This morning Baby Jack wolfed down a whole two ounces! Then after a burp and a diaper change, he went back to sleep! We went for his first visit to the neonatologist today, the same one he'd been seen by in the hopspittle. I don't much like him. We were shown into a small triage area where I undressed William down to his diaper. Then I was to remove the diaper and hold him in the air to let the infant scale go back to zero. He weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces. Not bad. Same weight he'd had upon discharge from the hopspittle. The nurse measured him at 18" long but that was 1/2" shorter than he was at birth. The nurse said to diaper him and wrap him in a blanket. Then she showed us down the hall to an exam room. It was small and dreary, but it was clean.
It wasn't long before the doctor came in. The first thing he did was try to fold William in half to show me how "These babies are very flexible," meaning babies with Down syndrome. I didn't like him generalizing my baby. I'd asked him if William had Brushfield spots. So he tried to pry William's eye open. Well, Will was having none of that and clamped his eyes shut tight, made the little pouty lip and then let loose with a howl to beat the band. "Well I cannot see if he does or not." He completed his exam, asked how well and how often he was eating, was it breast milk or formula and all the other questions you'd expect from a first visit. He said he wanted Will drawn for the karyotype, but it didn't need to be drawn today. Make an appointment for one month on the way out. Warm guy. Not! I'd shown him the papers that said Will was to have a bilirubin level drawn but he said there was no need, that he wasn't yellow anywhere. I'd also asked him to look at the paperwork for Targeted Nutritional Intervention, but as soon as he saw what it was, he dismissed my question entirely. "The baby has Down syndrome. You cannot change that with a bunch of vitamins." I said I had no allusions about making the Ds go away, I simply wanted to compensate for the metabolic challenges present in the vast majority of children and babies with Ds. To which he said, "It isn't proven. I cannot recommend it." Period. Then he left!
William has been holding his head up quite well while being held over the shoulder. And this morning he was awake for a good hour, waving his arms, kicking his legs, and every now and then, opening his eyes to look around. I've gotten quite used to watching his face with his eyes closed tight. I suppose he will open them when there's something he wants to see. So far it looks like his eyes might be a deep slate blue. Pretty!
William has developed a dime sized spot of diaper rash on the left side of his little bum. I'm keeping Desitin on it and it isn't getting any worse.
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