2-Year Wellness Appointment

It was time for K's wellness check-up, so we decided to look for a local pediatrician.  I found 10 possible ones within 20 miles from home on our insurance's website, and started calling to see if we could make an appointment ASAP since my work is starting next week, and it would be nice to have this out of the way.  

From experience, we know that not all pediatric doctors treat unvaccinated children, so when making an appointment, I asked the receptionist to talk to the doctor and make sure that it would be OK for us to bring K in.  All the girls said that it shouldn't be a problem, but after they actually talked to the doctor, their stories changed.  From one of the offices, I received two phone calls informing me that the doctor would prefer not to see Klaudia.  

Eventually one doctor agreed to see her (there were more, but this one could see us right away vs. for the other ones, we'd have to wait for weeks to get in) , but under the condition that I sign a form saying that I refuse to vaccinate K.  Sounded simple; we made an appointment for the following day.

The first thing I noticed that I didn't like was that there was only one entrance to the office and that the waiting room was full of sick kids.  Our previous doctor had two seperate entrances - one for wellness appointments and one for sick children.  I never really appreciated it until now when I saw all these poor coughing, sneezing and misearable looking kids.  

The nurse checked K's measurements, and I forgot to ask for the percentile.  One thing I remember her saying was that K's head measurement was normal.  Again, I did not ask for the percentile, but if it's normal, it means that for the first time, K's head fits within the chart.  

And then we met the doctor.  He checked K's eyes, ears, throat, poked her belly, and then he spent the rest of our 10-minute appointment asking why we refuse to vaccinate.  I guess my reasoning wasn't good enough because he brought his book with some statistics and went over some of the diseases to prove that we do need to vaccinate.  He started with 1950s, and showed us (OK, me, K wasn't into it at all) that some 13, 000 children were sick with diphteria  in the US, and there were a bit over 1,000 deaths from it that year.  Then he moved to 2005, and showed that there were 6 cases of that disease but no deaths.  He went over a few of the diseases like that with very similar numbers, and I'm very glad he did because it just assured me that the chances of getting one of them are very tiny, and that even if K contracts them, she will survive and most of all will get immuned for the rest of her life.  I just wish I had my statistics with me that show how many children get injured every year from the DPT vaccine alone.  I doubt he would listen though.  So, I was a bit disappointed with our appointment.  I thought that telling the doc ahead of time of our decision about the vaccines would somehow help us avoid the topic, but I was wrong.  We didn't get to talk about K's development.  I was looking forward to hearing about what to expect within the next year or how to encourage K to start talking, but none of it was mentioned.  And, I was never given the form where I had to sign to refuse to have K immunized.  I wonder if they sensed that we wouldn't be back.

Another School Meeting, Another Babysitting Fiasco

The beginning of the semester is right around the corner, and we had our first meeting at school yesterday.  It was an important meeting since there have been a lot of changes to the budget, so I needed to be there.  There were a couple of teachers who needed a babysitter, so we got one.  At the last minute, all others backed out, and K was the only child coming to the meeting.  

I tried to look at it in a positive way thinking K will be getting full babysitter's attention, but somehow I couldn't sleep the night before.  Since the wee hours, I tried to prepare Klaudia for her adventure telling her how much fun she was going to have at school watching movies and playing with Yadira while mom is next door at a meeting.  She listened and kept saying:  "Yeah, mama.'

Yadira turned out to be a very nice lady who sensed K's shyness right away and did everything she could to switch her attention from me to her.  K on the other hand once she saw me turning around and heading for the door, started crying.  For 20 minutes, we tried everything, but I couldn't just sit next door and listen to K's crying.  So, eventually I told Yadira that it wouldn't work, thanked her, paid her, and we parted our ways.  K couldn't have been louder when saying Bye Bye to her.

I waited for K to calm down and decided to take her to the meeting.  My plan was to leave as soon as she gets loud.  Once she was ready to go, I packed all the toys, and that's when K turned around and walked right into a table that was 2 inches away from her hitting her head and getting a cut right next to her eye.  The cut was tiny but big enough to bleed a bit.  As we both sat there on the floor, I was close to losing it.  I was fighting the tears and was ready to go home.  I still had to go into the meeting to gather my stuff.  

It took us a few minutes to pull ourselves together.  When we walked towards the other classroom, K seemed  happy again.  She was very proud to be in the big people's room.  I decided to stay and listen as long as K would let me.  At this point, K was just hungry.  She sat and ate quietly for the rest of the meeting, and at the end everyone was impressed with her good behavior.  

By the time we got home, I was emotionally exhausted.  Looking back at yesterday's happening, I think we'll wait a bit before we leave K alone with anyone again.  Someone at the meeting yesterday said that it's good to leave kids with strangers from time to time.  I disagree.  Maybe it's good if the kids are OK with it, but I don't see anything good putting them through this trauma when they are not ready.  K has been lucky to have us stay with her all the time, so she is not used to staying with anyone else alone.  She will get better once she is older... right?

