Terrific Tuesday and Woeful Wednesday

We decided to go to the zoo on Tuesday rather than Wednesday since we had our doctor's appointment Wednesday afternoon. So after breakfast, playtime, and an abbreviated nap by Silas, we headed out around noon. I think Silas had a good time ... he didn't get into the animals too much since they were mostly far away. He LOVED the trees and bamboo though since they were within grabbing distance. The boy is so intrigued by any tree and wants to touch and sometimes eat. He lasted until the last little bit and he got overtired and let everyone within a mile radius know it. I finally got him asleep and carried him out and he slept on the car ride home.

Pretty bird ... pretty bird.

Silas focused in on something.

Love Africa!

Silas was more interested in his hat than getting his picture taken

Elephant was doing some trunk exercises ... love their smiles

Silas looking at the giraffes.

Silas loving his grandparents

Hi giraffe!

Freaky-eyed turtle

Funny looking monkey

Silas with his serious look going on.

See how focused he is on the leaf? That's my boy.

Love this pic of mommy and Silas checking out the zebras

Hi Zebra!

SWEET ... more leaves to touch.

PEEK-A-BOO! (Actually, boy was TIRED here and about to let everyone know it)

Happy boy after his short nap after returning home from the zoo

I LOVED the zoo!

Giving mommy kisses with the eye still on the camera

Wednesday, on the other hand, was NOT a fun day. Our boy was messed up from the zoo and his sleeping schedule was affected. He usually sleeps til 3-4am and gets up for a diaper change and bottle and then back down until 7ish. Pretty sweet. Tuesday night he was up at 1am for a bottle/diaper change (went bed earlier due to lacks of naps) and then back up around 5:45. I chose to get up both times with him as I know when I go back to work next week (BOO!) Amber will be up more than I will be (since she'll be off work until Labor Day). He stayed up until 7:30 and then cashed out until 9am or so. Back up for play time and lunch until doctor's appointment at 1:45.

We filled out the tons of paperwork and got called back. Did his measurements again and waited for the doc. And waited for the doc. And waited for the doc. It was about 30+ minute wait for him. Silas started to get tired/restless/past naptime. Doc finally comes in and is real nice and we like him.

I thought we'd be going for his TB reading and general discussion/checkup since we had our lab work done at Vanderbilt on Monday. Sadly, I was wrong. He recommended getting his vaccination for meningitis today. He said he'd wait until his labs came back to see what else he needed. He read his TB test and it was "positive" by 1-2 millimeters on his skin reaction. Silas had "BCG" ??? (on his vaccination sheet from Ethiopia) which we were told previously would probably always show a positive on the skin test. So our doc ordered a chest xray as well but believes the chest xray will come back normal.

OK, so, the vaccination ... the doc leaves and we wait for the nurse. Silas again gets overtired and let's us know it. I get him down again and within 2 minutes, the nurse comes in for the shot. She cleans the area, he wakes up just as she's about to do the shot. He cries for about 15 seconds and then falls back to sleep. Sweet. Not as painful as I thought it would be for me. :)

The chest xray is a different story. I'm sure others have experienced this and it's just awful. Absolutely awful. The technician asks Amber and I who was going to hold him. It has been assumed that is now my job. I HATE that job. Not that I want Amber to have it but it is something I would not have signed up for. Just didn't realize that was on the job requirements for the daddy role. So the tech has me suit up with the protective vest and she sits Silas on the table and has me stand behind him and hold his hands up. He actually does alright. She then turns him to his side and has me hold his hands up again. He's not a fan of this position and starts arching his back. She quickly decides it's not going to work, apologizes, and pulls out this horrendous looking contraption. First thing I thought of was Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs for some reason. She sits him on this little seat, makes me hold his hands above his head and squeezes this plastic tube around his body and head. It's so close that his arms above his head are pressing against his skull pretty hard. Silas HATED it. HATED. If there was a stronger word, I would use it. I HATED it. I can't imagine being in that thing. I was holding his hands and he just was staring at me with alligator tears running down his naked body. Wailing so loud. It tore me up. She takes the xray, gets him out of it, and Amber sweeps him up. He calms down in a minute with mommy loving on him.

Then the bomb drops. Tech says xray wasn't 'good' and she has to redo it. WHAT!? You know what you just put my boy through, right? So she makes me help load him up into the nightmare contraption again. Silas is DYING! He's almost hyperventilating because he's so upset. She does 2 sets this time. I have nothing in me. All I can do is sing Jesus Loves Me (You) to him which is a calming song to him at naptime. Of course it didn't have any effect. After I don't know how long, she finally takes him out of it again. Amber comes to the rescue in tears and he didn't bounce back as quickly this time. Amber steps out of the room with him as the tech reads the xray. We both agree that we're done ... if it didn't work this time, we're not putting him through it again today. The boy was drenched. He was sweating so much. Luckily, she said they looked good.

I can't believe they don't have a better contraption to take a chest xray on an infant. At least straps to hold them in place rather than enclose them in this tube. OK, smart people reading this blog, invent something. It probably already exists and our podunk town doesn't have it. I never wish this experience on anyone.

We got a call from Vanderbilt during dinner from the doc with some lab results. Everything checked out good (PRAISE GOD) and he's got a few vaccinations to do as a result of those labs. We think we may get them in one shot which is good. We're still waiting on rest of the labs to see the full set of shots, etc we need to get before we start down that road.

Silas bounced back tonight when we went for a walk in the park. He turned on his observant mode and was totally playing with Amber as she pushed his stroller. We think he's bonded really great with us. I also think he told his life story in babble on the last 1/2 of the walk. He came home and played with Grandma/Grandpa for a bit and then bathtime (fun loving time for our fish), a lotion rubdown, bottle, and sweet dreams. We're praying he sleeps well and doesn't have any bad reactions to the vaccine today or bad dreams from the Hannibal Lecter device.

With the overwhelming day today, the day went by without one picture being taken. Another first ... first day with no pics of Silas. I think those days will be few and far between. :)