Year 2 Day 99: Health Visit

In the UK, when a baby is born your midwife will likely do a home-visit to follow-up for a week or two with you, and then the health visitors will take over home-visits until they feel you are ready to start bringing your little one to the clinic on your own fortnightly to be weighed, measured, checked, etc. You are also given a red folder that contains your child's personal health record.

Today was my final visit with the midwife, although not Rachel, the main midwife I have been seen by. This one is not as friendly as Rachel, in fact, and after I handed her my notes, she said she was going to weigh the baby and at one point referred to him as "her." This did not make Matt very happy but she used the excuse that she sees many people each day. Still, not a good practice, in my opinion to be so non-chalant about it. She stripped Ryan down to his birthday suit and asked for a fresh nappy after and the wipes. She barely wiped his little bum before loosely slapping on the new nappy (mind you the last time she overtook my diapering and finished him off by doing it so quickly, the poor guy ended up with a wedgie and shat straight through his clothes later that day). I noted later after she had gone that Ryan had a small reddish bruise-like mark on his forearm that looked like it was possibly caused by the gauze-like fabric he was put into when he was hung by the forcemeter to be weighed. When I noticed she had taken the notes with her after her visit I concluded that she must have discharged me today and let's just say I wasn't displeased to see the back of her.

Shortly before 2pm, the health visitor, Jill, showed up. I asked her to re-weigh Ryan as the midwife used a forcemeter and I wanted him to be weighed on a proper calibrated scale for accuracy. Ryan now weighs 8 lbs 11 oz (4 oz up from his birth weight) and he measured 50.5 cm (19.88 inches). His weight is right on target and although he is a bit on the short side at the moment, she was pleased with his progress and says he is quite healthy and alert. In fact, he even showed off a bit for her at one point and did his parlour trick of holding up his head on his own -- she was ever-so-impressed! She said that he is okay to start taking to the clinic and told me about a mother & baby group up the road at the community centre, so I may check that out.

Looks like his first baby clinic visit will be just before my birthday. Although I'd like him to stay tiny forever, I can't wait to see how much he grows!