Alert the press....

...Adam slept in his crib, for the first time in months, Saturday night. He also napped in it on Sunday, and slept in it Sunday night. Of course, Mama and Nea are sleeping on the floor next to the crib....but its a start. Right now, I've got the couch cushions on his floor. I figure in a few days, I'll move to the couch itself, then when he gets used to that, perhaps to my own bed!

His sleep was much the same as its been, waking about three times, but the good thing is now when he wakes up kicking and flailing about, Nea and I are out of the line of fire.

Of hives....and not the honeybee kind

One night last week, Adam came home from daycare with a bunch of little bumps on his lower legs that looked suspiciously like insect bites. I immediately went into full panic mode and decided that we had bedbugs, which are becoming more and more prevalent in the NYC area. After spending half an hour surfing the net for information and pictures, it slowly dawned on me that if we indeed had bedbugs, then the dog and I would be bitten up as well since we all sleep in the same bed.

The next morning, Adam was COVERED head to toe with hives -- they were everywhere -- even his scalp. Poor baby! They didn't seem to be too itchy -- the only ones that seemed to bother him were the ones in his armpits (ouch!) and in the folds of his legs. I called daycare to see if he had eaten anything new or unusual the previous day, but they couldn't think of anything.

I called the pediatrician and was told to bring him in as soon as I could. I basically threw clothes on, threw him in the stroller and off we went. I had to laugh later, thinking about what we must have looked like on the street. Adam's hair is very fine, so the back of it is always matted in the mornings. Usually, I wet it and blowdry it, but decided to forego it given the circumstances. So,there we were, me with no makeup, Adam covered in hives with his hair sticking up and out, and crying to beat the band. I'm lucky no one called Child Protective Services on us!

We made it to the doctor by 10 a.m. Adam was none too pleased to be there, as his last experience involved two vaccinations and a blood draw that had to be done three times because his teeny little veins kept collapsing. It was a nightmare, but through his sobs, Adam did blow kisses to the blood technicians as we left.

Now, I don't have much experience with pediatricians, so I'll count on those of you who do to weigh in. Adam's breathing was not compromised in anyway so it wasn't really an emergency so I didn't necessarily expect to get in right away. But....we sat. And sat. And sat. For....are you ready?....TWO HOURS...before we were seen. And I would have to conservatively estimate that Adam cried and screamed for and hour and 50 minutes of that time. I was beside myself. The more time went on, the more he worked himself up. As we sat there we got closer and closer to what should have been nap time, which surely did not help. When we finally were ushered into an examining room, we STILL waited another 20 minutes. By this time, Adam was truly beside himself. In the best of circumstances two hours is a long time to expect a baby to wait nicely. But a baby covered in hives, who's coming up on naptime....well, it was just too much.

Is it me? I don't understand how someone who's life work is children can let a child scream for that long until he nearly makes himself sick. Not to mention how disturbing it was to everyone else in the doctor's office. Am I out of line to think that once at some point sooner than two hours perhaps one of the doctors should have said "Jeez, let me interrupt myself and go take a quick look at this poor kid before he pukes all over himself." I just can't understand how they let him sit there. I'm thinking I need to find a new pediatrician. Is this acceptable treatment? Would you, my readers, change pediatricians over this?

When the doctor did deign to look at him, it was declared to be a "severe reaction to something he ate." But what? Ah, that's the maddening question. Since it was just after Easter and many chocolate bunnies were received, I have a sneaking suspicion that it might have been the chocolate. Being the devoted mother I am, I promptly ate all the chocolate in the house for Adam's protection. The sacrifices we make!

So we will soon have to start on the rounds of allergy testing. Let's hope the allergist has ear plugs.

I don't want to jinx it....

....but I tried a slightly higher dose of melatonin with Adam and the last three nights he has only wakened three times...keep your fingers crossed.

The child is clearly confused....

...so Adam had his first Oreo cookies yesterday. He nibbled around the edge of the cookie for a bit, then took the cookie apart. He handed the half with the creme on it to me, pointed to the creme and said "Bye bye". Once I removed the offending creme, he happily ate the cookie.

As a person who has on occasion taken apart double stuffed Oreos and put two halves together, thus creating quadruple stuffed oreos, this is just beyond comprehension.

A post in which I promise not to whine about Adam's sleeping.....

....except to say that I simply don't understand why he isn't as exhausted as I am. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that he is happy and healthy, just a little perplexed.

But happy and healthy he is!

What is it with boys and cars? Adam is completely enthralled with cars and could play happily with them all day. If its a bus, better yet!

Phones of any kind run a close second, and often, cars seem to turn into phones and he will happy chat away into a car. If we are out walking, he just cups a hand to his ear and talks. I'm not sure who he's talking to, though, if asked, he will usually say "Grandma", or what he's saying, but boy does he have a lot to say! His conversations are complete with arm gestures, nodding, facial expressions -- you would swear he was actually on the phone!

Adam is also a music lovin' dancin' fool! He loves Barry Manilow (well, he doesn't really have a choice at this point! LOL!) and is a HUGE Wiggles fan. I have developed a fondness for the Wiggles myself, but the other night, after having watched them 6 or times over two days, I just couldn't bear to watch them again. I put Cher's Farewell Tour DVD and Adam was dazzled! He actually sat next to me on the couch and watched the entire video -- except when we were dancing, of course! LOL!

Anonymous comments revisited

From this point on, all comments not signed will not be published and will not be read. I will delete unread. If it isn't important enough to you to sign your name, it isn't important enough for me (and others) to read.

Can you top this?

In one of the many times Adam awakened over night, he finished a bottle and started to cough. He coughed so hard that he threw up the bottle's contents -- all over the long-suffering dog! LOL! As you can imagine, she was completely traumatized.