Does pregnancy ruin your teeth?

All right, I’ll admit it. I don’t have the best teeth in the entire world. It’s a family thing. None of my family has good teeth. To be honest, though, I’m pretty sure I’ve got the best out of the bunch. I’ve never had to have a root canal, after all.

A dental hygienist once told me that everyone has either an acidic or a base mouth and that people with one get a lot of cavities and people with the other tend to get gingivitis. I fall into the cavity category. No matter how well I take care of my teeth, I still get cavities. It’s frustrating!

I’ll also admit that I don’t floss like I should. I probably floss about once a week. I do, however, use a pre-mouth wash (for plaque – to see where it is) and Listerine Whitening mouth wash before I brush. After brushing for three solid minutes (I have a timer), I use Listerine Cavity Defense mouth wash. I do what I can, basically, to prevent cavities. Since I’m pregnant, I’ve given up all caffeine, so I know that helps a little too. I also brush on a minimum of twice a day.

So, why is it that since I found out I was pregnant, I’ve started having teeth pain? I’ve never had teeth pain in my life! It’s not a consistent pain by any means. It’s not sensitive to heat or cold. It’s only sensitive to irritation (like if I poke on it to see if it’s a cavity or if I brush it). I know that it’s the teeth since my dentist only recently told me that I have incredibly healthy gums.

Tonight, I gave my mouth a close look and, sure enough, #14 and #19 appear to have cavities on the exterior side. #20 has a funky vein-looking thing on it, maybe an 1/8 of an inch or so long, also on the exterior side. The space between #2 and #3 is sensitive on the inside but does not appear to have any cavities.

These cavities were NOT there two months ago. And I don’t want them to be there now, either. What gives?

The question – does pregnancy ruin your teeth? Is there anyway to prevent tooth decay while pregnant? Did your teeth act up during [any of] your pregnancy?

Pregnancy Milestones

Four days before my baby gets a heartbeat, and I’ve already reached two (semi-) major milestones.

My mother and my sisters warned me that the first would come one time. Just wait, they said. Wait. Just wait until you get to the point where you sneeze and you wet your pants. I, of course – being the naïve pregnant female that I am – laughed. I would never reach that point, of that I was certain.

Uhm, yeah. I reached that point today. On the bright side, since I was already in the bathroom, on the toilet, it was funnier than it was sad.

Still. I reached a milestone.

The second milestone would be the phase-of-disgusting-food-combinations. As I’ve been craving a banana split for the past couple of days, Shane got the great idea that we go to Sonic when he gets off of work. He tried to talk me into eating a cheeseburger before I ordered my banana split, but I was not having any of that. He ordered both at the same time, and I very nearly starting eating my dessert before we even had the opportunity to pray!

I sat there in the car, alternating between inhaling the ice cream and snacking on the burger. At one point in time, in an attempt to be a somewhat sensible adult, I even relinquished the banana split and concentrated on the burger.

That kind of lasted as long as it took me to break off a piece of burger… and see that banana split sitting right there. Looking so good. So cold. So… I wonder how it would ta- The thought hadn’t even completed itself when my hands took over and the action was completed.

Yes, you guessed it! I, the person who will eat nothing even remotely disgusting, found that dipping a cheeseburger into ice cream is quite delicious.

Second milestone reached.

Growing, Growing...

Lindsay, Liz, and I went to dinner the other night at Roaster’s and, man, do I wish I had tried this place years ago. So good! And, believe it or not, so much better than Boston Market!

The dinner conversation, as most of them are doing these days, rotated around the topic of the new baby. Everyone has advice; everyone has suggestions. My poor husband has no idea what he’s gotten us into, and even he has suggestions for me!

At this time, though, the topic of what’s-best-for-the-baby came up. I was amused to find a pretty high dichotomy within both Lindsay and myself. Lindsay is very much pro-organic foods and all natural products during the pregnancy but strongly supports the idea of a drugged labor and delivery. I, on the other, am concerned (but not overly) with going all organic and natural during the pregnancy but am determined to go through the labor and delivery without any drugs. Add on top of that Shane’s and my decision to circumcise any son we have, and it gets to be a bit funny. How on earth can we be pro-natural in one circumstance, but pro-medical in another?

Speaking of, I found the place that I want to deliver! It's called the Austin Area Birthing Center, and as soon as I found it on the internet, I knew I wanted to deliver there. They offer individualized birthing rooms with queen size beds and tubs for laboring and/or delivering. Since it's all midwifes, they'll also support my plan to go au naturel. For those worried, it's located no more than ten minutes from two major hospitals - and only ten minutes from Shane's and my new apartment. Not the best part but still incredibly awesome is that it's all-inclusive (minus the diagnostic ultrasound and lamaze classes) and it's less than $4000.

It has been nine days since we found out that we’d conceived a baby, and the changes in my body are already evident – at least to me. It’s true what they say: you’re never just a little bit pregnant. In the last week, I’ve noticed my breasts getting larger and my stomach rounding out. I feel fat most of the time right now and have already began losing muscle mass in my stomach – meaning that it’s no longer quite so easy to hold it in. You know that line that most females have, moving horizontally across their belly button? Where the skin folds over itself when you sit? Yeah, that’s disappearing too. Quickly.

To prove that I’m not just losing my mind, I took the following picture. I'm 4 weeks, 5 days in it. Please excuse how blurry it is; for some reason, my camera is acting up. It does this every once in a while, especially since Shane likes to take it out to shoot thunderstorms. :-)