unexpected visit with our pediatrician

Cricket is usually extremely content.  He's such a happy, easy baby!  He is sweet natured, enjoys playing with himself, generally obedient and yielding.  But for the past few days, that hasn't been the case at all.  He's been super fussy.  His top teeth still haven't come through, so I just assumed his funniness was because of that.  Then Saturday, after Daddy got home from the emergency room, Cricket fell and face-planted into air vent in the floor.  He busted his lip, and was SSSOOO fussy afterward.  For hours.  It was awful.

Then yesterday, he did something that terrified me.  He was on his hands and knees in the living room, and all the sudden he started crying and banging his head on the floor.  I just stood there and watched him, frozen and confused.  His crying turned to screaming as he crawled to the couch, all the while banging his head on the floor and up the side of the couch.  I finally found my legs and went over and picked him up, and he continued to bang his head all the way up and then on my shoulder.  I was petrified.

I looked online to see what in the world that could have been, and everything I read said that children sometimes do that when they are throwing a temper tantrum, but that wasn't the case at all.  Then, one article said that's how some children deal with pain.

Pain.

At his 12 month appointment, the percentage of his head circumference had jumped considerably, but the doctor had said that it wasn't enough to be cause for alarm.  For several weeks now, Cricket has been pulling and playing with his hair right in front.  Right where he was banging his head.

Everything by itself was something I could explain away, but all of them together?  Too much!  I called our pediatrician and told the nurse what was going on.  She said we needed to bring him in, so we did that yesterday.  My husband came with me after being awake for over 24 hours and then getting two measly hours of sleep.  He didn't want me to go alone...just in case.

I love our pediatrician.  I see on other blogs and twitter and from my personal friends about the problems they have with their pediatricians and how they're switching every so often because of this or that, but we've never had anything like that at all.  He's the greatest EVER.  We really hadn't intended on taking our children to him, but he was the doctor on call after Hopper was born.  He came in and talked to me as though he was a friend of ours, or a family member or something.  I asked him questions about vaccinations, and he was so respectful of my concerns, and explained things to me clearly and graciously.  Daddy wasn't in the room while he was there, so he never met him, and considering that I was in a hospital bed in a room alone with a man I'd never laid eyes on in my life, I kind of expected to be a bit uncomfortable, but I wasn't at all.  He's the nicest man.  I'm SO glad he's taking care of our boys.

He gave Cricket the most thorough examination in history.  He checked EVERYTHING.  He asked me if the episode was because of a tantrum, and I told him that it wasn't.  He turned the lights off and looked at Cricket's eyes for a long time.  I was starting to get concerned that he'd found something, but he said everything was fine there.  He said he was thinking that Cricket probably had an ear infection, but one of his ears had to be cleaned out before he could see.  Cricket was such a good sport about it all.  He sat so still for such a long time.  The doctor was having some trouble because Cricket's ears are so small.  Finally, that part was done, but there was no ear infection, either.  Then he checked his gums.  And they were BRUISED!  Apparently when Cricket fell and busted his lip, he had also hit his gum on the floor and bruised them!  How bizarre is that?!  

So the final diagnosis was teething on bruised gums.  And the head banging was frustration because of the extreme pain that he's in.  Oh, my heart!

I was so relieved!  Since Cricket's last appointment when his head measurement had increased so much, I've had that nagging thought that something was going on.  We knew a precious little girl who died of brain cancer about a year and a half ago, and I was so afraid for my baby.  

Once again, I'm just thankful he's okay.  God has extended His hand of protection once again, and I'm so thankful.  Now, if those teeth would just hurry up...