With a Bullet.
I am deeply exhausted, so I’m doing it up bullet-style tonight:
• I took Simone to the pediatrician today for her check-up, bloodwork, and a flu shot. I feel like I spent several hours wrangling a feral, furious, drooling midget. Which I did, really.
• Have you ever noticed that a pediatrician’s office sounds like a field hospital in wartime? Strange screams floating through the hallways, the sounds of crying and desperate pleas for mercy: NOOOOO I DON’T WANT IT! NO SHOT! I DON’T WANT A SHOT NOOOOOOOO!
• We left the house at 3:15 and returned at 6:00, and I would estimate that about 15 minutes of the intervening hours were spent in the same room with a health care professional. I could have driven home, fed Simone, eaten a pudding cup, braided my hair into an elaborate coif, and driven back in the amount of time we spent waiting.
• Fun fact: Simone’s heels are so calloused from the myriad blood draws she had in the NICU that she didn’t even notice today’s heel stick.
• Not so fun fact: Despite not noticing the heel stick itself, she objected strenuously to being held down (by me!) while three vials of blood were milked from the wound. “Wow, she’s REALLY strong,” the poor tech kept saying.
• I once again managed to spill half a bottle of milk in the waiting room, due to my inability to remember that Dr. Brown’s bottles require the insertion of some sort of leak-preventing disk before being transported.
• You might think this will ensure that I remember said disk NEXT time. You would be grievously mistaken.
• However! Even without adjusting for her prematurity, Simone is now on the growth charts for weight: 15 pounds, seven ounces at nine months. Her head circumference had been on the chart for a while already. She has a big head.
• She also grew two inches last month.
• She has terrible, terrible eczema, and we have been ordered to butter her up with salves and such. I am hoping that these salves and unguents will get her to stop clawing at her itchy eyes. And scratching her ears until they bleed. And looking like a tiny leper whenever she gets angry enough that all the bumps on her skin flush red.
• Simone can sit unassisted now for brief snatches of time, and today she had been doing it for a minute or so when she tipped forward and gave herself a bloody nose. I was sitting right behind her, but did I catch her in time? No, I did not.
• I think the dried blood in her nostrils went a long way toward convincing the pediatrician of my superior mothering skills.
• Should I be buying tumbling mats for the floors before she really hurts herself?
• I’m out of things to say, and too tired to say them if I weren’t. Sweet dreams!
37 Comments
Ahh, but what’s even more fun with the Dr. Brown’s bottles is when you forget to take the leak-preventing disk OUT of the bottle before giving it to starving child and then being too clueless to figure out why the level of milk is not going down despite the child sucking furiously (yet fruitlessly).
Mother of the year? Me? I think not. My husband finally figured it out that time AND the 15 other times I did it afterwards.
Long time reader….I grew up in Iowa, and the best stuff for eczema is Aquaphillic ointment. It was developed at the U of I for the nasty winter dryness/chapped hands after washing your hands 10,000 in a day that comes with being a nurse. I slathered my eczema-ridden child with it with still damp skin from the bath. It is awesome – I can’t say enough about it, and have my mom ship it to me where I live now (Hawaii).
I recommend the California Baby calendula cream, it was the only thing that worked for my son’s terrible cradle cap and eczema. It’s damn expensive but, I think, well worth the money.
I like Eucerin myself. I hear they have a new non-greasy version out.
Totally DO recommend foam mats (you can buy them in squares to fit any room/configuration). They saved my guy a million nasty head bumps in the sitting up/crawling/pulling up/cruising/now walking stages. They aren’t very expensive. (Don’t buy the attractive yet crappy Skip Hop alphabet-block ones. Crumbs get in their seams and babies chew ‘em to pieces. Just stick “foam playmats” into Amazon and buy the ordinary square foam mats.
And I now turn off Assvice TV for the night.
Tumbling mats? Good!
Blaming mommy? Bad!
Yes, tumbling mats!
Ok I use doctor brown bottles all the time and never use the travel disks, but I have never had a problem with leaking…however, reading the reviews when I bought them, I must be some freak of nature for not having that particular issue (on a side note the sell actual screw on caps now http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2793408 which look a lot more practical than the disks to me)
As for the nose bleed, this is just the start, pretty soon she will be sporting a bruise on top of a bruise on top of a scrape and you will go out in public wanting to hang your head in shame because you just KNOW everyone thinks you beat the poor baby for grins and giggles all day, I have the photos of my first born to prove it, and I stare at my newest little one and think sadly her days of boo boo free skin are quickly coming to an end.
