Just as Sane as I Am

Or Even more health issues So does Lily mind her harness? Not particularly unless we try to put her on her stomach. Tummy time is really important for infants, as I’m sure many of you know. When we put Lily on her stomach, no matter how many blankets we have on the floor, she loses her mind. It’s probably due to the fact that she has a strap going across her chest, and when it is pressed into her, I’m sure it’s uncomfortable. She had an appointment with her pediatrician not long after her harness was put on. The pediatrician wanted to take the harness off to weigh and measure Lily, but we swiftly insisted she not do that since we didn’t know how to put it back on. She was horrified. She had never heard of leaving a harness on 100% of the time. She told us that usually, parents are allowed to take it off for doctors’ appointments and bathing, as well as tummy time, which she also wasn’t happy to hear isn’t happening too much these days. I mean, it can still happen while Lily la...

More health issues About a week after Lily was born, we got a letter from the state of NJ saying there was an abnormality with some of her bloodwork. A friend of ours said it’s a common problem because sometimes the blood taken coagulates before the lab gets it. So we weren’t particularly concerned. A few days later, we got a call from the pediatrician saying she had a script for Lily to have bloodwork redone. “It has to be done in the next two days,” she told us. “If I were you, I would come here immediately and then take her right to the hospital.” What I heard as a mom: immediately and hospital. “Should I be worried about anything?” I asked. “No, no,” the doctor said. Too late. “Also, if Lily has this condition, she’s going to need to eat every two hours from start to start. So until we know if she has it, you’ll have to feed her every two hours.” Every. Two. Hours. We had just begun to space our feedings out! Now even at night - Every. Two. Hours....

Or the one about health issues When you’re old, you have to take a million pills to keep up your health.  When you’re a baby - at least, when you’re our baby - you just have a million little health issues.  The first we were told about with Lily was her tongue tie. It’s very common, with more than three million cases a year in the US. (Thanks, Google!) The tip of her tongue is (was) connected to the bottom of her mouth by an extended piece of skin. In fact, it’s (was) very pronounced on Lily - the skin really goes (went) all the way to the tip, which is unusual. Even more unusual is that this hasn’t prevented her from latching during breast feeding, which is the most common side effect.  At our first pediatric visit, our pediatrician recommended Lily having a frenectomy, or having the tongue tie cut. She told us that some doctors use a laser to get rid of the tongue tie, but that would most likely not be covered by insurance. We would probably have to hav...