The Rare Spotted Baby

Just how rare? About one in 20, I've been told.

Poor little guy. I had my first MOPS meeting of the year today, and when I picked Levi up in the nursery afterwards, I noticed this weird rash on his neck and the side of his face. When we got home, I changed his diaper before nap, and this is what I found. His back looks the same. His arms and legs are fine, though.

I spoke by phone with a Lt. at the clinic this afternoon, and he confirmed my suspicions that this is probably related to the MMR shot that Levi had about two weeks ago. About one in 20 babies breaks out in a rash within the first week or two afterwards. Supposedly, he's not contagious. This didn't make sense to me, so I kept asking questions, and this is how I understand it now: The vaccine is a live vaccine, but it's somehow mutated a bit, or only part of the virus, or something like that...meaning that while it does produce immunity to the intended diseases, when the person accidentally "catches" a disease from the vax, it's really only symptoms of the disease that they've caught, not the actual disease. And it's supposedly not contagious. (I keep saying supposedly. I hope they're right!)

So, not only is Levi a grumpy grouch because he's cutting two new eye-teeth, but he's got these miserable (probably itchy, said the Lt.) spots all over him! Poor little guy.

Big day for a little boy

I'm only allowing myself a couple of minutes to post today, but I just want to give a quick update on Levi. His "dreaded" 18-month appointment was this morning - I was dreading it because I expected our new doctor to have a very adverse reaction to Levi's weight/size issues, and I thought that since he (new doctor) is a first-year resident, and therefore probably very by-the-book and overly cautious, would most likely refer us all over the place because of Levi not walking, and possibly even for his lack of speaking. I was also hoping to convince the new doctor to allow us to cancel our appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist that we have scheduled in P. next month, but I did not have high hopes of succeeding.

But good news! Dr. Miller is not your stereotypical first-year resident. He seemed very logical and confident in his ability to go ahead and use common sense! He actually allowed me to cancel the appointment in P. with the gastroenterologist (for now) and only wants to see us back in three months to check out Levi's weight and the walking situation, rather than refer us yet. He said that some kids really don't start walking very much until even 2 years old, but the fact that Levi can take steps, but just prefers to crawl, tells him there is nothing wrong with his gross motor skills. He said it makes a big difference to him that Drake and Adam both had really similar growth patterns to Levi's, as far as being low on the charts (and that Drake's was pretty much identical - high for weight when exclusively breastfed, and then dropping way down around 6-9 months), and that he assumes Levi's weight is totally normal for him, and that there doesn't appear to be anything wrong. He okayed all this with a staff doctor, which makes me feel even better.

At last - I love common sense!

Oh yeah, and while I'm (sort of?) on the subject, or thinking about it anyway, Levi is really coming along in the sign language department! I think he's having that 18-month language explosion they talk about in signs instead of words. I made a list last night to take to the appointment, in case the doctor was concerned about his speech. He only says maybe 4 or 5 words, but there are 22 signs on the list that he does recognizably! I was surprised there were that many once I got them down on paper. (In case you're interested, here's the list: eat, milk/nurse, drink, please, thank you, more, cracker, apple, shoes, walk, bath, book, gentle, fish, bird, cat, dog, horse, lion, bear, dinosaur, deer/elk/buck...and he also shakes his head for "no.")

So anyway, after the appointment, Levi had 4 shots, including his first MMR. Poor little guy. But at least those are the last shots he needs until kindergarten (and that's a LONG way out, or so I like to tell myself anyway!) so I'm very thankful for that. My sweet little boy did very well, even wanting to walk around on his sore legs afterwards...but now he's sleeping soundly. I imagine he will have an extra long nap after all the "excitement" today!