22 Weeks: Tommy Tags Along

We thought it might be a good idea to take Tommy to an appointment for Baby T2.  We didn't think he would understand exactly what was going on but I thought it might be good for him to see someone else go to the doctor.  

 Tommy was the star of the waiting room.  He doesn't have an inside voice so everyone heard every comment.  We didn't realize how bad it was until the receptionist piped up, "Does he need more water to drink? I can get him some!"

In the picture above, he was trying to catch a fly on the window.  After about 20 minutes, Andrew and Tommy were getting a little restless.  The receptionist pipes up again, "Um, Dr. W is running 40 minutes behind. "  Oh dear.

 It wasn't 5 minutes later we were called back into the exam room.  Phew! We had just enough snacks and a sucker to keep him occupied for the rest of the time.  He did fill his diaper though so that diaper bag would have been super handy! Good thing it was a short appointment!

 I snapped a quick family pic before the doctor came in.  We are all smiles!

Tommy kept asking where his pediatrician was. "Where's Doctoh Fay-wer?" (He can't say his L's or R's.) We had to remind him a few times that mama was going to the doctor, not Tommy.

When Dr. W came in, Tommy let on that he knew about his baby sister.  The doctor used the machine thingy to listen to the heartbeat.  Her heartbeat is still the same, in the 150s.  Tommy heard it but he doesn't really understand what a heartbeat is quite yet.

The appointment was a success for both me and Tommy too.  He learned that other people go to the doctor and it's okay.  The fact that he will have a little sister is a little more cemented for him now, I think.  He has been saying nightly this week, "I want my baby sister!!!!"  It might have been a little early to introduce the idea to him!!

We also asked him what he would like to name his baby sister.
He thought about it awhile and replied matter-of-factly, "Santa Claus."

So Baby Santa Claus, Tommy is super excited to meet you!  22 Weeks down, 18 more to go!

Always an Adventure with Tommy T

So Tommy developed a nasty cold recently.  He had a barky cough two nights ago and his breathing sounded bad so I made the assumption it was croup.  I called the doctor today to see what they thought and they said bring him in.

I took him to the doctor after the second night of rough breathing but his cough had improved in sound.  It wasn't as barky.  When I took him outside in 7 degree weather, it didn't improve his breathing like it should for croup.   When we went to the doc, we saw the nurse practitioner for the first time.  She checked him out and wanted a chest x-ray.
Oh boy.

They have an x-ray department in the building so that was nice.  We went to see 'Marilyn' in x-ray.  I don't think Marilyn had ever dealt with a child before even though she worked in a Pediatrics/Obgyn.  She asked what the patients name was from across the room.  I said Thomas.  Tommy yelled to her, "My name is Tommy T!" Sorry I didn't clarify, little man.

As with any chest x-ray of a child, they have to strap him into a horrible medieval contraption with his arms over his head so they can get a good picture.
It looks like this.

So this woman tries to strap Tommy into this thing.  This is not Tommy's first rodeo.  He knows what's coming and he is none too pleased.  He is screaming bloody murder and fighting it every inch.  He's much stronger than the last time he had to do this and he showed it.  She brought in another woman but she was a frail older lady and she was no help either. With all the finagling she was doing to get him in it, she said he must have somehow broken it because she couldn't get it to turn to get him out.  So she wasn't very happy about that.  So finally when she got the pictures she needed, we pulled him out of it.  He had gotten himself so incredibly upset that.... oh, just wait for it... yes he threw up all over the x-ray room, all over himself, all over me.  It was kind of awesome.  Marilyn was, again, not happy about this and she left us in the room soaking in barf.  I'm looking around the room for something to clean us up.  She finally comes back in with two hospital sheets.  I use those to clean up while she leaves again.  She then comes back with a dry towel and wet towel.  I finished up all the cleaning and plopped the whites into her red biohazard bag.  Tommy was crying during all of this saying, "I wanna go take a nap in mama and dada's bed."  Poor guy was ready to get the heck out of there.

All I can say about this part of the story is thank the good Lord that he didn't throw up IN THE CONTRAPTION.  Can you imagine??

I made the mistake of saying I was going to take Tommy's picture after his 'torture pictures' from the x-ray. He was not happy. 

So then we meet with the nurse practitioner again and she says everything about Tommy looks great.  No croup, no pneumonia, nothing like that.  It is apparently an asthma flare up with his cold.  So I think it's time to finally accept that he does officially have the triple whammy (eczema, allergies, asthma).  We had hoped that he would only have the eczema and allergies ('cuz two out of three ain't bad) but oh well.  He can still grow out of all them.  He grew out of the eczema so there's definitely a chance.