Yeah, Mama

Klaudia got a couple of movies for Christmas:   The Sleeping Beauty, and Bambi.  In the second one at one point a little rabbit replies to his mom's question and says with the cute little voice:  "Yes, mama."  I think that's where Klaudia got her thing from because each time I ask her a question she responds:  Yeah, mama.

Mom:  "Are you ready for some breakfast?"

K:  "Yeah, mama."

Mom:  "Should we go for a walk?"

K:  "Yeah, mama."

Living In Our New Home

It's been 3 weeks since we moved into our new house, but to me it feels like we've been here forever.  And although we miss our friends and would love to live a bit closer to them, we definitely enjoy the space and low mortgage payments that we wouldn't get if we stayed where we used to live.  I still can't believe that our previous apartment was the size of our current living room - how did we survive there?

Moving to a place located an hour and 30 minutes away from our work encouraged us to make some changes to our work schedule.  With the beginning of the new year, Len started working only 3 days a week.  He works a bit longer hours but is able to be home with us 4 days a week!  I'm starting teaching in just a few weeks and will be working 2 days a week teaching 8 hours a day.  It seems like a lot of hours, but I keep telling myself that it's only twice a week.  With our new schedule, we don't have to put Klaudia in a day care, and we get to enjoy raising her and spending time with her every single day.  It couldn't work out any better.  

I haven't been posting any pictures since we (OK, I) misplaced our camera when packing and moving.  But as soon as WE find it, I'll take and post some pics of our new place, our 33-pound toddler, and my 5-month old belly.  

This Time Around...

It feels great to be pregnant again.  Sometimes I even wonder if the happy hormones kicked in because I just feel awesome.  But the more I think about it, the more I realize that it must be the fact that I know what to expect this time.  Also, when being pregnant with Klaudia, I had a lot of mood swings: I would wake up purely angry or sad, or I'd start crying when watching a commercial.  I did experience a couple of days of that at the very beginning of the second pregnancy, but it's been all gone since.  So, this must be another reason why I simply feel good.

Also, I am not as exhausted as I was first time around.  There is no magic in it though.  I took care of it since day one - I make sure to take naps daily (thank goodness K is such an excellent sleeper, that I can always count on a good 2-hour nap), and I go to bed between 8-9pm (this way I get - most of the time - between 9-11 hours of sleep at night).  No wonder I feel rested during the day.

With K, my morning sickness lasted until week 15; this time it ended at around week 11, but it was much more intense.  I can honestly say that I felt sick 24/7.  I was nauseaus even in the middle of the night when waking up to use the bathroom.  It's all gone now, and I'll never miss this part of the pregnancy.

Another factor that I believe contributes to my well being is my new doctor.  My previous one retired which made it easier for me to go and find another one.  Dr. Kendrick was recommended to me by my doula - Hope.  I was looking for a doctor who would be willing to do VBAC  (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) with me.  It turns out, there aren't too many doctors willing to do so even though it's considered the safest birth for both a mother and baby.  

Dr. Kendrick has her own practice and works there alone meaning when I'm in labor, she will be the one delivering our baby.  Previously, I was informed right at the end of my pregnancy that my doctor would probably not be there with me when I deliver, since she shared her practice and delivery schedule with 4 other doctors.  This time, unless the baby decides to come on May 12th - 7 days before her due date and on Dr. Kendrick's birthday - I am guaranteed to have my doctor with me, and nobody else (Dr. K takes only one day off during the year -May 12th- her birthday).

And the main reason why I like Dr. Kendrick is because she listens to me and is willing to spend as much time as is needed to answer all of my questions.  When pregnant with K, my monthly visits never lasted longer than 2 minutes, and that included the exam and questions/answers.  My doctor would open the door right after the exam and say:  Any questions?  And even though I always had a question or two (it was my first time being pregnant!), I would often get stressed out by the lack of time and not ask any.  Dr. Kendrick on the other hand, when done doing her thing, sits down and says:  "Let's talk."  During my appointment yesterday, we talked about my contractions that started a few weeks ago.  She was a bit surprised that they started so early, so I mentioned that we were moving to a new home and that my mom had a stroke - all that must have contributed to my contractions.  She agreed and gave me some tips of what (not) to do when having a contraction.  When I was leaving her office, she gave me a big hug and said: "That's for your mom."  I thought it was a very nice gesture.

And, this time around I know I'm having a baby.  As stupid as it sounds, last time I couldn't imagine that in my growing belly there was a little human being.  It wasn't until I saw her and held her and nursed her when I realized I was a mama, absolutely madly in love mama.  This time, I've been in love since we started talking about getting pregnant.  I can't wait to hold my little baby girl in my arms and introduce her to the rest of the world.  It's going to be awesome!