No I'm not swearing before anyone is insulted by my post title...I'm in shock.
I took my girls to the baby clinic to get them weighed today and was told Maisy needed to have the heel prick test redone as it had been requested by Great Ormand Street for a retest. Imagine my shock as this test is to check for one of 5 serious diseases in newborns. 1. Sickle Cell Anaemia 2. Cystic Fibrosis 3. PKU 4. Congential Hypothyroidism 5. MCADD. I hadn't been requested to return to the surgery I'd simply turned up to get their weights taken and this was sprung on me.
I asked why she needed it redone and was relieved to hear it was because the midwife who did the original test when Maisy was 5 days old hadn't put the date on the form. Phew - so it wasn't because there was something wrong then! My heart could now return back to its proper place.
So the nurse pricked Maisy's right foot. Of course she screamed and I tried to comfort her the best way I know how, cuddles and offering myself on tap. That worked, the nurse squeezed her foot and leg to get the blood out onto 4 little circles on a test sheet but there was a problem, Maisy's blood was coming out too slow and it was clotting before it dropped onto the paper. After 10 minutes of leg squeezing the nurse said she'd have to use the other foot. Maisy was by now getting quite cross at all the pinching going on and even my encouragement to feed wouldn't calm her.
So off when the nurse to get another kit. This time she pricked the left...well I say prick in fact she actually cut her foot open and the blood gushed out this time. Poor Maisy screamed and was bright red in the face, nothing I could do comforted her whilst he foot was held down to put the required drips in the circles on the new form.
My other 2 girls were in the waiting room with my friend wondering what on earth goes on in the nurses room - they were up next for weighing and I could imagine them trying to make a break for it or phoning Daddy when they heard the commotion going on next door. Not surprisingly all the other new mum's were getting nervous too.
I hate vaccinations and normally I come prepared - with Darren to hold the girls down during the stabbing, this took me completely unawares and I can say poor Maisy will probably not want to go to be weighed again!