Monday, September 24, 2007

Kaitlyn's 6 month doctor's visit (or alternately titled, leaving my kids with strangers at the hospital)

Bright and early this morning we had Kaitlyn's checkup, and I took all the kids with me. We talked beforehand about what would be expected of them (holding hands in the parking lot, obeying mommy, not getting into stuff in the exam room.) And the kids did GREAT! Good listeners, they were patient, they played nicely, yay!

Kaitlyn weighed 15 pounds 12 ounces and is 27 inches long (average weight but very long for her age he said). He also ordered x-rays for her hips today. (He's been monitoring them because he has suspected something might be amiss ever since she was born.)


SO, me and my gaggle of chilren (all holding hands, with Kaitlyn in the bjorn) trekked across the street to the hospital. Got to the radiology department to check in, where I was asked if I had someone else with me because the other kids weren't allowed in the radiation room. I told her I was by myself and she basically said too bad, I should come back tonight when my husband can watch the kids. WELL, maybe if they didn't close at 6 pm (Kevin doesn't get home till after 6) that could work. I told her nope, my husband commutes and literally can't get home in time. Then she suggested Saturday, but I'm sorry, heck if I'm going to have to wait nearly a week for my daughter to get an x-ray she needs.

A really nice woman bringing in her elderly mom for an x-ray timidly offered to keep her eye on the kids in the waiting room (offering me her driver's license as collateral, ha!), which was super sweet, and I decided that would be okay, but that option ended up falling through because her mother was transferred to some other radiology place. But still I sat in that waiting room, determined to get Kaitlyn in there. I just kept praying that God would provide a way for us to get the xray done. Meanwhile as we waited and waited (gotta love a crowded hospital, but at least my kids were behaving and not going sideways) a (very normal-looking!) couple, probably in their late-sixties, came in. Within two minutes the grandfatherly man was putting stickers on his forehead and making all my kids laugh. They loved this guy! He had a thick New York accent and thought my kids could do no wrong. After chatting with him for awhile I told him I had no clue if we'd even be getting our x-ray today, because of the older kids. "Don't worry about it, we'll babysit" he said. (On a side-note, I'm totally blessed to know lots of sweet mommies I could call to come sit with my kids in a jam, but again it was totally the principle of the thing, we were already there, and I'm anxious to know once and for all if something's wrong with her hip.)

WELL, the radiologist came and called Kaitlyn's name and immediately the grandfatherly man and his wife said, "Okay kids, come on." When Kaitlyn and I returned (we were seriously in there for less than 10 minutes) we could hear gregarious laughter coming from the waiting room. All three kids were playing some game where they were underneath the chairs, and the receptionists were cracking up, and told me I should take this couple home with me because they were great babysitters. I was SO THANKFUL that the Lord provided normal, kind, entertaining people when I needed them. I was totally uncomfortable leaving my kids semi-unattended around random people I didn't know (and seriously prayed nonstop for my kids during the x-ray), but the receptionists and other people waiting were watching too.


Finally, the kids were just so dang good all morning that I took them to McDonald's for lunch. They loved their food and getting to play on the playground. What a day!

14 comments:

Meg said...

ouch- the "random nurse to babysit" comment is a bit off don't you think? Nurses are not available to babysit because they are overworked and underpaid- the more appropriate place (totally my opinion)for your comment would have been "why didn't they tell you ahead of time that you'd needed to bring supervision with you for this part of the checkup...."- sorry, I can be a bit sensitive about nurses- my mother is an RN and people expect (all of the time) for nurses to be available for babsitting and such- truly, they are already overworked.......
Meg

Brianna Heldt said...

sorry to offend--honestly, i really didn't see that comment as "off" in its context. i wasn't expecting a nurse to "babysit", i really didn't intend for this post to have anything to do with nurses at all.

i do however think it makes sense for hospitals serving children and babies to be sensitive to stay-at-home moms who have more than just one child to care for. i really doubt moms who are expecting nurses to be "available for babysitting" would choose to be in the hospital in the first place. (i removed the sentence in question.)

Anonymous said...

Brianna,
Lucky for me, the Navy hospital down here has a "Children's Waiting Room" where they have qualified daycare people watch your other kids for appointments.

I didn't realize how unheard of this was until Gregory had 12 weeks of appointments at the Children's hospital here and when I asked where their daycare was for Hannah they looked at me like I was nuts!! So for 12 weeks I had to hustle Hannah down to Greg's work and back up to the hospital (right by our house) for Gregory's appts and I was SOOO annoyed.

I guess it is a different atmosphere in the military life because the stay at home mom with a husband who is deployed or stuck at work can't come help you is pretty commonplace around here.

Good Luck with the xray results!

Jeannett said...

It would have been nice if they had at least been more diplomatic about the whole thing. Nurses can't babysit, but a simple reminder that other children cannot go into the room would have been so helpful! Sometimes the littlest gestures can go a long way...

Brianna Heldt said...

the results came back and are totally normal, hooray!!

tamara that waiting room thing sounds sweet! thank goodness for that sort of thing considering all the medical stuff you've dealt with!

i guess i figure it should either be up to me to decide if my kids can be in the x-ray room or not (or i should be able to opt out), or there should be some sort of option for the 7 minutes i'm in there. i refuse to call that "babysitting!"

Anonymous said...

Yea! I am so glad all is okay. Why did the dr have any concern to begin with? Sorry...is that too personal? - Kate

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know I love reading about your kids!
I've always thought I might want to have a couple birth children and adopt one or two.

Brianna Heldt said...

kate, when babies are born, the doctor will check their hips for dysplasia (sp?) well, right after kaitlyn was born the doctor had some concerns, but wasn't for sure, so he's been checking on and off. yesterday i guess he felt it worth getting xrayed. it can be difficult to tell in babies.

hi shannon! glad you like the blog.

Samantha said...

When I was born, the doctor told my mom that he wanted to break my hips and reset them. It didn't settle right with her and she refused to let him do it. Nothing has ever been wrong with my hips, so I either grew out of it or it wasn't necessary. Pretty scary.

Brianna Heldt said...

samantha that IS scary! yikes! yeah i guess it is difficult to assess that stuff in babies, thank goodness your mom didn't listen, that is awful!

Rachel said...

Your the third person in the last month that's baby had their jips checked. Is this the new ADD? There must have been a laawsuit recently where the doctor had to pay big time for not diagnosing this hip problem early on/

joy said...

praise God for Normal people. i just love how that was the first adjective on your list. did you get the couple's number? i'd like to borrow them sometime! results of the x-ray?

Brianna Heldt said...

you know joy, i did not get their number, but i'm wishing i had!!! now granted they only monitored the kids for about 7 minutes, but i'm thinking they could have gone the distance.

the results came back completely normal! thank goodness!

Kristen Borland said...

i'm so dang proud of you for doing that! wishing i lived closer so you could have called on me for help!

 

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