Poor baby

At our visit to the pediatrician on Monday, she suggested an iron test for Inigo. And though I hate putting him through unnecessary medical procedures, iron is vital for brain development in little ones, and if they miss out, that development just doesn’t happen. So on this one, I decided to err on the side of caution.

And I was so brave and organised. I put off the test until today, when he would have a lovely morning at playgroup (Julie read his favourite book, Fancy Nancy as a special treat), he ate three bowls of fruit, and rocked the Hokey Pokey. He had a sandwich on the way to the hospital, and popped in to the lovely women at the audiology department to book his follow on test in three months time. Then it was off to Pathology. Just follow the screams…

We waited our turn, and Squish was pretty good, if a little tired and cranky. One mum was in the waiting room listening to her child get his procedure done. The nurse came out to ask if she was going to come in and she refused. It blew my tiny mind that any mother could choose to let her baby go through something like that without his mama there. Heartbreaking.

Inigo was next. It was awful. We’ve done this heaps of times before, but this time he is older, more aware, more frightened.

The guy was quick, very sweet with Inigo, and it was over very quickly. Inigo was hysterical, but that was what I was expecting, and I had some watermelon in my bag ready for distracting him when we got back to the waiting room. But then he called us back. The test called for three vials of blood, but he had only drawn two. He had to puncture the other arm.

As you can imagine, it was torture. And I just couldn’t fall apart, I had to be present for him. He was absolutely inconsolable, the terrible sobbing continued for at least five minutes, it was ages before he could even look at the watermelon. For a kid as stomach driven as this one, that is pretty severe. And then he’d eat a bit of watermelon, and look down at his arms, see the band aids (wiggles), and start crying and sobbing again. Eventually, I took off the band aids, and he’s had a long nap, and a lovely visit with friends.

Hopefully, his iron will be fine, and we won’t ever need to test him again.

Oh, and today Inigo started singing. He’s been mubling along to songs (in tune) for quite a while now, but today he started using actual words in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It sounds like he’s going to inherit his fathers gorgeous singing voice.

And one more thing. We have official confirmation that he can sleep through the smoke alarm.