Smooth Move(s), Mama.

*Disclaimer - those with weak stomachs should proceed with caution.

Oh, man, doctor's appointments can be brutal.

We took Ethan in today for his 9 month check up. The experience was probably doomed from the beginning, as his appointment was scheduled for 4:00. Those of you who are familiar with my color-coded, spreadsheet-worthy, regimented sleep schedule (and really, who among you haven't memorized it?) know that Ethan's afternoon nap starts at 3:30. Sharp(ish). So why, you may ask, did we schedule the appointment for 4:00? It's definitely not because that time is best for my schedule. Surely I didn't choose my wants and needs over those of my baby.

Not me.

As one could predict, 4:00 came and went, as did 4:10, 4:20, and 4:30, and we were still sitting in the waiting room (one of us spent those thirty minutes eyballing everyone who coughed, obsessing about swine flu... guess which parent that was). We had done everything but stand on our heads to keep Ethan from a major meltdown. For the record, when he's tired Ethan is not amused by an aquarium full of fish, a handful of Cheerios, Mama's silly faces, or those toys that EVERY pediatrician's office has with the wooden beads that you push along the twisted wires. Harried and out of ideas, I finally went up to the receptionist and asked how much longer the wait was. Three people were still ahead of us. Yikes.

I explained that we only had a few minutes before my baby would turn the peaceful, fish-tank-bubbling ambient sounds of the waiting room into the background track of a horror movie, and begged that she do whatever she could to move things along. After not so subtly suggesting that it was somehow our fault for choosing the 4:00 appointment time (a comment that my rightfully-so perturbed husband couldn't let slip by without a justified retort), she said she would see what she could do. We were called a few minutes later. It's a good thing, too, because I had already decided that I would move closer to the reception window if Ethan started wailing.

The nurse came in right away to weigh (23 lbs.) and measure (29 in.) him, and assured us that the doctor would be in shortly. She was. As usual, she had glowing reviews about Ethan's development, and baby big boy got a clean bill of health. There was only one more hurdle left - the most dreaded one of all - a needle. Well, two needles, to be exact. In addition to an immunization (yes, I do work with kids with autism, and yes, we did decide to vaccinate our child), he also needed a blood test. One "simple" finger prick later and Ethan's little baby hand was gushing an adult amount of blood. While he was screaming, the nurse fumbled with the bandage before giving up and asking me to apply pressure instead. She moved on to the shot, which was met with the same amount of crying, albeit a lot less gory. His finger still bleeding, she finally applied a band-aid and rushed from the room. We followed quickly behind.

Now a fully 90 minutes past nap time, battle-worn and hungry, Ethan was loaded into the car. I hesitated for a moment, deciding whether or not it would be a good idea to take off his bandage for the ride home. What was the bigger risk - blood on the car seat, or an ingested band-aid? I chose to keep it on, which was probably the wrong call... within two minutes of pulling out of the parking lot I heard the sound of what I would later learn was my baby sucking all of the blood out of his band-aid. Ew.

Hey, at least it was organic.

A Tribute to Dr. Kaplan

Sarah had her last post-baby checkup appointment today with the most amazing OB in the world, Dr. Alan Kaplan. At the end of the appointment she shared pictures of Ethan and taught Dr. Kaplan all about baby blogging. Feeling a bit remiss for not having more classic Kaplan anecdotes in our blog postings, Sarah promised to write a proper tribute to our favorite doctor.

Dr. Kaplan put us at ease from the moment we walked into his office. Being that this was our first pregnancy, we were a bit nervous and neurotic (and let's face it... by we, we really mean Sarah). Dr. Kaplan not only took all of our questions in stride, but also put a spin of humor on everything. His laid-back attitude and East Coast sarcastic personality made each of our visits entertaining as well as informative and reassuring, a combination that is very rare to find in a physician. He always listened to all of our concerns and questions, and never made us feel rushed or as though we were wasting his time. In fact, we quite often spent a few minutes after each appointment chatting about Ryan's photography or Dr. Kaplan's fishing vacation. For all of the fun we had at our appointments, it was never at the expense of top-rate care. We trusted him implicitly, and from our scare with placenta previa to Ethan's eventful delivery, we knew we were always in the very best hands. Thanks, Dr. Kaplan, for bringing our beautiful baby boy into this world safe and sound (and keeping us sane through the entire experience)!

We Love Our New Home!

Since our last post, we've moved most of our belongings into the new house and are steadily unpacking. It's been a lot of fun, even though it is a lot of work. We were lucky enough to have some phenomenal friends help us with the move. Christin was in town for a visit, and Angie and Nelson came over on Saturday. Nelson also brought one of his friends along to lend a hand! Without their help, we would never have been able to pull off this move. Thanks to all of you for the lifting and stair climbing - you're the best! Ryan also deserves a special mention. Since Sarah can't move any boxes, the daddy-to-be has been making trip after trip back to our old apartment to get all of the odds and ends packed up and moved over here. Thank goodness we're overlapping our leases by a few weeks!

We thought it would be fun to post a short video tour of the new digs once we have everything set up. Not only will that be a bit more interesting than pictures, but you'll also get to see footage of Sarah's waddle walk. We'll be sure to get that up as soon as we can. For now, here's a picture of the two of us (three of us?) in our backyard. We love sitting outside in our little "garden oasis" - it's so peaceful and relaxing!


At our last doctor's appointment, Sarah had a fetal fibrinectomy test. Since she has been experiencing a lot of pain at night, our doctor wanted to make sure that her symptoms weren't indicative of pre-term labor. The test is able to determine with about 97% accuracy whether or not the patient will go into labor in the next two weeks. As we expected, Sarah's test came back negative, but we thought it was an amazing example of what modern medicine can do. Too bad we can't get one of those tests every time we go in for our appointments - it would make planning for delivery a lot easier!

Mommy Update:
- Has discovered that she really loves doing laundry... no, really, she LOVES laundry!
- Was finally able to wash and organize every single stitch of baby clothing and linens.
- Is looking forward to hosting a barbeque party once all the boxes have been unpacked.
- Sends congrats to all of her colleagues for officially making it to summer vacation!