Friday, June 24, 2011

Baby Earrings - solved

We went back to our pediatrician today, as the nurse who's the earring expert was in today.  I like her, we've seen her for a sick visit before, and she's very professional and reassuring.

She looked at Cupcake's ear and told me that the hole might not have closed all the way and that she wanted to try to get the earring through before re-piercing.  No reason to put Cupcake through pain if it wasn't necessary.

I gave her our earring (the thinner one), and she managed to poke it in through the back (which is where we'd been having trouble).  So it was decided, the hole was still there, so we could just push the original thicker earring through. I wanted the thicker earrings because their backs have a locking mechanism and would be safer.

So she asks me to hold Cupcake down while she gets the earring in the hole,  and in the second try it goes in!  Sure, Cupcake cried, but it was more of the angry cry rather than pain. It wasn't her usual banged-her-head high pitched shriek, but more of a low angry cry.  If I had to translate it from baby talk, it would probably be something to the effect of: "stop touching me, weird nurse lady, I want to practice standing... why are you still touching me, why can't I move my arms!"  I can handle her anger.  As soon as the nurse was done, I picked Cupcake up, and all was well.  She got a Mum Mum to distract her, and she promptly forgot that she was upset.

Our pediatrician didn't even charge us for this.  I'm so grateful at how professional and thorough they were with all this. I felt like Cupcake's ears were in good hands.  We were at her pediatrician's in a sterile environment, where a medical professional is overseeing it, and her ears are fine.

Drama is over.  Back to our regular programming.

6 comments:

  1. Was searching for a GF's blog and came across yours. Started reading and came across your post about making the decision to go and having
    your dd's ears pierced by her GM at 3 wks old. What a wonderdful tradition. I think you were a smart and thoughtful mommy for piercing your
    girl ears early. I know in Europe many babies have their ears pierced before they leave the hospital. Fast forward to today in the U.S.. I'm seeing more and more babies and little girls with earrings. Moms with older girls often wish they had it done as infants because mommy cares for them as you so thoughtfully have when a earring fell out, but it not necessary to re-pierce her ear, but only gently insert it back into the piercing. This is one reason for doing it early as you have.

    Admittedly, I know a lot of people have strong feelings when to pierce a child’s ear. “Let them decide” is being replaced by parental decision when mommy intuition knows, “earlier is better” from either personal or friend’s experiences of unpleasant childhood ear piercing. I suspect other moms with little girls in your playgroup will have their ears pierced after seeing how cute your dd is with them. I had this happen at one of my playdates when a mom asked me to go with her to have her dd's ears pierced after she saw our dd with earrings.

    Congrats on making a thoughtful decision on behalf of your dd's. I think babies with earrings are the cutest things. It celebrates their femininity and femaleness. After all, they are little girls. Our ped encouraged to have our dd done as an infant too. She gave me some tips for "Care of Newly Pierced Ears" and has a nurse in her office who specializes in newborn ear piercing.

    Promise your dd will thank you later for the "gift of pierced ears" as an infant. If you would like to exchange photos of our cute dd's with earrings, don’t hesitate to write me an e-mail.

    Amy
    amyswor@hotmail.com

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  2. Thank you so much for your kind words! I think we all struggle at time with whether our parenting decisions are the right ones, and its reassuring when we are validated.

    Thank you for reaching out, it really made me smile like you would not believe :)

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  3. Hi I'm getting my 3 month old baby's ears pierced. I was wondering how you held her when she nursed after her ears where pierced. I'm so worried her ears will get squished when she feeds. Did you hold her differently?

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  4. We didn't have any issues with nursing. I also feared they would get squished, or feel funny, but they didn't seem to bother her.

    At the beginning, I tried to be careful when holding her to nurse, but then quickly realized that her ears bend and do funny things even without the earrings.

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  5. Thank you so much! I think we are going tonight :)
    I think it's so cute that you call her Cupcake, we kept Camilla's name secret until she was born, so we always called her Peaches!
    Thanks again and God bless.

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  6. I also took my two daughters to have their ears pierced when they three months old. I am sure it is best for little girls to grow up used to wearing earrings and it saves a lot of time and trouble later when the whole thing is much more difficult. It seems much more common now for moms in the US to take this very sensible decision for their baby daughters. Congratulations again on taking your little Cupcake to have her ears pierced as a baby - she will thank you for it when she is older.

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