OK….I am almost over the traumatic experience that I encountered Friday during Sophia’ s ear piercing. I feel that the final step to overcoming this experience is to share it. First off, Sophia is great! I, on the other hand, will be scarred for life.
So I woke up Friday morning around 2:00am with a strange feeling in my chest. I woke Mike and told him that I didn’t think we should get Sophia’s ears done. Well, actually I sobbed that we should not get her ears done. Half asleep and annoyed that I am crying in the middle of the night, he said, “Fine” and went back to sleep. I took that answer as the Gospel and went back to sleep too! Our morning was great Sophia was happy and all I could think about was putting these holes in my child’s head. All day Sophia’s ears and the idea ear piercing overtook my every thought. Finally 2:40pm I picked her up at school and brought her home to where Mike was waiting for us to go get her ears done. At that point I was ready to do it. I got her dressed in a button down shirt, took a before picture of her, packed her bag and camera and we were out the door.
At the doctor’s office I was excited but that feeling from 2:00am started to overtake me again, but I push it aside since we were already there. We got into the room and Wendy, the Nurse Practitioner, that was piercing Sophia’s ears, came right in. She went through the procedure, stressed how much better it is to get them done early, and went through how to care for them after they are done. She tells us about these new infant earrings they just got. They are smaller gold balls that will fit Sophia’s ear better and a post that is no thicker than what we wear on an everyday basis. Now I am happy because I remember the starter studs and how thick the posts were. It said right on the package for infants ears. NOTE: SOPHIA IS THE FIRST INFANT TO BE PIERCED IN THEM!
Now it is time for the “procedure”. I am calm and smiling. We lay Sophia down and I mark her ears with the purple marker as to where I want them put in. Mike is ready with the camera to capture this moment. The Nurse does the first ear. Sophia has these bugged out eyes and begins to cry. As the nurse is loading the second earring into the gun, I look at the earring in her ear and it looks like it isn’t in all the way. I tell the nurse and she reassures me that sometimes the back isn’t on tight and we will pierce the other ear and then go back and tighten the back to the first one. She does the second one. This one also looks like it is not fully in. I pick Sophia up and she automatically stops crying. We give her a bottle and as we are doing this the nurse checks the earrings. The first earring is on tight. She checks the second…same thing. We realize that the new earrings have longer posts. Why they would do this for an infant’s earring is beyond me. Well, they are hanging out of her ear so we know that we can’t keep them in.
The nurse goes and consults the doctor and nurses to see how we are going to fix this problem. In the meantime, I am doing all I can do to stay calm so I don’t get Sophia upset. About 3 min. later she walks in with another nurse and a new set of studs. The old thick post ones! I have 2 options. 1. Take them out or 2. Take them out and push the thicker post through the thinner hole already made and hope it works. Already feeling like the worst mother in the world I opt for option one… take them out and forget about it. This was the worst part. Sophia was screaming, I was crying, the nurses were swelling with tears, and Mike was quiet (which means he was upset too!). They get them out and put numbing stuff on them. They tell me to leave them alone and wash the purple ink off tomorrow. We leave the office as I am clutching Sophia for dear life, crying and apologizing to her. She is looking at me like I am crazy. We get home and she goes to bed.
The next morning I think that this nightmare is over. So I go to wash the purple off her ear and realize that some of it is trapped under her skin. She now has bright purple dots where the earring should be. I freak! I have not only scared my child I have tattooed her. Since it is only 5:00am I can’t call the doctor’s office so I feel totally out of control. So poor Mike had to listen to me about how I do everything wrong with her….I didn’t bake her right, deliver her right, didn’t feed her right, and now I let them drill holes in her head. By 7:00am I was ready to drop her off at a baby drop station since she deserves to be with a mom that does things right. Sophia woke up and thank god she did because I was OK once I was feeding her. It was during that feeding that I realize she has Mike’s look (except he doesn’t have tattoos), my personality and my luck.
For those who don’t know my luck. I went for a cavity to be filled 4 months before the wedding and ended up with a root canal and cap on a tooth that had nothing to do with the cavity. 3 months before the wedding and 2 days before my bridal shower I got appendicitis and needed emergency surgery. And the best….the morning before the wedding I woke up with conjunctivitis and was in the emergency room waiting for treatment 2 hours before my nail appointment. With that in mind I started to dread her first haircut, starting foods, getting teeth, and her walking.
Well the story ends happily. I finally spoke to the doctor who said my daughter tattoos will disappear because the marker is a surgical marker. But it could take up to 3 months. So, until it disappears I am thankful her tattoos are purple since it matched most of her clothes. I am able to smile about it now because the dots have begun to fade. I am sure that I will be laughing about it someday when I look back at her pictures and see the purple dots on her ears.Well, there was one good thing that came from this experience. I have learned what that feeling in my chest was. I believe it was my “mother’s intuition.” I know that once you are a mother you get it but I never knew what it felt like. Now I know I have it and it works, so I am going to use it and when I feel it again…no matter what I am going to follow it. Oh, and as for the ear piercing. ..When she makes the decision to have them done, I will be happy to take her.
No comments:
Post a Comment