Poor Baby!

Yesterday was Kalianna's first trip to the Pediatrician. And let me tell you, it was a mom's worst nightmare! First let me clarify. We love our pediatrician, she is fabulous! It had nothing to do with the people working there, but my poor two-week old baby had things done to her that no child any age should have to suffer through! I knew she would be poked and prodded and that they would prick her. Typical things for a pediatrician, even though they are hard for mom to watch. But then the Dr. wanted to check her Billy Rubin (don't care if I'm spelling it right) levels again because she was looking kind of yellow. So they had to not only prick her, but they had to draw a bunch of blood for tests. The Dr. called me last night and her levels had indeed gone up since she was born. So now I have to go back next week so they can do the torturous test all over again to make sure the levels start going back down.

Now pricking my baby and drawing blood may not seem too terrible. But what they had to do next was pure torture! Kalianna has a heart murmur. The Dr. told us not to lose sleep over it, but because she is so young and so tiny they have to take extra precautions. So, not only do I have to return to my pediatrician next week for billy rubin testing, but I also have to take Kalianna to Primary Children's to see a cardiologist! They stuck stickers all over her little body and hooked probe things to the stickers to get some readings on her heart. The poor thing screamed and screamed when we had to pull all the stickers off. They were petty stuck to her soft, sensitive skin. Then they took a chest x-ray. All of this was to send to the cardiologist so he can look it over before our appointment. And do you know how they take chest x-rays on newborns?? Well first of all in order to get a chest x-ray you have to be standing and you have to hold your breath. Neither are very plausible for a newborn. So, they invented this tube-like contraption to put the baby in. I had to hold Kalianna's little hands up above her head while Matt stretched her feet down below so the radiologist could close the tube around her body. The tube forces the baby in the upright position and it constricts the chest to force the baby to cry. Poor Kalianna screamed bloody murder while mom sat there and cried. We were finally able to get her out of the tube and I wrapped her up and held her while we waited for the image to develop. I was amazed at how quickly she calmed back down! If someone had done that to me, I would still probably be screaming! Because Kalianna can't hold her head up, her face was forced against the opening in the tube and her head was scratched and she has a cut on her left cheek. We are really hoping things go well with the cardiologist so she never has to go through that again! My poor baby had to go through two hours of testing last night! Thankfully she slept well afterwards. Poor thing was exhausted!