Slight Insanity & A Visit to the Doctor

You know you’re a mom when your 8 year old thinks you are slightly crazy. The other day after Nathan & Emily came in from playing outside, I happened to glance out the front window and saw something red on the driveway – probably a mitten. I told Nathan to go get whatever that red thing was. He looked out the window and said “I don’t see anything, Mom!” I said “It’s there, please go out and look.” He looked again and said “Oh Mom, that’s just the van!”  (as in our mini van.) I think he thinks I’m not all there. I can’t really blame him because after 9 months of being pregnant and 2 months of recovering and having a newborn, I’m really not.

What do you do when your 20 month old flops on the couch next to you & smells absolutely horrible with a very stinky diaper? Change him, right? Well that’s easier said than done when your fussy 2 month old just finally fell asleep on your chest for a much needed nap. And if you move, the 2 month old will wake up and be very cranky again. Stinky diaper or cranky baby… ??? hmmm….

Yes, that’s just part of my slightly crazy day today. Everyone’s been grumpy today and I am tired. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that it’s cloudy & snowing heavily today and we are all in the mood for spring. Or if everyone is simply tired after our busy day yesterday.

Our doctor appointment went well. With some craziness thrown in here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary.

We drive 70 minutes one way to get there, but our doctor is 110% worth it. She is an osteopathic doctor and she has that perfect balance of natural remedies, yet will pull out the regular meds when necessary. Exactly the way I like it. I trust her more than I can say and that says a lot as I don’t readily trust doctors. She just opened her own practice so our previously 50 minute drive added on another 20 minutes but that’s ok. It’s an amazing practice where she takes all her after-hours call personally. No waiting for hours for the on call doctor to call back and then you don’t even know them. You can also email her and she gets back to you quickly – sometimes you just want to ask the doctor a direct question without waiting for ever for the nurse to get back to you & then pass on messages – and email is the perfect solution to that. But anyways, I know I’ve told you all about “Dr O” before so I’ll stop.

The kids all look great. Joshua was the only one who didn’t have a checkup (he had his last month.)

Nathan has been convinced lately that he needs glasses. I think he saw someone or something about glasses and thinks they are cool. I mentioned this to the doctor and they did an eye exam. Dr O said he has either 20/30 or 20/25 vision which is normal for this age. He does not need glasses, something Nathan was quite disappointed about. I don’t want to tell him that glasses are not fun because if he does need them in the future, I don’t want him to think badly about them. But I did explain that it’s nice to not need glasses and he should be thankful he has very healthy eyes.

Emily has really dry skin but is perfectly healthy. Now that she is 4 years old, we’ve thought about maybe getting her very selectively and slowly vaccinated so I brought that up with our doctor. After discussing it with her, our doctor advised that we wait for any vaccinations. The only one she really recommends for Emily is the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and we can wait until she’s quite a bit older for that one. So no vaccinations for Emily right now. (Have I mentioned I love our doctor? Oh right, I have – sorry you’ll just have to keep hearing it from me!)

Luke is doing wonderfully too. He is now 12 pounds 13.5 ounces and 23″ long. He’s gained almost 4 pounds in just a month! I think it’s safe to say he has a healthy appetite. I have completely weaned him at this point (the last time I nurse him was a week ago) and he is doing just fine with the formula. Poor little guy definitely has thrush and he’s been quite grumpy from it the past 3 days. I have to keep dosing him with gentian violet daily for the next week. I’m hoping it clears up soon – I want my sweet happy baby back!