On Monday I went to my ob and everything checks out ok. Woohoo!! When he saw me he asked how the kids were and when I told him they were in the waiting room, he went out to see them. He was out there a pretty long time talking to Rob & ooohing & aaahing over Sean.
When he came back in he told me that if you didn't know Sean had down syndrome, you wouldn't see it. I am still unsure how I feel about that. Was he saying it because it's true or was he saying it just to pacify me because he knows I was totally expecting to give birth to Quasimoto? I think he was being sincere & genuine. Dr. Abe has never been one to sugar coat things for me.
He went on to say how amazing & strong he thought I was. I really appreciate that. It's so nice to hear. Especially when you feel like crap and feel like an even crappier mother.
He checked me out and when I left I told I'd see him in a year barring any surprises. He then hugged & kissed me. There's nothing quite like getting the once over from your ob & then getting a hug and kiss after. It's very strange. I mean I'm glad he's such a great man and thinks highly enough of me to extend that kind of gesture, but still.
Yesterday we had the meeting with the city to decide what therapy Sean would be receiving. We knew it wouldn't be physical therapy because in that department he's excelling. He's doing things even typical newborn aren't doing. There are some things we're going to have to watch like his tracking and things like that, but..... I'm not worried about that. So he's going to get feeding therapy with a speech therapist to work on his latch. Our ultimate goal is to have a nursing session take 20 minutes of continuous nursing instead of the lifetime a session is taking now because of latch issues & the on again, off again relationship Sean has with the breast.
This makes me thrilled because I would feel like such a failure if I were to give up on breastfeeding. I know he can do it. I know I can do it. We just have to work at it & I'll be damned if I let a 6 week old's latch beat me. Hopefully this will hep us a great deal. I thought the meeting went well and Rob & I asked some questions that we had. And of course Sean charmed the skirts off of them. :)
Of course..... my kids have been sick. What else is new. On Sunday Meredith decided to spike a fever of 103+. In trying to figure out whether the thermometer was broken or not we found that Sean had a temp of 100+. Great. I decided not to call the dr because neither child had anything else going on. I mean what are they going to tell me? Give them tylenol or motrin (for Meredith) and make sure they're hydrated. If the fever doesn't go down, bring them in. Yeah yeah. I've been through this a few times. Plus they were both scheduled for appointments today.
Sean's stats from 2 weeks ago were 7lbs 12oz and 22" long. Today he is 8lbs 8 oz & 22.5" long. I knew he was growing. He's getting so long. I don't notice him gaining weight. I notice him getting longer. I'm in awe of how he's growing. He's growing very similarly to the way Meredith grew. So for a typical child, he's following the same curve as Meredith did. 10th percentile for weight & about 50-70th percentiles for height. For a child with Down Syndrome, he's between 25th & 50th percentiles for weight and he's in the 90th percentile for height. I'd say that's pretty damn good.
The doctor said that I should have called when Sean had a fever. They would've run test after test to make sure he was ok. In my head I immediately thought "yeah right. Now I'm certainly going to call you." I knew it was nothing. I knew there was nothing they'd be able to do. I knew it was a virus. And that's exactly what it was. If it had gotten worse, if he had gotten new symptoms, if he had stopped nursing.... I would've called. Then the dr said that it didn't get worse because he had my antibodies. Whatever works.
Sean got 2 vaccines and we have to increase his zantac until Monday and then stop it cold turkey. If we see a marked difference, continue the zantac. If we don't see much difference, stop it. He went on to say that babies need acid in their stomach to fight off bacteria, such as salmonella. Um..... Sean is only eating breast milk. I'm pretty sure I'm salmonella free. Especially since I stopped rubbing raw chicken on the girls.
And then he checked Meredith. Poor Meredith had developed a lovely rash after her fever. The dr checked her out & told us it was an enterovirus. Enteroviruses cause stomach issues and things like coxsackie. Meredith does not have coxsackie. She didn't have the sores in her mouth or anywhere else. He said the rash would last about 5 days total. And with these things, once the rash comes out she's no longer contagious.
Then he told me to keep Meredith away from Sean. Uh, that's not happening. I'd love for him to tell me how to keep a 2 year old, who's already pissed about having to share me away from her little brother who she adores. Good luck.
So we go back to the pedi in 2 weeks for another weight check & more vaccines. Sean has to be up to date before his surgery.
I'll post more tomorrow & some pictures.
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