embarrassing, odd, and then amazing

The day started strong, after another nicely spaced 11 hours of mostly sleeping and some nurse/nappy activities interspersed between, the night before. The trouble started on the changing table around 7:30 a.m.

I’m looking down at my boy’s boy parts, as you do when cleaning them, and I see what I think is a blister. It doesn’t look particularly red, doesn’t seem to bother him. But it is definitely blister-like.

Surprisingly, I don’t panic. It occurs to me that this might be some kind of skin fold or irritation from the bulky cloth diaper. But I figure, in order to be a good mom, I ought to call the pediatrician, just in case. However, the office doesn’t open till 8:30.

The boy went down easily for a nap at 8 a.m.

At 9 I called the doctor. Yes, they said, I should bring him in. Made appointment for 9:40. Changed his diaper again before leaving, and whatever blister I thought I’d seen was gone. But now we had this appointment.

So I went. Dressed in my yoga clothes just in case we finished in time for me to get to that.

We saw the old pediatrician, since I won’t be seeing the new one for another two weeks, though I suppose I could have called her. No matter; familiar was easier on this day.

I nursed him in the reception area. When his name was called, he was still on the boob, so I just carried him like that, attached, along with all our other stuff (diaper bag, unhooked Bjorn).

You’re getting good at this! — said the nurse.

Yes. Every month I grow another arm. — I replied.

In the exam room, first thing she did was take his temperature. With this fancy electronic stick thing that she dragged across his forehead in about two seconds.

101, she said.

Now that’s odd. I was there for a nonexistent blister. Not a fever.

The ped came in and examined his… and pronounced it perfectly fine. He agreed with me that it probably just folded and stuck temporarily; there is a lot of loose skin to contend with.

But now we had this fever.

He ran down the list of associated symptoms that might tell us what the fever represented. No, no, no, no, no. Nothing. No runny nose, diarrhea, coughing, sneezing, fussiness, nothing.

Nurse came back with a rectal thermometer. Mercury-filled. Old school.

While she did what she did, I distracted the boy with the Cal Drinking Song. He made several sounds. “He’s singing along,” said the nurse. She had that thermometer in there for a long time, because I got all the way to the end of the song and it’s not a short song and I was pausing to editorialize — telling Jonah how he was not actually going to get drunk and especially not until he was 21 and perhaps not for a while after.

The nurse had a really hard time reading the thermometer. She left the room with it to get help.

99, she said when she returned. Then she tried the fancy dancer electronic thermometer again. 100, it said.

Okay. So we’re fine. 99 or 100 is not considered fever in a baby. 101 is.

And she weighed him. 10 pounds 15 ounces. Perfecto.

Keep an eye on his temp over the next couple of days, said the doc.

Will do.

* * *

So that was a little embarrassing (blister, no blister) and odd (fever, no fever). And then we went to mom-baby yoga. The boy fell asleep in the car on the way over. Let me just back up a bit and say that this was the first time ever that I reached back to fiddle with the boy’s head while driving. See, he was crying. I got one arm twisted behind me, under the baby bucket shade thingy, over his head, felt around, found the pacifier, and inserted it in his mouth. At least I was at a red light when I did all that. But still…

That wasn’t the most amazing part of the day, however.

Got to yoga about 5 minutes late. Kept the boy in bucket, sleeping. Transferred bucket from car to snap-and-go, to studio, up stairs, to class. He stayed in the bucket, sleeping FOR THE ENTIRE 1.5 HOUR CLASS!!!!!!!

That. Has. Never. Happened. Ever.

Many people, including the teacher, congratulated me. I felt so good, so lucky, so s t r e t c h e d o u t !

And then he stayed asleep in the car all the way home. Waking up on the way up the stairs. And why not? It was time for him to nurse again. What a superstar!

And he napped again at 3:30. In his CRIB! Wahooooo!

And to top it all off, I made an awesome quick jambalaya for dinner out of various leftovers in the fridge. Wahoootie!

Thank you, and good night.