Glad Simone is doing so well!
If you aren’t too tired, have a nice big glass of wine.
I feel you on the squirmy mewling spawn trying her hardest to wriggle out of your tenuous grasp in the middle of the waiting room.
Love your blog, Alexa. Your writing skills are prodigious. (That is, not to say they are LARGE ‘physically’, as that would be offensive, but to say that they are wonderful)
keep on keeping on
Since you are tired, I will just say, go read the post Julia Hippogriffs did on her kids skin. Lots of great assvice, loads.
And in case you want some more: for my guys very bad skin, I use special unscented detergent on the clothes and lots of cream.
Also check the humidifier on your furnace. Too dry equals worse skin.
Yeah, I swear Docs drive me nuts with the poor planning on the waiting room. Really really bad. Did you say anything?
Sympathies on the various war wounds. Blood guts and sweat – it’s like the bally trenches, old chap!
Now I’m antsy for my next ped appointment, where I’ll go in with a piece of t-shirt tied around my head, and I’ll carry Bella back over my shoulder while screaming, “INCOMING!”
Maybe they’ll make us wait less?
I second the calendula cream, but if it’s really bad, to the point where she’s a festering ooze, the only thing I’ve found that helps is milk of magnesia. Weird, but there it is.
I read on Julia that three parts Aquaphor and 1 part Maalox seems to help the eczema. I’ve tried it on my daughter and it seems to be helping.
I’ll keep you updated (I used Cherry – much better to smell the child with than mint :) ).
There is a company called Melaleuca that sells a lotion called Renew that is amazing for excema. They also sell baby wash/shampoo, laundry soap, etc… all harsh chemical free, non-toxic, organic goodness – at REASONABLE prices. I’m a member and would be happy to ship you some samples of the lotion if you want to give it a try.
Heather
heatherrox2@yahoo.com
“Feral, furious, drooling midget.” LOL My nephew had terrible eczema as an infant. Eczema is an immune system reaction and is mostly caused by external triggers such as bacterias, food handling, stress, environmental allergens, etc. Luckily, he outgrew it before he needed a full allergy-stick-test work up from an allergist. Glad to hear she is doing so well!! Cute and chubby, just the way we like them!
Great post Alexa – bullet points and all!
My son has x-linked ichthyosis, which is a genetic condition similar to excema. We are using the Aveeno product line and have been really happy with it. We also use Aquaphor and have a tube of Eucerin, though our doctor cautioned us on the latter until Teagan is a year old. It contains urea which can sometimes cause a burning sensation.
I’m excited about the tumbling mats idea as we are seeing lots of bumps and bruises lately too. Off to search for them on Amazon!
what you need to do is make friends with a doctor, so you can avoid all of this. any potentials?
Sounds ridiculous, but it works for me. Hang a sign on your front door (facing inside, not to your neighbors) with the things you need to remember.
Example of mine:
“Got keys?
Got phone?
Took meds?
Put on sunscreen?
Have a great day Jendeis!”
That last sentence is so I laugh at my tremendous dork self.
You don’t need no stinkin’ mats.
I’m wondering about your recent deployment to a “field hospital in wartime.” I missed that blog entry. :)
congrats on the weight climb! My daughter (only 1 month early, but with several health complications) only reached 15.5 lbs at 12 months, and now (at 16 months) she is finally 18 lbs. She has never been on the growth chart for even her adjusted age.
Our pediatrician has never seen us within 30 minutes of our scheduled appointment time, but if we show up even 1 minute later than our scheduled time we lose our slot! It drives me crazy!
I just want to say that I think you are a GREAT mother. You are doing far better than you think, despite all the self-depracation. Kiss the itchy, adorable midget for all your pals on the Internet, won’t ya?!
Um, I am the parent of a two-year-old. We just weaned him from his Dr. Brown’s bottles a week ago (I know, I know, shoulda been a lot earlier). I feel like a major idiot asking this, but…. how is it that I never knew of this disk???
And furthermore: So *that’s* why Benny’s bottles leaked every single freaking time we took them somewhere!!!
Two years, people!!!
