Dermatologist Recommended

When I noticed myself sneaking into the Little Man's room at night to steal his lotion, I knew he had a good thing. He has had some mild skin problems that culminated in a staph infection of the hair folicales on his back. Ew, gross, I know. Anyway, the antibiotic took care of the infection, and we went to see a dermatologist. Turns out he has some mild eczema. And the key to managing it is to keep his skin well lubricated. If not, it gets dry and flaky, and is susceptible to icky things like staph infections.

So what did the dermatologist recommend to keep his skin as soft as a baby's skin should be? Aveeno. Just the regular old Aveeno body lotion in the green and tan bottle. The one that says "Dermatologist Recommended" right there on the front. I think in the past I've always been turned off by the smell. But after using Aquaphor and Vaseline, it smells about the same, but it's not so think and goopy. And his skin is again as soft again as it should be. AND my hands are benefitting as well! Such a good solution. I'm thinking of getting a bottle for me.

Thermometers and the Related Fever

At the hospital, they sent us home with a simple electronic thermometer. And some sort of expectation that you'd be taking your baby's temp every 2 hours or something to make sure no fevers ever occurred. For the first six weeks, you live in fear of a fever because any real fever at that age results in a... FULL SEPSIS WORK-UP. Wow! What the heck is that? Answer: Blood, urine, SPINAL FLUID. Yes, spinal fluid. So you REALLY don't want your baby to get a fever. And I thought, if he DOES get a fever, I want to know right away. So I bought one of those $40 ear thermometers.

Here's the conversation I had with the nurse the first time the Little Man had a fever (luckily outside of the full-sepsis-workup age range):

Me: "My son has a fever"

Nurse: "How high?"

Me: "103"

Nurse: "How'd you take that temperature?"

Me: "With my fancy $40 ear thermometer"

Nurse: "Take it anally and call me back"

Me: "D'Oh!"

Because of course, you can't take a squirmy baby's temp while on the phone, so you have to hang up, take the clothes off, take the diaper off, figure out the cheap-o thermometer they gave you at the hospital, take the temp, then call back, wait on hold, explain the whole situation to a new nurse, and THEN get a same-day appointment.

The moral of this story is obvious: Save your money. Use the cheap-o hospital thermometer. We're still using it today, and the Little Man is nearly a year and half old.

Choosing an OB-GYN

I wish I'd known that when you choose your OB-GYN, you're also actually choosing your hospital, too. And hospitals have policies and procedures you need to be aware of when you're making your choice. Things to know about your hospital:

• Does your baby stay with you at all times? What are their policies on exams, etc? Are they done in your room, or off in a nursery somewhere? Can you go with your baby to these exams?
• Do they have shared or private recovery rooms?
• Do you share a nurse with another mom during labor and delivery, or do you have a dedicated nurse?
• Do you labor and deliver in the same room that you recover in, or a different room?
• Do they have REALLY GOOD anethesiologists on-site 24/7? (Even if you think you don't want an epidural, you might... and once you decide you want one, you want it NOW!!!!!)
• Are the hospital's policies consistent with your birth plan, or if you haven't written that up yet/you don't ever plan to write it up, are the hospital's policies consistent with the way you envision the birth to take place?
• Do they have lactation support onsite? What is their policy on bottle-feeding newborns who are having trouble nursing? What help do they provide to get breastfeeding off to a good start?
• What is the NICU like (heaven forbid you might need it)?
• Do they offer classes on birthing, breastfeeding, etc? How much do the classes cost? If they are not offered, what are your alternatives?
• Do they offer non-traditional birthing or laboring options such as hot tubs, birthing balls, meditation, etc? Do you want that sort of thing?
• Does your pediatrician have rights at that hospital? Your baby will need to see his or her pediatrician (or a designated alternate) in the hospital for regular new-born check-ups.

The best way to get an answer to these questions, and probably a lot of others I haven't thought of, is to take a tour of the hospital. We knew exactly what to expect after the tour... it was just kind of too late to change hospitals had we wanted to. In the end, we were really happy with the hospital and the services we received, but next time I'm going to ask these questions before settling on my OB-GYN.

Medical Interventions

At one of our birthing classes, the teacher told us to remember this list of intervention questions, so that when medical procedures or medications were suggested during labor, we could make well-informed choices. I've thought about this list a lot since then, because it really applies just about every time you talk to a doctor.

1. Is this an emergency?
2. What is the procedure / recommendation?
3. Why is it suggested?
4. What are the alternatives?
5. How could this affect me (or my baby)?
6. Can I think it over?

Now if I could just remember to actually ask them!