So Brave

Looking through Isaiah's legs

I finally got around to taking Felix for his blood test this morning. I got myself organised and then got Felix dressed and was pretty much ready to leave, when Nathan told me he had better go and get dressed too. I admire the fact that he was willing to come with us, but I told him he wasn't allowed to come (Hahaha! Poor hubby!) Nathan hates injections, and I knew it would be too much for him to see Felix have blood taken. Felix gave Daddy a big hug and, although he wouldn't admit it, I saw the relief on Nathan's face!

Silly me! I thought that if we went to the hospital early in the morning, we would get in and out quickly. I was wrong! There was a room full of people all waiting for blood tests. Felix set about entertaining the people in the waiting room while we passed the time. He crawled up to one lady and looked up at her until he got her attention and she started talking to him. He turned to another lady and gave her a big smile. There was another little boy there who was a year old. Felix very bravely went up to his pram to say hello, but bolted back towards me when the little boy started crying. He has always hated it when babies cry, so he snuggled into my shoulder until he stopped crying.

Cutie pie

Eventually Felix's name was called and we were able to go into the room to have his blood taken. Another nurse came in to help hold his arm still, and I had my arms wrapped around him to keep the rest of him from wriggling. The nurse commented that he had good veins so his blood would be easy to draw. When she put the needle in, Felix looked at the nurse and then back at his arm. I started talking to him and he looked up at me and smiled and 'talked'. After a while I looked down to see that there was no blood in the syringe yet, and the nurse was moving the needle around under his skin trying to find the vein. Felix hadn't even flinched!

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the syringe filled up and the nurse was able to remove the needle. I told Felix it was all finished, and he signed 'finished'. While the nurse was disposing of the needle and finding a bandaid for his arm, Felix looked up at me and signed 'finished' again. I think he just wanted to make sure that there was nothing else painful about to happen to him. When we were about to leave, I said to Felix, "Say thank you" (and I signed 'thank you'). I was really impressed that the nurse asked how to sign 'thank you', and she signed it to Felix. I always appreciate when people make an effort to do little things like that, above and beyond what they need to do. She was so lovely to Felix and gave him so much encouragement. It's things like that which make your day, especially when dealing with so many different health professionals all the time.

Hello Granny!

We should get Felix's blood test results early next week. I'm not expecting anything to be out of the ordinary so hopefully we won't get any nasty surprises. However, as all my friends with little ones with Down Syndrome will know, it's much easier to sleep after all the results come back clear. I have a busy weekend coming up so that should keep me nice and distracted for the time being. Looking forward to letting you all know some good results next week!