one of the pluses of being up in the middle of the night

is that I get to toddle about the internet and find out that Mayberry Mom has put an elegant twist on the most recent meme-go-round.

It helps that I (brilliantly) moved my laptop from the bedroom last night (hard to call this “morning” but whatever — work with me, grammarians), to the never-used-for-dining-anymore dining room table. In solidarity with Mayberry’s wondering about her own table, I will share with you the current items covering mine:

Laptop (natch)
Heavy Mexican ceramic teacup filled with nursing tea and much honey — my vain hope to vanquish this sore throat I seem to be having (drat! I haven’t been sick in years!) while also helping to provide my boy with increased food supply
Hammer
Screwdriver
Two crumpled placemats, yellow-and-pink, and green-and-blue, each with matching cloth napkin, one under aforementioned tools, the other under…
Cardboard boxes full of husband’s Mego-riffic supplies: trading cards, displayset parts (See here, and here, for some explanation)
Two diaper covers I am returning to delivery service — I thought they’d never delivered them back when boy was new, so asked for a refund and got it, then found them in a box in the closet. Ahhhhh, new-mom-hood.
Wooden canoe-shaped bowl-ish thing full of now overripe meyer lemons from front yard tree.
One of many of the family Superman dolls (and no, the boy won’t be allowed to play with the vintage ones, but fear not superfriends, husband will be sure to stock up on teething-friendly variations)

In other news:

Per my last post, my mother called to inform me that I was never “big-headed” but rather always proportionate, diminutive (until age 9, anyway), and even Suri-esque. Awwww. Thanks mom!

I’m trying out the idea of switching pediatricians. Going back to the one with the Koalas. (By the way, this link works, but my other Project Parenting links are all broken because of the redesign. Want to fix, but when when when?)

I have an appointment with her in two weeks. If it goes well, I’ll have the files sent over.

What happened? I know so many moms who love love love their pediatricians. And about two-thirds of them see koala-doc. So that’s one thing. I was at lunch with two such friends last week, after yoga. One says, “My pediatrician really listens to me. When my baby was having latch problems, she had us come back every week, not because there was anything wrong with the baby, but because *I* needed the support.”

That sounded nice.

The other related reason I’m switching is that I feel like even though I’ll miss the gorgeous views from the exam rooms, I won’t miss feeling like the doc and I are not on the same page.

At this last appointment, the 8-week visit, he mentioned that I might consider putting Jonah on a schedule. This, to me, is a HIGHLY controversial topic, as even the friendly comments on my little blog post suggest, and he just tosses it out there, offhand. Doesn’t recommend a book or how I would go about it. Though I did end that conversation fairly quickly with the fact that I’m fine feeding on demand. (Aren’t we still in the fourth trimester???)

Previous suggestions have included using “any moisturizer I like the smell of” to treat the cradle cap on his face (uh, no — what about avoiding nut oils because of potential allergy issues, not to mention artificial fragrances, and, and, petroleum products, and parabens?).

He didn’t believe giving up dairy would clear up Jonah’s baby acne, but it has — from sandpaper to just a few dots. (I tested the theory by eating cheese again and immediately his skin got worse.) — This was a suggestion I got from a friend’s pediatrician.

While he was okay with my spreading out the vaccine schedule, per Doc Sears, he was not terribly supportive of my wanting to know how much aluminum was in the day’s shot. “I realize this is not an issue you are paying attention to, but it’s important to me,” I said. He said, “Well, we only have one kind of vaccine,” and left the room. In that moment, I could have walked out but instead I decided to go ahead with the shot, asking the nurse for the brand name so I could look it up later. It did end up being the safest brand available, but still. Not fun.

In contrast, when I called Dr. Koala to make an appointment, I learned that her office follows the same vaccine protocol that I am following from my little book.

He’s not a bad doc. He’s been super nice, most of the time. Perfectly competent. And he has every medical right to find my various voiced concerns totally unconcerning. It’s just that it’s become clear to me that we’re not in the same movie.