Swallow Study

Note to self: When your child is teething it's important to make sure there is an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag before you leave the house. I had assumed, and we all know what happens when you assume.

Adam had his swallow study this morning, and we got there on time, with plenty of time to register and talk to the staff. Adam enjoyed seeing people ("Finally, Mom, we're out of the house!") and was pleased to have 5 people tell him how cute he was and how adorable his little smile is (and how fitting that he's a little "ham") before 9:30am. I even was lucky enough to time his feeding just right so he was hungry but not starving at the radiologist (I woke up at 5 am to feed him so he would be the appropriate amount of hungry for the swallow study).

But right before the study, he was squirming in his stroller so much that I pulled him out to find him soaked. Great. I asked where a bathroom was that I could change him and they pointed me in the right direction. You know those plastic pull-down changing tables that are in public facility bathrooms? Well, they are great... but extremely uncomfortable. And Adam was absolutely covered in IT. His onesie (underneath his long sleeve shirt) was drenched completely. His sweatpants were soaked. His socks didn't have a chance in Hell. And he was screaming his head off as I completely undressed him, hungry and mad, in the cold hospital bathroom. They could hear him give me the what-for all the way down the hall.

And it was one of those diapers where you just know that when you open it up it's going to be as disgusting inside as it is on the outside . . . but somehow, miraculously, he managed to go outside of his diaper but not very much in it. The diaper was tight enough, fastened correctly, and clinging to all the right places, and yet there was more on him than there was in the diaper. How does that happen??

I dug desperately in the diaper bag for extra clothes. At LEAST there had to be extra socks . . . but no. I put his long sleeve shirt back on him, which luckily survived the war, and I took him back out into the waiting area, pants-less and exhausted. He saw all the ladies and smiled his best smile, then realized he was in a very compromising position - no pants, cold, new place . . . and I think he just knew that something was about to happen. So he clung to me more tightly than I've ever seen. He still smiled, but he wasn't going to let go for anything. He didn't cry, didn't grimace, didn't whimper, just wrapped his legs around me and held on tightly. I passed him over to the therapist and he did the same to her.

We went back to do the swallow study where she had everything already prepared. He saw his bottle and started to cry for it, the doctor came in, Adam drank the formula/Barium mixture while they watched on the video, said everything was fine, and sent us on our way. Before leaving the hospital, I pulled off my sweatshirt (luckily wearing a tank top underneath) and put it on him so he would be warm enough on the way to the car.

By the time we got home he had fallen asleep in the car seat, and is asleep now in his crib, which is not surprising since he had another rough night last night. At 1 am last night he woke up upset and in pain and yelled at Shannon for a good ten minutes but couldn't be pacified - no amount of food, cuddling, diaper changes, or Tylenol could do the trick. Finally I think he passed out from exhaustion. But when he woke up this morning, he was his normal, happy self. No fever and grinning ear-to-ear.

This is good because we are shopping for a new daycare today. I gave our two weeks notice, told them that we loved the facility and staff minus the one HUGE problem, and thanked them for everything. So wish me luck finding somewhere new.