Is there a Doctor in the House?

It’s been a while since I’ve done a guest baby blog, but I’m back, I already know you all missed me.  Over the weekend, Addy turned 6 months old, of course she thinks she’s grown now, but that’s not what this blog is about.  Today Addy had her 6 month checkup and got her ears pierced.  For some reason, every time I think of getting ears pierced I think of the episode of the Cosby Show when Theo got his ear pierced and it got infected.  Hope my Addy is not like him.  Well here is how it really went down.

First of all, gender roles are VERY present in a pediatrician’s office.  By this I mean I was the ONLY guy in there that was not employed by Texas Children’s Hospital.   As if that wasn’t enough, the nurse calls for us and as I grab our stuff to head to the back, she politely asks “Oh, where’s mom, the moms usually mark the ears?”, so I replied “She’s at work, so the role of mom & dad will be played by me today.”  Maybe I read to much into it, but I don’t think so.  Are dads really not capable of being a parent?  I mean I used to joke when Addy was about 6 weeks old, that I’m not qualified to be left alone with her, but I keep her everyday while mom is away….I think I got it down now (even though I forgot to feed myself before we left for the doctor’s office).   I wasn’t offended by the nurse’s comments, because like I said, there were no other guys in the waiting area with their kids, but don’t make it sound like I’m not capable of successfully taking my kid to see the doctor.

Now that I’m done ranting about being the BEST DAD EVER, here is how the actual visit went.  The nurse told me to mark her ears, which was followed by me giving her a blank stare, so she did one ear to show me.  I erased her mark because I felt it was little high, but Addy wouldn’t cooperate…at all.  She wanted to see the marker and did not want to be held down.  So once the doctor came in, I still hadn’t marked her, so he called in a nurse to help.  She marked while I held her down…if any of you have ever met Addy, you know she does NOT like to be held down against her own will, so she fought it.  We got her marked up, then the doc was concerned that she’d wipe off the markers, so decided to do the piercing first.  The first stud they tried was too little for the gun or something because it didn’t stay, so we went up a size and tried it again.  So I had to hold her down yet again, then we did the right ear, SUCCESS!  Now the problem came into play on the left ear because I had marked it, then the nurse had marked it, so he was having a bit of trouble spotting the correct mark.  At this point, I was holding Addy’s’ body, a nurse was holding her head, the doctor was holding her ear, then he called in another nurse to hold a light.  Yup, all that for a feisty 6 month old girl.  It felt like we were trying to subdue a rowdy prisoner or something, but then we got the other earring in.  She cried a cry that I’ve NEVER heard before, but it was hard to tell if it was from pain or the fact that she was PISSED from being held down or if it was a combination of all of the above plus the fact that she was sleepy.  2-3 minutes later, she was sleep on my chest as we had to wait about 5 mins for the next nurse to come in and give Addy what she actually came to the doctor for….her shots.   She got 2 shots, an oral vaccine, and a flu shot, which woke her up of course, which also pissed her off to a new extreme.  Then I got her dressed and by that time she was somewhat calm, so I carried her out the office until we got to the car to put her in her seat.

I’m not going to lie, I almost called it all off when the doctor messed up the first try.  I couldn’t take it…she was crying so hard.  I almost shed a tear with her, but of course, I’m the tough dad.  Overall, I know she’s exhausted, because she was sleep before we got out the parking lot.  I told her being pretty is painful, but I don’t think she understood me.  She’s still out as I type this blog, so we’ll see how she feels when she wakes up.

Thanks for tuning in…..

BROWNLEE

PS:  Here is the first picture of her with holes in her ears!