My first adventure at the doctor's office!

Well, definitely not the first, but probably the most traumatic! (Mommy's account)

I took Spencer for his 1 yr. check-up today. It started off normally. The nurse asked the normal questions, took his height (31.5 in) then his head (45) then his weight (19.8 lbs). She then excused herself and told me the doctor would be right in. After 10 minutes of trying to entertain Spencer, the doc showed up and started in on her part. Everything is looking really well, and even though he's still allowed a month to be behind, he's catching up quickly to other babies his age. There are a few things he's not doing which he should, but nothing concerning. So she prescribes a multivitamin with iron for us, and excuses herself telling me the nurse will be right in to give Spencer his shots. She comes back in with 5 shots explaining to me that 2 go in one leg, one in the other, and one in each arm. I'm not quite sure why they do them all in one sitting, maybe to get the trauma all over at once, but whatever. She lines the band-aids all up on the bed, and I lay Spencer down with his legs dangling over so she can press her body against them to hold him in place. I have to hold his hands and talk to him so he won't freak out as bad. She wipes down his legs, and he starts whimpering because I think he understands what's going to happen. She shoots up the one leg, then the other, and it registers. He starts screaming his head off, and then she does one arm and the other, and gets the band-aids on. This all took about 30 seconds or so. She tells me to pick him up, and I do. I can tell he's really really upset, and getting to the point where he doesn't breathe. So, I tell him to start breathing and I start really rubbing his back. The nurse looks at him and starts blowing in his face when all of a sudden he goes limp and falls against my shoulder. I start panicking and yell "he's not breathing, he's not breathing" as I lay him down on the bed. His whole mouth is blue, and his eyes had rolled back in his head. He was totally limp just laying there. I was yelling at him to breath, and rubbing his chest, meanwhile, the nurse had run into the hallway screaming for another nurse to come quick there's a baby in here who's stopped breathing. So they both come back in and are getting ready to start CPR when he starts taking these little breaths. After a few of those, he really starts breathing and then starts screaming and crying. I picked him up, and just about hit the floor I was so overwhelmed. At this point the doctor came in and checked his oxygen levels, and his heart and said everything looked fine. She asked me if this happens often. I told her he holds his breath when he gets crying really hard, but it's never gotten to this point. She tells me it's pretty common, and that it will probably happen again. She said he will probably even twitch a couple of times before he starts breathing again, but that he will and not to worry. WHAT THE FREAK? How do you stay cool and not worry? I am going to be freaking out every time he starts crying now wondering if it's going to happen again. After that he was pretty pale and clammy, and had fallen asleep by the time we got home. He slept for almost 2 hours after that. All in all, a very scary day. And like most things in Spencer's life, he doesn't do them the easy way! Getting our first real taste of what this boy will be like!!
(original post: Jan 12, 2009)