommy’ over and over.

He woke up this morning and aside from commenting on how his teeth feel weird, he was back to his rambunctious self again.

Sick Kids Hospital is an Amazing place, and I feel so fortunate to live only 1 hour away!

On Saturday I woke and decided “I think we’ll try this potty training thing again”. We got out the fancy CARS and Spiderman undies, and took off the nighttime diaper and crossed our fingers.

Saturday was full of accidents, especially in the morning. We decided to bribe him with playing his DS, and it worked at first until he started to play the darn thing and was so caught up that he peed his pants…this happened a few times. I realized that when he was wetting himself, it was as if the diaper was still on, he hadn’t made the connection that he was wearing underwear. So we reminded him that there are a different set of rules when wearing underwear (in a way that a 33month old would). I then also told him that he can play the game while sitting on the potty-that helped.

So late afternoon Saturday he wanted to play his game so I say, ‘go pee on the potty and you can’. He goes, sits down, and stews for a bit. He seems to be doing push ups on the handles of his potty, and then tells me he pooed! I got so excited because my sister told me my nephew Hated pooing in the potty, so I felt relieved to have jumped that hurdle.

My hubby was at the neighbours and I just couldn’t flush it without him seeing, so I opened the door, called out to him and we had a flushing ceremony when he came in! We were so happy that Riley got his ds AND some M&M’s.

Sunday was better, but still some accidents. Then just before dinner, another big loader! 2 BM’s in 2 days in the potty, I’d say is a pretty awesome start.

So today, we take off the diaper go get breakfast ready, and GO! No accidents ALL day! Sadly tomorrow he has Nursery School and since he still hasn’t mastered the toilet yet, I’m not sending him diaper free. But hopefully he tells the teachers he has to pee and he tries going with his classmates. But I think we can recover if any accidents happens, and then maybe by next week’s class, he’ll be a pro and sporting his favorite undies.

We told him that if he is out of diapers by his 3rd birthday in March, we’ll buy him a new colour DS. (since the current one is mine and I never get to use it-we also figure we’ll save that amount pretty quickly following his triumph)

On another note, my baby boy Kyle began crawling on Sunday! He’s 5.5 months old! I just can’t believe how fast he’s growing. So what a big weekend we’ve had!

I keep meaning to write this. I just switched over from disposables for my second child. I actually used them with my first until his poops started to resemble grown up poops and then it was too gross for me to scrape it into the toilet. But for breastfed babies, who aren’t quite on solids yet, it’s the best. There are NEVER any leaks or blowouts. A-mazing!

I just finally got around to getting things organized. That’s the only reason I’ve waited so long. I love not worrying about going out an buying diapers, and after awhile cloth diapers pay for themselves.

I use Mother-ease One Size diapers with snap in liners and 2 Rikki wrap covers and 3 air-flow covers. I am going to buy some more, and try out their Sandy’s cloth diapers as I know my child is in the larger weight category already. One thing I want to try this time is disposable liners, that you can flush down the toilet. I never heard of them the first time around and I bet that I will go longer this time if I have them. Toysrus has a roll of 100 for $8.99 cdn, but Mother-ease sells them on their website also. And for those true Canadians out there, Mother-ease is a Canadian company, and for those Green-moms out their, they offer a Bamboo Stretch Terry and an Organic cotton fabric AND they use 100% Green Power at their Manufacturing facilities in St. Catharines Ontario.

Now for those of you thinking, oh it’s so much work or it’s gonna cost as much in water and hydro and my municipality takes disposables in the Green Bin so why bother? Here’s the real deal. While you will have to put out more money in the beginning to get a good stash of diapers, it won’t take long to see the benefits. Say you spend $60-100 per month on disposables and I’m being generous, then paying CDN $334.95 for a complete package and getting 3.5 months use of it isn’t too bad. Then if you continue using them for even longer, you’ll really start to see the savings.

The reason I like Mother-ease so much, is that they have designed them in such a way, that the ease of use it almost identical to using disposables. The One-Size have multiple snap button positions, including ones for adding liners for heavy wetters or for overnight. The All in One has a built in Cover, while the Sandy’s come in multiple colours and 2 sizes and additional liners sewn in. The diapers have multiple snap positions so that babies with chubby legs but small waists can still use them and vice versa.

The only difference from disposables that I can ascertain is the fact that you have wash them. Now think for second, when you need diapers you have to run out to get them, and when you’re done with them you have to put them in a pail and eventually empty that pail. I don’t see much more work in using these cloth diapers. These are not you grandmother’s cloth diapers. Gone are the days of folding and pinning and using wool covers. Now you snap, snap and go. I will say the one thing I find cumbersome, is the huge butt my baby is left with when using the One-size, maybe the Sandy’s will be different. I mean it doesn’t bother him, it does give him more cushioning, and there are no chemicals touching his skin, so oh well.

Oh and one final note on hydro and water usage, they use the same amount of water that your toilet trained child would use flushing the toilet for a month. Check out the Mother-ease site where they break it all down, and even put into perspective the affects of disposables on the environment. I mean I know disposables can be recycled, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t huge factories pumping out exhaust fumes making them, as well as the recycling facilities doing the same to break them down.

In this case, I would say it’s better to Reduce/ReUse than it is to Recycle.