Time for a checkup

Well Roan was kind enough to let me get a decent night's sleep after my last post, but unfortunately she had another tough day yesterday. She just isn't herself. She is usually such an easy baby - an enthusiastic eater and a peaceful sleeper on a schedule you could set your watch to - but the last couple days everything seems hard for her. She's struggled at some of her feedings, and every nap time is a fight to get her to go down. And she's thrown the schedule out the window.

Last night I was completely spent by the end of the day. I struggled with her for an hour and a half trying to get her to go down and to take a full feeding. Once she finally nodded off to dreamland, I collapsed on our bed in tears. Arwen came in and consoled me. I didn't know it but he had a little mommy relaxation time planned for me. He'd drawn me a bath with all kinds of aromatic oils and salts and lit a bunch of candles. He even dragged the massive swamp cooler we normally keep in the living room in there to keep in cool enough so I could enjoy a hot bath. It was just what I needed - I realized I couldn't even recall when the last time was I had managed to wash my hair. By the time I got out of the bath I felt like a whole new woman. Jen called in an order for pizza, so dinner was taken care of, and Arwen finished up the evening with a wonderful back massage. It made me stop and marvel how many people it takes to care for a baby, and how many more to care for the caregivers.

This morning I called our pediatrician's nurse just to ask what I can do for teething and to my surprise she said they'd like me to go ahead and bring her in to get looked at. I figured that as easy as I've had it the past few weeks, this latest tough spell is just a dose of cranky baby that inevitably gets meted out to every parent, but the nurse was of a mind that unexplained behavior out of the norm calls for a checkup. She doesn't have a fever, so that's good. And she's up to date on her shots. I'm betting they'll come to the same conclusion that I have, that it's pre-teething, but the nurse said the main thing they need to check is her ears. The good thing is that at least she's past the 3 month marker, so no spinal tap! Anybody tries to come near my baby with a needle, they're going to have to go through me first. But a checkup probably couldn't hurt.