(By the way, did you know some very famous athletes have asthma? Jerome Bettis, Juwan Howard, Dennis Rodman, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Greg Louganis, Emmitt Smith, Dominique Wilkins, Kristi Yamaguchi and many gold medal winning swimmers who I haven't heard of but am super impressed with! Yeesh grammar.)

Tommy was super excited about the Curious George pic in the office but that didn't improve his mood. Poor sick boy. 

Anyway, so while we were finishing up with the nurse practitioner, I mentioned that Tommy didn't enjoy the x-ray.  She mentioned that it didn't sound good (she heard him from down the hall).  I told her that Tommy may have broken the contraption and he puked all over the x-ray room.  The NP burst out laughing.  She said, "Oh my, I bet Marilyn was in a real tizzy."  She loved it. She must know her pretty well.  Really put the cherry on top for the appointment.

So if you have a chance, send some good thoughts/vibes to Tommy that he recovers quickly.  I hate to see my little guy so sick.  Plus I think he misses school and his friends.  Come on, Tommy! Get well soon!

4 Months Old!

Today Tommy had his 4 month appointment.  He surprised me this morning with the biggest blow-out yet. 

I don't think he got any actual poop in his diaper. Just incredible.  He's like, "THAT is what you get for the shots I'm about to get today."  Well played, Tommy T.

We arrive at the doctor and wait... and wait and wait and wait.  We didn't bring more than one toy and Tommy got sick of that quickly so we found other things for him to play with.

Baby magazines! He loved looking at the pictures of the babies and then ripping the crap out of the page. 

"Take THAT, ad-for-jogging-stroller!"  I think he was working out a lot of pre-shot rage.

Once we were finally called back, the nurse took him straight to the scale.  We had to take off his wet diaper.  Apparently it's just the opposite of wrestling weigh-ins.  No extra heavy diaper throwing off your weight an extra 0.2 oz!

(Yes, that's a little Easter egg modesty patch.)  She also measured his height and his head size.  She wrote it down on a post-it for us, thank goodness.  I always almost forget.

Tommy's stats:
Height: 24 7/8 inches long, 51%
Weight: 15 lbs 2.5 oz, 58%
Head: 16.5 inches, 41%

So he went from long and skinny to very average and teensy bit tubby.  HAHA! Not really.  He's perfectly normal and average and right where he should be.  So that's good to know. 

After the measurements, the nurse left and we waited for the doctor to come in.
I snapped a quick pic of father and son bonding time.

The doctor finally came in and talked to us about rice cereal, his rash, his next appointments, etc.  He also quoted a study that said that boys who are breastfed for 6 months have higher IQs than those that don't.  He said, "I'm not really sure what happened to the girls in that study... but I guess men need as much help as they can get."  Ha!  So only two more months to go! I still haven't decided if I'm going to continue after 6 months or not.  I think I might actually miss it.  It was so hard at first but now that I'm back at work and in a routine, it's much easier.  I guess I will just decide when the time comes.

Then once again, the doctor skedaddled.  He even made the comment that he's glad the nurses give the shots.  The nurse floated in with superfluous apologies. You could tell she hated this part of her job but she knew to finish posthaste.  She was much more prompt than the last nurse.  Tommy once again wailed like... well, like a baby.  As soon as Andrew picked him up, he stopped.  Then he ate and fell into a deep sleep.

He just now woke up like 2.5 hours later.  He's in a great mood.  He was last time too until something clicked and he freaked out. Hopefully we can keep that from happening this time. We'll see. 
Edited to Add:  We were right.  He had a major freak out after he ate, just like clockwork.  Wow, was he mad.  We weren't really sure if we would ever calm him down. Then he slept for about 3 more hours and woke up happy again.  Phew!

What's new for Thomas developmentally? Well he has a few new tricks up his sleeve.  Grabbing his feet is an obvious one.  He's also a squealer now.  He squeals a LOT and it's so cute.  He loves to blow bubbles especially when he's being changed.  He just looks straight at you and makes repetitive toot noises.  It's very funny.  He also reaches for and grasps for things.  He's not rolling over yet.  He used to like tummy time but now he's not a fan anymore.  So we'll just have to keep working on that.  I know he can roll over.  He has the muscles to do it. He just doesn't really like it. I think it scares him a little.  But truly we don't need to rush the rolling over just yet.  He'll do it when he's ready.  Plus I'm enjoying the immobility while I can.  :)

Happy Four Month Birthday Thomas!