I'm so worried about...

Coming in at a very close second to the overwhelming joy that parenthood brings is the feeling of perpetual guilt that has assailed me for the last two months. Am I doing this right? Could I be doing this better? Should I be stimulating him more? Should I be stimulating him less? The list goes on.

And the most recent source of self-inflicted doubt - what did I do to my son that resulted in the big blue ball on his, well, his balls?!

But apparently I have nothing to feel guilty about. Oscar has simply developed a hernia in his groin, and apparently this is very common (why did no-one ever tell me about it then?!).

Once we noticed it and determined that poking it didn't seem to have any effect on bambino's happiness (in fact he spent the afternoon mostly smiling and laughing), Krusty researched it on the internet for good measure. Of course it goes without saying that you should NEVER research medical conditions on the internet, unless you want to go from "Oh I am sure that can wait until our scheduled Dr's appointment tomorrow morning" to "Oh my god we have to rush him to the emergency room immediately on a Sunday night". Those forums are scary places...

Anyway I'm glad we went in, because apart from the wait between a convict in chains and a man who I am sure was already dead, we got some peace of mind from the doctor, who explained that the hernia was "reducable", which means that it could disappear anytime before his second birthday.

Basically, when babies are born the muscles in their abdomen are not yet closed up, and so the intestine can sometimes poke through and make an appearance in the groin area. As long as it doesn't become twisted, or "strangulated", it is no source of concern.

Of course I am still concerned.

But on the plus side, Krusty was worried about the fact that our baby was the least well endowed among all the babies in our group of friends - now, with three balls, at least he has the advantage on the scrotum front!