Friday, March 30, 2007

What a Day!

I was prepared, yes. What I should have been, however, was mentally and spiritually prepared - the day was fraught with new and scray experiences for my little man.
We had a nice morning. We had time to watch the end of Jo Jo's Circus and the beginning of the Wiggles while milk and breathing treatments were being had. There was even time for anice long hug and snuggle. What else could a mom ask for???

I took him for his well child visit. Now, normally these are a nice experience. His doctor is fabulous. The nurse, on the other hand, is not the most personable person ever. Why she chose to be a nurse in a pediatric office is beyond me! At the end of the appointment he got a hep a vaccine - fine, no problem. He also got a finger prick for some testing??? The "friendly" nurse needed to file the little tube to the first line - arghhhh! She squeezed and squeezed his finger while I tried to hold him and keep him from kicking her (maybe I should have let him kick her). After what seemed like 10 minutes of this nonsense, she stopped and handed me gauze, then told me to put pressure on his finger. Well, this is about the last thing he wants to happen. I try, and while I am trying I notice that by letting his finger relax a lot of blood drips out. Hmmmm, just a thought, but maybe if you don't squeeze his finger so hard, the blood won't drip out and a snail's pace! (although, what do I know, I'm just a mom) The lovely nurse enters the room with a dot of a bandaide - yeah, that's gone to stop the amount of blood - oh, and it's also not going to stay on my 2 year old's finger. I told her this, and her response was...well, you're going to need to find a way to make it stay on. What???? Do you remember the trunk monkey superbowl commercials from a few years ago? Well, I imagined that I had a purse monkey and that I unleashed it on the nurse. Following this delightful picture in my mind, she called in another nurse to help hold him down so she could stick the bandaide dot on his bleeding finger - yet more fun! Seriously, the kid was spent by the end of this.

Hey, and guess what Timmy...Now, I am going to drive you to your first day of daycare where you get to spend the day with strangers. The whole leaving him at daycare turned out to be more difficult on me than I thought it would be. I shed a few tears after leaving the center.

He was pretty cranky last night. We went to my in-laws' house for dinner, where he unleashed his anger in the form of all out crying. I felt terrible for everyone around us. What a terrible display my little man was putting out there.

Bedtime went on as normal, but then..... 1.5 hours later, he was up and screaming. I am from the cry it out school (disclaimer: it works for me, but it is not for everyone), but I couldn't take it. I went up after a few minutes and held him. I thought he calmed down enough for me to put him down and leave. Ahhh, no. I let him cry for 10 minutes, then Todd went up. Nope, he wasn't having any part of Daddy. I went up to rescue Todd, calmed him down enough for him to sleep. Then, like magic....1.5 hours later, he was up again! We went through the same process again! Then, another magic moment....1.5 hours later, he was up one more time! I went through the same process again. Each time, mind you it lasted about a half hour. Misery! Mommy guilt told me it was my fault for going back to work.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The finger prick is for testing many things - lead, most likely, at age 2, and also hemoglobin stats. About five months ago the pediatrician thought Bridget looked anemic (no, she's got Irish blood in her and is just naturally white). Anyway, that was her first finger prick and it bled like CRAZY! I am talking blood all over the place, soaking through gauze and bandages, getting all over our clothes. Of course she was hysterical. But it's when they are crying and upset that the blood starts flowing and, therefore, won't clot. Try explaining that to an upset toddler! Shame on that nurse for being such a dolt.