Clenching, biting and grinding at night

Some of us clench, bite or grind our teeth at night while we are asleep and are not even aware of it. I have been noticing that for the past few months I have been waking up to having my teeth clenched down tightly. It really has been even worse in the past few weeks. I don't even know why I do it. I found out that I am a clencher from a dental visit last year. The dentist asked me if I grind my teeth and I knew I didn't since my husband would know since he sleeps next to me every night. She told me that I clench since my teeth showed signs of it. Honestly, if she never said anything then I might still be completely oblivious to it. This really concerned me so I thought I would do some research of my own to get some idea of why the heck I am doing it. It turns out that it is very common and can be triggered by stress, anxiety or even restlessness. I don't have any of these problems so it still puzzles me. I was reading on Facebook the other day about a friend who grinds her teeth so badly at night that she fears she will become toothless. My daughter told me that one of her friends bites the insides of her cheeks at night and wakes up to a bloody mouth each morning. So it appears that so many people do it and I am not alone. Last night I purposely kept my mouth open a bit and tried to catch myself in the act of clenching down. I don't know if it will help me to reverse my problem but I am sure am aware of when I do it. There may come a day that I will be forced to sleep with a night guard. I think I will address it with my dentist on my next appointment that is coming up in a couple months.

Question: Do you or someone you know have a problem with clenching, biting or grinding their teeth at night? If so did you have a particular solution that worked to remedy this problem?

Brie's braces update

It has been almost 2 months since Brie got her braces and I am happy to report that things are going very well. It's going way better than we thought. She adjusted really quickly to them and feels like having them is just normal now. She has figured out what she can and can't eat and methods to make eating certain things a bit easier. The only real issue she has had so far is a bit of pain from the pressure of her teeth moving. It is amazing to see just how much her teeth have moved already! Our schedules have not been coinciding for me to snap a photo but I am sure I can pin her down some time soon and sneak one in. Brie has done really well with the extra teeth brushing and longer flossing time. It takes longer but she knows how important it is throughout this process.

On her last orthodontist visit she asked the technician how many colors she could get for her rubber bands. She was told she can get as many as she wanted. Of course she requested rainbow. My girl loves her colors!!

WTH!? Wednesday

There are so many things lately that have me saying WTH!?

I will kick things off with skinny pants. Not all of us are cut out to wear them. I accept that. Why are boys wears them tighter than girls? Also WTH is up with dudes wearing them with a belt but the waist part is around their thighs? Perhaps I am a bit too antique to appreciate that type of fashion.

The other day I went into the gas station to pay for my purchase and there was an interesting character ahead of me in line. The cashier asks him “how can I help you” and he proceeds with “umm umm umm, gimme a, umm umm umm…” He went through that for an entire minute and ends up buying 2 scratch-off lottery tickets for $5 each and then asks for $5 on pump 8 {blank stare} WTH?!! He was driving an old Chevy with 22’s that were worth more than the actual vehicle. I’m sure the $5 in gas bought him enough to get him 2 miles up the street.

My son. Oh what a chip off the old block. Why oh why does the boy child insist that he needs to kiss me on the lips? No matter how much I have taught him to give kisses on the cheek he insists on the lips. He also has some thing for touching boobies. He gets in so much trouble for doing it so he found a new method. He takes his hand in a cup position and holds it about one inch away from the boobies and smiles. Bad behind! WTH!?

So now it's your turn, please share your WTH moments in the comments...

He's old school and not changing one bit

If you have been an active Momfiles reader then you might know that Dwayne and I are very old school. I however know when to get with the times. For example, these are my ear buds. They are cute, small and can fit in my pocket.

Here is Dwayne's version~ the bulky headphones. He has had them since about 1996. It finally came apart a week ago and he was heartbroken.

He went and bought new headphones. They are HUGE. It is like he specifically needed to seek out the biggest ones he could find. Not only is it enormous but it also has a 50 foot cord attached! WTH!?

You can compare the size of the old ones with his new ones. My husband takes old school to his own ridiculous level. Oh and he likes to listen to his cassette tapes from his boom box with these. He has even tried plugging this thing into his BlackBerry! bahahaha!

I did go and buy him some plain ear buds for his phone so he doesn't look like a fool. Bless his heart, what do I do with him? ;)

No naps allowed!

I never thought the day would come that I would be so happy that my little guy stopped taking a nap. This has been going on for about 2 months and it has made my life so much easier. William is not grumpy at all without a daytime nap. He goes to bed at 8:00 pm and I have to wake him up the next morning at about 7:30. I find that if he takes any part of a nap he won't go to bed until after 10:00 and that does not work for me! I really like his new schedule and he seems to like it too.

At what age did your little one stop taking a nap?