Journey to a happier mouth, Dover, New Hampshire

Well, I have always been bad about staying committed to anything (even something as simple as checking into this every two weeks. But, I picked up my retainers today. Let's s tart where I left off first though.
Trays 4-10 were the same as the first ones... Mildly uncomfortable for the first couple days but eventually feeling ok. I had a dental checkup during these trays and was happy to find no new cavities. I had random tooth pain once in a while and wasn't sure if it was a cavity or just the trays. It was just the trays but it felt good to know that.
After the tenth tray I had new impressions taken to check my progress. I ended up needing only 12 trays vs 14 on the bottom (but they added 2 more buttons on one tooth) band my top stayed at 19 trays. Those final trays on top really focused on my 6 front teeth and I felt it. I couldn't eat apples anymore. And other harder foods that I bit into. I've been doing a lot of cutting up of food (and I really missed corn on the cob this summer, just painful to bite into). I had a few IPR sessions nothing major, just to make it easier to floss. Last week I went in to finally have the buttons taken off (they had been on since day one) and get a good look at my teeth without them. I am so happy with them!! I know they aren't perfect, but I'm 34, my teeth have been misaligned my whole life, they will never be perfect. The dentist filed and shaped them up a bit, there were some good sized divots in them. I'm not afraid to smile anymore!
Now onto my retainers. I had impressions done last week, the normal gagging fun (super bad gag reflex here). I picked them up today. They are the Viviara (sp?) ones. Super thick compared to the aligners. And the top one goes back a bit on the roof of my mouth, which ip has given me a lisp till I get used to them. They are so much harder to get in and out!! I'm in them full time till April 1st when I go to sleep time wear after.

Popped in tray three during my lunch break this morning at work. Minimal pressure for about an hour, then feeling fine. And it wasn't bad when I took them out 12 hours later this afternoon. There was a dangly piece of plastic on the inside of the top tray that I had to file down only because it was annoying (not painful). I'm amazed at remembering how sore my mouth was just a couple weeks ago while I was getting used to wearing the trays to how much easier it's getting to just deal with these. I'm also adding a comparison pic of pre Invisalign and the start of tray three, and while it's not much I CAN see a small difference in my front teeth and that makes me super excited.