The last week has been somewhat of a rollercoaster with false alarms [and not an unexpected pregnancy kind of false alarm]. Our baby turned 2-months a few days ago which meant it was time for his 2-month check-up.
2-Month Baby Check-up
The amount of times you have to go to the doctor in the baby’s first year of life, is crazy. I know it is needed, but I feel like I went from bonding with the OBs, to now bonding with Peds.
I always dread the baby appointments where they have to get shots. They don’t like, I don’t like it. It is really not pleasant for anyone involved. Well, maybe not the nurses as they administer the shots and then get to leave the parents with a screaming child [well at least my kids scream].
I was excited for the appointment to see how much our little chunk had gained since the last appointment. He loves eating and cuddling. I know you aren’t supposed to compare your kids to each other, but I totally do. And comparing the two of them at 2-months, our baby is a lot bigger than his older brother was. So when our toddler doesn’t want to eat his veggies I remind him that his brother loves to eat and will be bigger than him if he doesn’t eat all of his veggies. Little does he know that is not how it really works, but at least he is eating all of his food for now.
At the 2-month appointment I thought I was going to get high-fives for his weight, his smiles and his coos. Like most moms, I was thinking he is “so advanced.” So when the doctor said she was worried about our son’s gaze and brushed over the comment. I felt like I had just hit a brick wall. I sat there, holding my baby and finally blurted out “Wait. Pause. Can we rewind back to this ‘gaze’ comment? I am really not following.”
The doctor explained in her doctor ways. I tried to follow and ended up leaving extremely confused and worried. A gaze? How was I supposed to know what that means? His eyes are still developing. So, I called my husband tried to explain to him. Called my mom, tried to explain to her and then went home and did what most parents do. I Googled “baby gazes.”
Now I know, you really should never Google health symptoms and try to diagnose anyone. Especially your 2-month-old. However, I did. I shared my findings with my husband and mom, and now had both of them worried as well. I setup another appointment for the end of the week as I needed to get to the bottom of what the doctor was thinking when she made the comment.
2 a.m. Wake-up Call
That night after the appointment at 2 a.m. I could hear my husband with our crying, and at times screaming, baby. Our 2-month-old was up because he had a minor reaction to one of his shots, a low-grade-fever and red swollen injection spot (photo for this blog post was taken 5 days post shots). If that was me, I’d be up crying too. I then heard our toddler [who sleeps through anything] crying. AWESOME! I sprung out of bed and met him in the hallway thinking great, the 2-month-old has the whole house up.
Instead my toddler said “Mommy I fell out of bed and bonked my head.” Yes, he said “bonked” thanks to the book ‘5 Little Monkeys.’ I was trying to register what he had just told me in between both him and his brother whaling at 2 a.m. I don’t know about you, but it takes me a bit to process things at that time of day.
A number of thoughts ran through my head. I looked at my husband who had recently taken the bed railings off of our toddlers bed. This was after I had told him I think our toddler still needed them. I said to him, “I told you not to take those railings off.” Probably not the best thing to say [“I told you so”] given the moment or the time of day, but hindsight is always 20/20.
I turned and asked our toddler if he wanted to come sleep in mommy and daddy’s bed since it was clear NO ONE was going to really be sleeping that night. Well, at least not my husband or I. My toddler answered “Yes!” walked into his brother’s room grabbed his brother’s stuffed animal dinosaur and headed for our room.
While I wanted to tell our toddler you cannot just take your brother’s things, I realized it was not worth the battle. I got our toddler situated in our bed and then found a goose egg on his head. I felt AWFUL and of course started Googling “signs of concussions in toddlers.” Starting to see a pattern here?! Damn Google.
False Alarms
Cue: false alarms. Thankfully, the first false alarm – our toddler did not have a concussion. Whew! Second false alarm was for our 2-month-old.
I spent the next four days worried about our baby. Friday finally came for the follow-up appointment. The doctor explained what she had meant by “worried about his gaze.”
I explained that he laughs and coos and follows people in the room. He demonstrated that at the follow-up appointment to which the doctor said she had “no worries.” Now if only this could have been walked thru a bit more at the first appointment. Lesson learned, ask more questions until I have clarity so I do not cause stress and get more anxiety than I already have.
I am so grateful that her worry was nothing more than him being tired and maybe confused at where the voice was coming from because she had a mask on. Also, our toddler’s goose egg is almost completely gone.
After the last week, I’m hoping to relax and enjoy our Sunday. I’m also hoping for NO alarms this week. I could really use a “boring week.”