Well-Baby?

Yesterday was Katie's 2 month "Well-Baby Visit". That's what they call these appointments, "Well-Baby Visits". I'm not quite sure why. They just do. I call them check-ups. Whatever, right?

Anyways, it was pretty horrible.

Okay, the first half of the appointment wasn't so bad. The first half was the "exam" part of it.

A nurse came in and took her measurements = 10pds8oz, 22in long, 15in head circumference. She grilled me about her developmental progress, as well as our family "situation". Standard questions such as; Can she hold her head steady yet?, Is there smoking in the house?, Do you use a car seat?, Does she sleep through the night yet?, etc. Katie had a ball during this part. She was all smiles, babbled for the nurse and to top it off had a good pee on the exam table.

Then the doc came in and did her thing. Checked her ears, her eyes, her joints, pressed on her tummy, listened to her heart and breathing. Katie didn't like the doc very much. I think she gets scared by deep voices. Our doctor has a very deep voice for a woman and everytime she took Katie from me, Katie would look at me with her super-pathetic pout and then start to cry. As soon as I took her back, she would stop and smile at me. What a drama queen.

The doc thought that she heard a slight heart murmur. Huzbend had a heart murmur when he was little too. Might be genetic. Don't really know. The doc says that it's hard to be sure of murmurs in infants since they are constantly making noise and moving around. Just to be sure that everything is kosher, we got set up with an appointment to have an echocardiogram this Friday. Now, THAT should be interesting. How they are going to keep a 2 month old still for this test is beyond me. Hmmm.

So, after all this, it was time. It was time for the worst part of the appointment. The 5 vaccines. We had to move to another room. The nurse came in with her 5 needles. This was not going to be pretty. I had to hold Katie's arms down on the exam table, while another nurse held both her legs out straight.

BOOM. The first needle went in. Katie began to scream as loud as she could. Then she went BEYOND screaming. It was like she had reached a new sound level that, like, only dogs could hear. Her eyes filled with tears. The tears didn't go anywhere though, because she wouldn't blink. She just had her eyes in this painfull looking squint. The first injection site began to bleed. The nurse quickly put a Band-Aid on it. It bled THROUGH the Band-Aid. She had to take that one off and put another on.

BOOM. Second injection. The supersonic screaming continued. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Three injections quickly in a row all followed by Band-Aid applications. She was bleeding slightly from all the injection sites. The nurse commented that most babies don't bleed like that. The bleeding stopped pretty quickly.

It was over. The nurses said that I could take my time with the room to get her calmed. I said, "Thanks". They left the room telling me that I could use Children's Tylenol if I found that she was overly fussy or got a fever when we were home.

So, I was left with a ballistic Katie and it seemed that there was nothing that I could do to calm her down. I tried talking and walking with her. No luck. I tried breastfeeding her. She was too whacked out to settle down enough to latch on. Finally, as a last resort, I pulled out the binky. I popped it into her mouth. With a few more hugs and kisses and a lot more soft talking ("It's okay, Katie. It'll be okay") she was finally settled.

I started to tear up a little after I got her settled. I felt so bad for her. I mean, why do I have to do this stuff? Why am I always the one that has to hold her as these people stick sharp pointy things into her legs and feet? Why do I have to look her in the eye and have her look back at me as if to say, "Why, Mommy, why do you let these strange people hurt me so?" Why am I the one that has to hold her as she screams and then afterwards try to comfort her with words that have no meaning to her?

Because, I'm a MOMMY now. And that, my friends, is what MOMMIES do.

And I'll tell you another thing, us MOMMIES kick ass! I am MOMMY, hear me ROAR!!!!!!