Skin to Skin

Nemo is at such a fun age right now - 18 months. When he nurses (yes, we're still going strong there) he yanks on my shirt to get it out of the way, and he likes to rub his soft pudgy hand all over my tummy. He will also sometimes take my hand and put it on his head, over his ear, or on his side near his tummy to hold and rub him. He loves to have that skin to skin contact, and while it does present a challenge being discreet while nursing in public, I am more than happy to give him all the comfort and caresses he craves while we are at home.

I love his skin, so soft and smooth and mostly unblemished so far. He's got a couple of scars from his rough and tumble lifestyle already, and he currently has a sizeable scrape on the top right part of his forehead, courtesy of yesterday's attempt to use a stack of cases of water bottles to climb on to reach his balloon from Trader Joe's (Boon!) and subsequent tumble onto the jagged part of our hardwood and crash of a three-quarters full 3 gallon water fire extingusher onto the back of his head. (yeah, that was fun.) I'm not allowed to rub that part right now. So now I just concentrate on rubbing his tummy, and when I sleep I rest my hand on the soft velvety smoothness of his belly as we spoon.

Our skin is such an amazing organ. It really is. It puts up with so much, and still continues to protect us and help us cool down and cleanse ourselves. And we abuse it. We go out without sunscreen. We let our skin burn. We cut it, we stretch it beyond reason with our excesses or with growing new lives. We let it dry out. We curse it when we see the lines and blemishes and other effects of our lifestyles on it. But it keeps on ticking.

Most of the time. I have very fair skin and a long history of burn/peel/burn summers, and my family has a history of skin cancer. Most of them haven't been a big deal; my grandfather in particular had numerous small cancers taken off of his face, but never had a problem. My aunt, who was a synchronized swimmer, had a melanoma on her leg that was successfully treated almost two decades ago, and she's still doing fine. As a result of this history, I go to have my skin checked for signs of trouble each year.

Nine months ago I went in to the dermatologist to have my annual checkup, and at that time one of my moles was removed from my arm and shipped off to biopsy. TUESDAY morning when I got up I had a message on my cell asking me to call the dermatologist's office because they had my biopsy results in and I have to come back in. When I called back I asked her why it took NINE MONTHS to get the results back and she guessed that someone was looking at the records and noticed there was no follow-up. She wouldn't say what exactly was going on, but she said I have to come back in to have it checked and probably frozen. So next Tuesday I will be going in to have the thing checked and possibly frozen off, and at that time I intend to interrogate the doctor and find out why it took 9 months to get my results, especially since something in the back of my brain says I called and was told it was fine, and to find out what the deal is. I'm pretty scared, actually.

So make sure you have your skin checked each year. Make sure it can do its job without hurting you. And whatever you do, follow up carefully, requiring copies of any test results.

Make sure those little ones get lots and lots of skin to skin contact for as long as they need it. The thing is, you need it, too, even if you don't realize it. I know it's a great comfort to me at the moment.

Comments

[angi]

This tugged at my heart, as I am missing nursing my little Avers today (even before this post, which is even crazier!) I agree 100% about the touch, and I have realized lately that I am not so good at keeping it going as my kids get older. I don't like that, I need to make sure I am ALWAYS reaching out to them, always.

As for the mole, I see I commented way back then & I've never been checked yet myself. Keep us posted, I'm curious as to the length of time for the results too. Weird all the way around, but I am still hoping it is nothing...

[Betsy]

Thanks for stopping by at Momformation, Fishy girl. I hope you're skin test results come out okay. I am desperately overdue for a visit to the dermatologist. Thanks for the reminder.