I second the dr. browns caps, linked here: http://www.slate.com/id/2205009/. However, my issue would be I’d leave with a bottle and a cap, but no insert tube, or no nipple, or no cap with hole in it for nipple! Luckily I could just nurse instead, but the point of bringing the bottle was so that I wouldn’t have to nurse in an uncomfortable place!
There were approximately 11 thousand comments on this post of Julia’s about her daughter, Caroline’s, eczema. 3 parts Aquaphor combined with 1 part Maalox (squish it up in a plastic bag) had the most effect, but a host of other products that treat everything from KP to eczema were mentioned here:
http://julia.typepad.com/julia/2008/10/index.html
She also switched to scent-free laundry detergent and that seemed to help a good bit.
Back when my daughter was a baby we used Bag Balm (showing my age here). My daughter also had eczema, especially behind her ears to the point of bleeding. Gah. I like the other ideas better though. Probably more fit for the times. It’s hell having to admit I’m old.
The eczema might be an allergic reaction to dairy, from her formula (you mentioned a bottle but I thought you were nursing?)
Bruises and bumps are a right of passage. And the other people are right, it only gets worse. My mother-in-law gave me a hard time when Julie would get bruises, so much that I was tempted to cover them with coverup if she was coming over!
i have an itchy-skinned baby too. I use Aveno baby and its the only all-over lotion that we can use that doesnt make the skin burn.
Yay for simone entering the pre-toddler stage!!!
I love your blog, and your daughter is a beauty! My youngest had horrid cradle cap and eczema. I had to really restrict my diet to get his skin under control. He’s now got a diagnosed egg allergy, and some allergies (honey maybe…) that haven’t been officially diagnosed yet.
When he does break out now, I use unscented shea butter cream from shopsalus.com. I love it, and it doesn’t sting his skin!
The midget-wrangling, complete with drool and ferocity? I feel like that EVERY DAY. I just want to thank you for perfectly capturing my feelings. I can’t wait to tell my mom.
We switched from Dr. Brown’s (which were great but hard to clean, transport, mix formula in) to Born Free. I like the BF better.
“Butter her up” – excellent turn of phrase. Those heel sticks are a tough thing. Glad to see that the kid is getting used to it, but not so good to watch them get to that point.
Hooray for big heads! I was born with one of the biggest heads on record in my family, and I turned out great! (And no, you can’t call my Moms and ask her about it. And stop that snickering!).
Good luck with the midget wrangling!
Hey, this might not be the case with Simone, but my son had horrible eczema and it turned out he had serious food allergies. Might want to keep that in mind…
I have eczema and found the best thing for me as a moisturiser is called Dermaveen (but I’m in Australia so you may not have this in the US). It has colloidal oatmeal in it, which really calms the itching. A natural alternative is putting oatmeal in a stocking or sock and putting it & Simone in a bath.
Also, washing powder, even un-scented, can be too harsh (it makes my hand itchy just hanging the washing out). Pure soap flakes are heaps better if you can get your hands on them.
I didnn’t read all the other comments, so not sure if somebody already mentioned this. But severe eczema is very common sign of food allergies – dairy being the biggest culprit. Are you still nursing? it might be someting you’re eating. maybe worth looking into.
My first son had terrible eczema around 6 months old, and our pediatrician recommended Vanicream. You buy it at the pharmacy, but you don’t need a prescription. It worked beautifully on his eczema, and I found that my husband and I both used it often to relieve our chapped hands, so dry from the frenetic handwashing of first-time parents. You can buy a tube of it to see if you like it, but if you do, they sell a big tub of it with a pump dispenser that is much handier. Hang in there – the eczema gets better.
You know, since you haven’t already gotten heaps of advice…
For the eczema – when it’s really bad and she’s scratching herself, nothing beats Lanacort (I’m in Israel, but I think it’s the same thing in the U.S.) which works almost overnight to relieve the really bad spots. I mix a dab of it in with her regular moisturizer and it works wonders – and very quickly.
And ask your doc about giving her Benadryl before you put the moisturizer/creams on. First, she’ll itch less and second, it’ll knock her out so that she doesn’t scratch herself or rub the creams off. That worked really well when our kiddo was all scratchy.
Another tip to prevent itching – turn their outfits inside out so that the seams aren’t touching their skin. Hope it helps.
On the charts! Gooooo Simone!