by Emma Riley Sutton

Created on: March 27, 2008   Last Updated: June 25, 2008

First of all, there are no stupid questions, especially when they have to do with your child's health. I am a firm believer in asking any and all questions that pop in your head. I consider this to be common sense; if you don't know, ask. As a first time mom, I had a lot of questions - none of them stupid. However, looking back, some of my questions made me look stupid...

My daughter is at her one week old check-up. Just like with my OB, I have my list of questions to ask the doctor. I am concerned because she is so small. I don't know if she is getting enough to eat. I am nursing her; it isn't like I can measure how much she is eating. So, I ask the question that is weighing on my heart. "How do I know if she is gaining weight and growing?" Her doctor smiles at me. Why he didn't laugh out loud is beyond my comprehension. "You will feel her getting heavier and her clothes become too small for her," he answered.

My daughter is now eight weeks old. She just said, "Uv oo," with the same sing-songie beat I use when I say "Love you." She is so young to be talking and I am freaked out. I am immediately on the phone with the pediatric nurse. "My daughter just said 'love you' to me. What do I do?" Without hesitation, the nurse replies, "Say 'I love you, too'."

The first time I ever fed her 'solid' food (at three months old), I put the extra baby spoon in her hand. I wanted her to get use to holding it in her high chair. My daughter is now four months old and she has put her spoon in her food and then in her mouth. Of course, I called the doctor. "My baby is eating with a spoon for the first time. What do I do?" The same nurse as before doesn't miss a beat, "Get the camera and take her picture."

My daughter is 13 months old. She woke up in the middle of the night, vomiting and with a fever 100 degrees. She has never vomited and she has never had a fever. I call the emergency room, crying and shaking, and explain the situation. "What should I put the vomit in so you can run tests on it?" The ER nurse didn't have a quick one-liner for me. She spent 15 minutes explaining different techniques that would help me calm down and another 30 minutes explaining that a temp of 100 was not high enough to warrant a visit to the ER - call her doctor in the morning. She did carefully add, "You don't need to save the vomit for her doctor to see tomorrow."

We have moved to another state and have a new doctor and nurse. We love him. He is wonderful. The nurse is terrific; she has an outrageous

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