Thursday, March 5, 2009

Gabriela's Doctor Visit Today

Last week Gabriela was supposed to go to the doctor for a booster flu shot. We went to the doctor alright, but only because she had a fever the night before. So her booster shot appointment was rescheduled for today.

It was a good thing that we had the appointment because Lane noticed some little white splotches in Gabriela's mouth yesterday and we had to go get them checked out. Gabriela was on her best behavior while we waited one hour for our appointment.

It turns out she has thrush which is a very common yeast-like infection for babies. Gabriela got a prescription for that. As part of the routine check up, the doctor checked her ears to find, not one, but TWO ear infections. I had no idea! I guess I should be grateful that Gabriela doesn't have any symptoms, but it's a little scary not knowing my baby is sick. She's been mostly her happy, playful self. We got a prescription for that too, but the doctor said to wait to fill it, since ear infections can heal by themselves.

We had a nice talk about feeding. I'm actually excited about all of Gabriela's eating. The other night she had basmati rice with dried apricots and tonight I made her oatmeal with fresh mango and nutmeg and flaxseed.

Gabriela had her one shot, and as the nurse was getting prepped, I reminded myself that she would pick up on my anxiety. So I tried to act calm and okay instead of nervous about my baby being caught completely off guard with a huge needle in her leg. Maybe it worked, or maybe Gabriela is just super-baby because she cried for like half a second and was over it.

But the MOST surprising part of the doctor visit adventure was when Gabriela extended her arm and stuck her thumb up and started closing her fist over and over again. I thought she was just conducting another one of her experiments, and did it with her for grins, when it suddenly hit me! This is the sign for milk! We've been doing signs with her - only a few basic ones: milk, eat, more, and up. I don't know if it was just a coincidence, but I immediately fed her, said "milk" and did the sign back.

What an exciting couple of days!

4 comments:

banananutmeg said...

A tip on the thrush (poor baby!) If they give you the BLUE DYE stuff to help clear it up (you'll know what I'm talking about if they did..she will look like a member of the blue man group after one dose, no joke), instead of swabbing in in her mouth, put the dose on YOU, then nurse her...it is less messy, and will actually make you less messy in the process.

and YAY for baby signs! I studied ASL for 2 years in college, and once, one my my Deaf professors brought his 15 month old into class. I sat and HAD A FULL BLOWN conversation with the baby in ASL! He had a FULL vocabulary AND understood the concept of TIME..which most kids don't even start to grasp until they're like three. Crazy town. I was sold. I signed a LOT more with Reese than I did with Q, and I think that is one of the reasons Reese started talking earlier. Keep it up, you will be SO glad you did! Just be sure to always accompany the sign with a verbal use of the word...which it sounds like you're already doing.

Smart baby!

The Sylvester Crew said...

The purple stuff is called gentian violet. They usually prescribe Nystatin now. . .is that what they gave you.

Did they talk to you about treating yourself (breasts)?

Sounds like Gabriela is going to be all grown up before the OH Sylvesters make it back!!!

Talk to you soon.
Love ya!

Mom said...

Gabriella looks remarkably like Stella Myers in the DC Grovers, Yo picture. I'll be sure to remind Aunt Adraid to check the blog.

Theresa said...

I'm so excited about the signing for you. I swear by it. It is great to be able to communicate with your kids at such a young age. It really helped out with Andrew.