A Cold, A Trip to the Pediatrician, and A Swimming Pool

These are pictures of Henry and Frosty the Bull. To give you a sense of size, Frosty is a Beanie Baby. The first picture was taken May 29, 2007. The second picture was taken May 1, 2008.

Henry was sick on his birthday. It got worse Wednesday night after I had completed his birthday blog entry. He woke up, tossing and turning. He had a fever of 101.2 F. We suctioned out his nose, gave him Tylenol, and took off his shirt. He was very amiable as usual and took everything in stride (exception perhaps for the nose suctioning part).

On Thursday morning, Veronica called in sick, so Jeff and I took turns watching Henry. Henry had an appointment with Dr. Bianchi (his pediatrician) in the afternoon. While in the waiting room, Henry did a little bear crawl on the carpet, which was cute. The appointment went well. Henry was 18 lbs 4 ozs, 28 inches long, with a head circumference of 44.7 cm. Dr. Bianchi said he looked great. Henry was scheduled to have two shots. We opted just to give him one (the HepB). We'll take him to get the other shot (can't remember which one it is) in a couple weeks. We are of the opinion that multiple shots should not be given at one time, which brings us to the touchy subject of the MMR.

There has been some debate over potential relationship between the MMR and autism. Several anecdotes (two in our circle of friends/family/acquaintances) suggest to us that there could be a relationship between the two for some kids. The CDC says that there is no relationship. I won't go into details, but I have done a lot of reading, and I'm of the opinion that many of the studies (on both sides) are flawed from a research methods perspective. We wanted to wait for Henry to get the MMR until he was 3 and the brain has accomplished a good deal of its development. Unfortunately, there has been a measles outbreak in Tucson. A Swiss tourist brought it to our community in February. As of early April, there were 10 reported cases. And now, that number has increased to 17. The CDC and doctors in the community are encouraging all parents with kids as young as 6 months old to get the vaccination. Of course, if you go to the Merck website, you'll find out that the vaccine only creates the appropriate immune response in 74% of 6 month olds. This percentage increases to nearly 100% in children who get the vaccine at 15 months old. We are again restricting Henry's public outings (e.g., no more trips to Babies R Us) and have been debating what to do. We have decided to get him the measles shot but we don't want it delivered in the package of the MMR. Merck does make separate shots for measles, mumps, and rubella. When we asked Dr. Bianchi about this, he said that we could call the health department and see if they offer it. I called on Monday and they don't (although they have apparently received many requests for it). Through my preemie message board contacts, I have learned that one needs a doctor to order the separate shots from Merck. This is a problem because Dr. Bianchi doesn't appear to be flexible (he wasn't with the preservative flu shot even though we explicitly said that we would pay for it out of pocket), but we are going to ask him again this week. If that doesn't work, we're going to have to find another pediatrician.


After the appointment, we visited my parents. Henry decided to put food in his hair. By Thursday night, I had obviously contracted Henry's cold. It hit me hard (harder, I think, than it hit Henry). I don't remember much about Friday. I slept in the morning (Veronica was back). We cancelled Henry's home visits with Shirley (PT) and Tara; we didn't want them to get sick. After Veronica left, I got much worse. 102 F temperature and chills. Wasn't pretty.










On Saturday, my parents thought they were coming down with it. Luckily, neither they nor Jeff got the extreme version of it that I had. Despite the fact that Henry, Jeff, and I still had sniffles, we actually had a lovely day. Henry got up at 7AM, but then crashed on Jeff shortly thereafter. He didn't wake up until 10:15AM or so, keeping Jeff trapped in bed. They missed out on seeing the deer that were hanging out in our backyard. We set up the baby pool in the back patio. Henry and Jeff got in and splashed around. Henry loved it. Henry took a long nap with me in the afternoon. What can I say? It was a nice family day.










I almost forgot. Henry shakes his head from side to side when we say the word "no." He doesn't appear to connect it to its meaning (e.g., stop, don't do that, etc.). He was pulling apart the leaves of one of the house plants. I said, "Henry, no." He shook his head from side to side. I couldn't help but laugh (failing to reinforce the meaning of the word, but it was very funny).



On Sunday, Henry visited my parents. Jeff and I dropped him off and went to see "Iron Man." Came home. I did a lot of catch work for school. Jeff worked on baby-proofing our house some more. Henry had a good day exploring my parents' house. He apparently checked out all of the rooms. He loves being mobile.

We were supposed to have Henry's birthday celebration with my parents, sister and brother-in-law, Lucinda, Uncle Jim, and Uncle Dan on Sunday. With Henry, Jeff, my parents, and me sick, however, we postponed it until this coming Sunday. Although we felt pretty good Sunday, we didn't want to spread the cold to others. So that means that Henry hasn't opened his birthday gifts yet.

Yesterday (Monday), Henry was busy as usual. I think that he's getting better. An interesting development on our walks. When he hit the half way point, I always do some stretches and Jeff copies me, with Henry in the Baby Bjorn. The last four times or so, when we reach the point where I stretch up, Henry does it first. It is so cute!

That just about covers the last several days. Jeff will report tonight on our visit from the speech therapist this afternoon and our visit with Dr. Tsai at the developmental clinic.