In which Lorelai and I both have traumatic experiences with being poked full of holes.

I just couldn't wait. I decided that since the pediatrician wouldn't do it until we resolved the insurance billing issue (which we did that afternoon, but I'm not going back to the pediatrician just for the ear piercing, and I'm not waiting two months till Lorelai's next appointment when I've waited over a year to begin with [I'd wanted to get this done for a while but when I finally got around to deciding I was actually going to do it, I found out I was pregnant, so I couldn't]), I'd just go ahead and go to the mall to get the second holes. I think if I don't use the Claire's cleaner solution, and use the saltwater-and-Bactine combo my friend Rachel used on her ears when she got them pierced, I can probably avoid the infection issues I had the first time around (I really think I'm sensitive to Claire's cleaner stuff). It's been two days and so far, so good.
Kevin was doing lights at the theatre Saturday afternoon, so Lorelai and I brought him lunch on our way to the mall. I told him I was having second thoughts, because I couldn't remember from the first time I'd gotten my ears pierced how much it hurt, and what if it was really bad? I was like eight when I got them done before, so after 20 years I've sort of forgotten the specifics of how an ear piercing feels (I do, however, remember how my navel piercing felt, and let me tell you, the C-section was nothing compared to that pain because the guy got halfway through the piercing, decided he didn't like the angle, and started over. So I essentially got my navel pierced one and a half times, and it was not the quick three seconds of sharp pain he promised me it would be, the jerk). So, yeah, I was pretty much convinced that I was going to need to come home and dive into my leftover Percocet after this ear piercing thing. He told me to call him if I needed him to hold my hand over the phone while they did it, and I laughed and said I'd be fine but secretly I was wondering how I was going to be able to hold my phone to the first ear while they pierced the second one, and would it be really annoying to everyone else in the store if I had him on speakerphone?

Anyway, I got to the mall, and there was a little girl (who told the piercer she was nine, and do you know that they are making nine-year-olds much older-looking than they used to now? I totally thought she was at least 12) in the chair already, and she asked the piercer what it would feel like, and the woman said, "Oh, it's just a quick pinch." Of course, she has to say that, I thought, trying to tamp down the queasy feeling that was starting in my gut. She did the first ear on the girl, who said, "Wow, I barely even felt that," and I turned around and left the store.

That's right, I got so freaked out that I left the store.

Then I thought to myself, If a nine-year-old said she barely felt it, you need to grow a pair and go back in there, you wuss. So I went back, and told the woman I wanted second holes, and then told the girl, "I almost chickened out, but you said you barely felt it so I decided if you could do it, so could I." Her mother laughed and pointed to Lorelai and said, "If you can do that, this should be no problem." I told her she was right, that this ought to be nothing compared to a C-section, and at least I have leftover Percocet if it was worse than I thought.

I almost threw up on the woman when she came at me with the ear gun. But I didn't. And it barely hurt at all.

***

And because what would a post on this blog be without my talking incessantly about my daughter, I'm pretty sure the doctor's visit on Friday has given her nightmares. I mean, I can't think what else it could be, seeing as she hasn't really had any other traumatic experiences in her 11 weeks on this Earth (other than, you know, being born) to give her nightmares, and I'm positive that's what's happening. She keeps waking up screaming -- not just crying, but screaming-crying, with no escalation, just immediately starts in with the screams -- and as soon as I pick her up she burrows her face into my neck and goes right back to sleep, until I put her back down. Then she starts wailing again. So where she used to not even wake up before naptime was over, or after we put her down for the night, and when she did she would go right back to sleep with a pacifier and/or white noise, now she's taking 20 minutes of cuddling, pacifier, white noise, patting the mattress, and a whole host of other assorted baby-calming/distracting elements to get her back down. It started when she woke up from her nap after the doctor's appointment, and I though she was just having a reaction the the shot, so I gave her some baby Tylenol and got her back down. But it's continued, every single time she goes to sleep almost, since then. There's no fever, her injection sites look fine, she's just screaming for no apparent reason. I really do think she's having bad dreams about getting shots. And I'm seriously hoping they stop soon because I can't stand seeing her so upset, and she's exhausted from all the crying and the short-changing herself on her naps. I miss my smiley, happy baby.

Teething is going to be so much fun.

What is this crap? Get these things off my face, Mom. And you wonder why I'm having nightmares.