First the good news:
Today we had our first follow-up with the physical therapist(PT) for Maya. Apparently all premature babies have the privilege of getting an extra follow-up schedule all the way to 3 years of age. Today was the first one of these visits and they were checking that Maya was developing well, have good muscle tone, flexibility and movement.
Our PT, Mary, was very happy with Maya and told us she was very strong, flexible and was doing everything even a full term baby should be doing by now. Maya is a social butterfly and talked non-stop during our visit and even managed to throw in a few smiles to charm her evaluator. We got a stack of papers for massages, stretches and exercises to do to keep her in good shape (I think daddy needs this more than Maya to be honest).
Then the tears:
After the physical therapy we had to do another blood draw for the kidney doctor. Unfortunately ( or maybe it was fortunate?) dad had to rush back to work while mommy took Maya for the blood draw.
The first nurse immediately admitted defeat in drawing blood from a baby and called in reinforcement. The second nurse did not want to draw blood from the foot (which is what has been done previously) since this would take five pricks and a lot more pain for Maya. She settled for the hand and tried to find a vein to draw from. After a while nurse #2 gave up and called in nurse #3. Nurse #3 was super senior and was assisted by #2. In the end #3 managed to draw the necessary blood while #2 was holding our princess down. Maya was crying at the top of her lungs, nurse 2 was crying and I think a couple of people waiting in the lab cried as well. I can assure you that dad would have cried too if he was there. :(
From now on, we will not agree to any more prodding and poking unless it's urgent and important. Sometimes I get a feeling that these American doctors are a bit overzealous in their effort to follow-up and make sure all is well. Now please keep your fingers crossed/hall tummarna, pray, think good thoughts or whatever strikes your fancy, that this is the last time for a long long time that we have to do this.
