Little Will and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

The Friday before last, Will and I were enjoying a moderately peaceful morning rocking in the glider that Alex and I so brilliantly purchased for his nursery (gliders are amazing!). I say moderately peaceful, because I had been periodically shaking pill bottles behind his head to see if he reacted for days and that morning was no different.

You see, I was still preoccupied with the fact that Will needed to go to the hospital for a rescreening of his hearing in a few days. He had failed his initial hearing tests totally and completely in both ears. As a new mother, hearing that your newborn failed anything is stressful. Very stressful. I was pained by the fact that I had to wait until he was almost three weeks old for the appointment. Shaking a pill bottle to scare my child was my own special way of dealing with the anxiety.

Back to that morning. Alex had just left for work five minutes prior. Will had just eaten. And I was thinking about when I might have a few minutes to shower and eat breakfast. But our day was turned upside down. The phone rang, suddenly and loudly. Will startled (I breathed a sigh of relief, then wondered if he startled because I reacted to the phone or because of the sound). It was the pediatrician.

Will's hearing screening wasn't the only test that raised concerns, apparently. His TSH screen results were high. I needed to take him to the hospital that morning for a blood draw. Could I do that?

Of course I could, and of course I didn't want to wait a minute to get the results, so we quickly got dressed and headed out the door. Will had been enjoying walks and the hospital is only one mile away, so I got him in his stroller and headed out the door. I googled newborn TSH screen on the way. Bad idea.

It got hot on the walk over and I learned quickly that Will hates heat (strike 1). When we arrived, the waiting room for the lab was packed. I didn't bank on the wait being 45 minutes (strike 2). And while I knew he would want to eat after the scary blood draw, I didn't anticipate that the long wait would mean he would have to delay his feeding (strike 3). And then there was the worst part - they needed to do a real blood draw, not a prick on his heal, but three-nurses-holding-him-down-while-they-put-a-real-needle-in-his-teeny-tiny-arm (strikes 4-54). I almost fell apart during the process.

Feeding helped a little, but didn't make Will happy enough to survive the hot walk home. He cried the whole way home. If that wasn't enough, we almost got run over by a truck that didn't see us at a stop sign on our walk back, which sent my already high pulse racing. So I cried the whole way home also.

But we finally made it. Poor little Will was so fussy that he spit up and needed a new outfit. We changed, cooled off, and got settled back at home. And then, we got to experience something new and magical that parents and newborns share...

A poo-splosion. Up his back, out of his diaper and all over mommy. And this was all before noon.

Will somewhat recovered and looking adorably tough with his little Snoopy bandaid.

I've never wanted to drink at home, alone, in the morning so badly.

And since I'm telling this story very late, I can let you know that the little guy passed all of his rescreens - his TSH looks great and his hearing is totally normal. :) On to the next worry!