Dexter had a busy day today. He got a bath, played with his friend Henry at the park, had a picnic lunch with mommy, daddy, and Jason in the park, and went to the doctor to get his 6 month immunizations. He's obviously behind schedule due to appointment scheduling difficulties. You would think it would be possible to schedule all the immunization appointments at a baby's first doctor appointment. No, of course not, that makes way too much sense. I've had to make each one individually and his doctor is only available Thursdays. He's always booked 2 months in advance, but I can't make the next appointment at the doctor's office because it's too far in advance to schedule 2 months ahead even though immunizations are every 2 months! I have to CALL to schedule 2 months in advance and it took me 4 months for anyone to tell me that. OK back to the REAL story…
The nanny went with us since it was the middle of the day and I had to be back at the office by a certain time. Dexter had, unfortunately, just gone down for his afternoon nap. He got about 20 minutes of shut-eye because I never even had to sit down in the waiting room. We went right in. I had to wake him up and undress him to his birthday suit, so he could be weighed. He's 17 lbs, 7 oz. Luckily he didn't pee on me before I got his diaper back on. He measured 27 inches tall/long and his noggin is 45.5 cm in diameter. He was still in a daze. He didn't cry at all. He was just bewildered by waking up in a strange place, his clothes being taken off, and being set in various places to be weighed and measured. I'm absolutely certain this is where most alien abduction dreams are rooted.
The doctor looked him over. I asked the doctor about Dexter's peculiar habit of tensing up. He started doing it about a month ago, but now he's a regular Hulk Hogan. He flexes his arms and balls his fists in a fit of flexion. He does it over and over again. His aunts saw him do it. It worried MIke and I at first because we didn't know what to make of it. Was it a seizure? Was he doing it on purpose? It's just hard to tell sometimes. I mentioned it to the doctor to ease my mind about it. Dexter demonstrated it over and over again. Turns out it's just Dexter. He's weird. He like to tense up like a mini-wrestler to psych people out. He psyched his parents out good.
After he got the once over and the doc said he's a very strong little boy, it was time for the shots. Not before he pulled out half the roll of crinkly paper onto the table. I kept telling him that he didn't know how many butts had touched that paper, but he didn't care. He like to shred it and wave it around and then get more. The nanny had to physically hold down the paper to keep from taking it all. Dexter was grabbing it and pulling it towards him and then grabbing more and more. I guess he wanted to see where the end was. I wrapped him in it at one point because he had grabbed so much of it - literally, about 3-4 feet of the stuff. (This coincides with his recent discovery that he can pull diaper wipes out of the diaper warmer and will keep pulling wipes out until A) they are all gone or B) Mommy stops him.)
The nurse came to give him his shots. He only got 3 pricks this time. I like the nurse he had because she's quick. He'd barely had time to scream and 2 were done. the third one made him turn purple again. Poor baby screamed bloody murder. After the third shot, I took him in my arms and comforted him. Within minutes the nanny had him laughing, but man oh man did he give that nurse the stink eye. I've never seen him look at anyone like that before. He watched her leave the room with the coldest little baby stare. He didn't want anything to do with her!
NO MORE SHOTS! Well at least until he's a year old. That's only 4.5 months away. I better call and make an appointment now.
