Whew! What a day. We went up to the Adoption Clinic in Boston.
All in all, it went well. Dr. Miller and her assistant were very gentle and kind and I was pleased to spend the afternoon with them. AwesomeCloud was as tolerant as one could hope, even during the unpleasant parts. Except the blood drawing, but the blood drawing was brutal. We held him down and stuck a needle in him and drew enough vials of blood to make Mama cringe. Who could be in a good mood after that?
I also think I was starting to feel over-advised. The MDs gave me lots and lots of advice, and I kept getting the unhelpful urge to argue with them. That suggestion is not in my comfort zone! I haven't been doing too badly in that area so far! But he likes that food! Everybody feels defensive sometimes. I'm well aware that I need advice, lots of it. But maybe I hit a threshold today, and/or it was rainy and stressful. I successfully reminded myself that Dr. Miller is an expert, one of the finest, and she's telling me all this stuff to help the kiddo, not to criticize me.
Now that it's over and the advice belongs to me, I'm cool with it all. It's just hard to spend weeks and weeks getting inundated with advice, some you asked for and some you didn't, some from medical pros and some from other parents. Even if the advice is largely good, even if it contains some gems that help you through your day and solve daunting problems, it can be hard on the ol' ego to be the advice-getter all the time.
It's enough to make me vow even harder not to dole out unsolicited advice. Although I love to share my wisdom out of the goodness of my heart. But, y'know, everyone loves that. The recipient's feelings are more important. The baby's well-being is most important of all, of course. But I think Dr. Miller gave me some great guidance, and I'm confident that we're doing all right.
Her diet advice was complicated, so AwesomeCloud mealtimes are going to change in multiple ways. Canola oil will be my new favorite ingredient. I actually don't use canola oil much for us grown-ups because I love olive oil so much. It's really a small change that feels like a big one.
There are a bunch of other food-related things that I've been doing almost right. Small changes, all of them. They just feel big.
His mealtime schedule got badly disrupted today, due to the 11:00 appointment that went on till 3:00. Tomorrow will be better!
Gah, I'm tired.
Everyone always has some kind of advice--solicited or not. It's part of the joys of motherhood. haha. Do the best you can. You'll quickly learn what advice is sound and what advice is in left field. As for the MD, I don't know her obviously but as a nurse I have found many "specialists" to be a little too abrupt at times. They are good and they usually know they are good. :-) Don't take their attitudes personally. They probably treat everyone that way. Change is SO HARD but once the change becomes your new norm you won't think a thing about it. Take care.
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