Oraeley

Just after I got home from my visit with the midwife, Deeder’s pediatrician called. She told me that Deeder’s lead level had come back high. For a minute I forgot that he’d had blood taken, one of those moments where my mind’s just not with me. I think I said, “Huh? What’s that mean?” She told me that the cut off mark for safe amount of lead in a child’s system is 10, he’s a twelve. Someone is supposed to call me about coming over to inspect the house, “don’t worry, it wont be your fault, your landlord should have informed you.”

What?? I can blame Cathy when Deeds becomes mentally ill from paint flakes?

She told me not to worry about it…”We’ll test him again in three months. It could be that his hands were just dirty or something, I’m sure he’ll be OK.”

I thanked her and said goodbye then rushed upstairs to relay the conversation to Darren. His reaction was more than mine, I think he thought that perhaps I’d misunderstood, or maybe he just wanted to know more. He called Deeder’s pediatrician and got the same words that I had. She added that the safe zone used to be considered 1 to 20 for children but because in this county there are so many cases of lead in houses or residential areas that the number was brought down to 10.

Anyway, we got on the computer to learn as much more as we could. The cleaning routine that the experts recommend employing in order to have a safer environment for your child is quite extensive. *Sigh* Well, whatever it takes.

I cleaned and cleaned downstairs at every possible moment after learning that Deeder was over the cut off point. All kinds of terrible, and I’m sure exaggerated, ideas filled my mind about what the ramifications of this exceeding a cut off point would be. I was depressed all day, horrified and feeling like a failure.

Darren got home from work and told me he was feeling the same way. With the way these ceilings flake, Deeder could have been eating paint chips right off the carpet. Darren said he should have bought a better vacuum, I said that I should be cleaning more. We’re going to pick up a lead testing kit, hopefully we’ll learn where the lead really is. I read that people shouldn’t try to scrape it off, that just disturbs and spreads little particles of lead everywhere. Hmm.

I was glad we had a playdate for today, perhaps it would help me shake off my ashamed guilty feeling and just have fun. It didn’t quite do that, but we did have fun! Jen and I took Abi and Deeder to the local library story time. This perky lady named Stacy read five books about animals and the sounds that they make.

Deeder and Abi are both totally digging learning animal sounds, so that was great! They also got to do some animal dances, you know those can-you-move-like-a- _____? sort of thing where they put on happy music and have the kids shake around! Yep :) I’m totally going to take him again next week. I’m not sure if he enjoyed watching the other kids or being extra goofy more!! At any rate, I was proud of him for how well he participated.

The kids had a little snack together before Jen and Abi left for home. We walked home and were able to have breakfast and family devotions with Darren before he left, I love when things work so smoothly.

We decided to stop giving Deeder’s water from the tap, probably safer to drink purified water anyway.

Deeder’s appetite was low today, now with this lead business I worry that it’s not just teething that’s taking away his appetite and making him tired. I could go crazy over this and never make the situation better, I do know that!

He fell asleep and 1pm, which was great because I was really tired. We were having a nice snuggle when he fell asleep and I was too lazy to get up and put him in bed, I love that when he’s so dead asleep that he lets me sleep with him :) Now that he’s such a busy kid snuggles are quite rare!

About half an hour in to the nap my phone rang. It was Amanda’s mom, Andrea from down the street. When was the last time you met a 10 month old named Amanda? Anyways, she wanted to go for a walk. I said yes because we’ve been trying to get together for a few weeks now and nothing has happened. It’s weird how that is sometimes, how two stay at home people can’t quite meet up. I loaded a still sleeping Deeders up in his stroller and headed back down the hill we’d walked to go to and from the library–lots of work for a preggo in the 85 degree mid day sunshine!

The walk was really nice :) we talked about baby food, old houses, and walking. The route that she walks is nice and shady, it was just what I needed. So thanks, Andrea for inviting us. I asked her if she’d like to go to the pool with us sometime (this would have been an excellent pool day!), she declined saying that she doesn’t like public pools. Oh well, that’s OK. I think that if my cousins had dunked me numerous times in a public kitty pool in my youth I too might not approve of public kitty pools.

By the way, happy August everyone!!

A picture of Deeder’s friend:

There are four squirrels that frequent the bird feeder. Deeder loves them :)

DISCLAIMER: I’m sure that I’m vastly exaggerating the seriousness of Deeder’s being above the cut off point. At his next visit they are going to take blood from the vein in his arm, that’s supposed to be a lot more accurate. Between then and now I’ll just be extra careful to keep the house clean.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Deeder Doings, General Happenings, One Year Old, Toddler Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.