Five-year check-up

Andy had his five-year check-up today. I'd been dreading it because I had heard from one of the nurses there would be FIVE shots so he could be ready for kindergarten. I had decided to only really mention he might be getting a shot in passing so it wasn't a total surprise, but I didn't make it painfully obvious yet either. So I was relieved to hear there would only be three shots. Andy had no idea what could have been, but I felt better.

He got a blood test (cholesterol is a good 119). He also had his eyes and ears checked for seeing and hearing. He's not color blind nor lacking depth perception, which is good, but he does seem to be slightly nearsighted so she recommended I get him to an optometrist. She didn't think his prescription would be much and might not even really have to wear glasses at this age, but she felt it warranted taking him to get him for a real test. I can see why, I think they used the same equipment at Bradfield in 1977. His hearing test was also good, which was nice since it turns out he has a mild ear infection.

He weighed in at 40 pounds even and 42 inches making and all around a perfectly healthy boy. He cried when he had to get his finger pricked (I can't say I blame him) and then really cried when he got three shots, two on the left and one on the right. All in all, I thought he was pretty strong about the whole thing. He didn't try to run or hide, he knew what was coming and took it. Pretty big stuff really. Bjorn had gotten him a Pez dispenser so we put the candy in it in between shots. They also gave him a goody bag for being such a big boy. I was very proud.

I brought Meggy too, despite my not wanting to have her running around while he had a two hour appointment, because I had to get her sinus infection looked at before the snowpocalpse 2.0 hit. Indeed her sinus infection is not better and has spread to an ear infection. Fortunately, we could get some antibiotics (Suprax for both) before getting 20 to 30 inches of snow over three days.

Holy tree branch and an 18-month check up

Meg had her 18 month check up on Friday. The little rascal is growing perfectly and seems right on target for her age on all accounts. She got two shots that she did not appreciate, but she got two lollipops which she did like. I don't think she's consider it a fair trade, but it was something. Fortunately, that's the last of the vaccinations except for the flu shot until Kindergarten (good thing Andy can't read yet to know what's coming next year).

Weight: 27 pounds, 7 ounces (90-95th percentile)
Height: 33 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

If you take her height and double it, that's 67 inches and following the old wives' tale of doubling their height at two, you get their height as adults, that makes her 5 foot, 7 inches -- Bjorn is already planning her basketball career. Indeed by Egan standards that makes her a giant. I have a theory that Andy will be 5' 10" and Meg will be 5' 9". I'm okay with that.

We talked about the UTI. She said from now on, any time she has an unexplained fever to bring her in for a check. If she gets another UTI, then we'll likely have to go in for some type of sonogram to make sure the kidneys are working properly. She said with one UTI after an event like diarrhea, it's probably just isolated, but we definitely need to keep an eye out. As for her ears, the advice is to keep our fingers crossed for a good fall free of ear infections. Otherwise, tubes here we come.

In other exciting news, the electrical storm that blew through around midnight snapped one of the big branches off our big tree out front (check my Facebook profile for some pics until I get them uploaded here). It took Mark, Bjorn and several neighbors all morning to chop it up to get it out of the road. They also put a lot of the branches in bundles with twine so the trash folks will take it (hopefully). We also need to call an arborist to come check out the tree and let us know if it has been compromised and in need of more work. Any recommendations?

15 months

Meg went for her 15 month check up on Friday. The little darling is 26 pounds and 32 inches tall -- a healthy, growing girl most certainly. Bjorn is excited for her height. He figures if the old wives' tale of double their height at two is correct, then she's at least going to be 5'4" and that's a solid two inches taller than me and makes her the tallest on my side of the family, next to Aunt Tia. She showed off her jabbering sounds and a few steps. Then she had to get three shots. She cried and I nearly did. Poor chicken.

It's been a weird few weeks for me though. I've been having trouble sleeping for some reason. I don't feel stressed necessarily although Bjorn working out of town so much hasn't been so great. Now I find myself stressed about not being able to sleep. How refreshing is that? So I lie in bed mad at myself for not being able to sleep or else I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and have the same thing. It makes no sense.

My doctor had prescribed Ambien some time ago and I've been taking that a little. Of course, now I'm paranoid about getting an addiction to sleeping pills so I lie awake at night and try to go to sleep, then worry about that and then take something. Rather ridiculous. And the catch is that to take Ambien, you have to have an eight hour window to take it so if I don't take it early enough, I'm screwed. So now I'm totally in my head about this. It's so bizarre. Anybody else go through this?

It's so funny to be worried about my own sleep. I swear I have spent the better part of four years worried about my kids sleeping habits so I think my own have been all over the map for so long that I don't know what to do with myself.

Well check

I took Meg for her one year check up today. She was deemed perfect and growing perfectly, just what every mother wants to hear. Here are the stats:

Weight: 24 pounds, 12 ounces (95th percentile)
Height: 30 1/2 inches (75-90th percentile)

I guess at this age they don't measure head size any longer. With her height and size, I have a theory that Andy will end up being about 5' 10" and she will be right behind him at 5'9". I'll certainly take it.

She got one shot, the first of the chickenpox series. While we had to wait 15 minutes for it, I was holding her while she tried to go upside down and didn't even notice the stick. Fortunately, Nurse Sylvia does a nice job.

I also got a list of her ear infections and treatments to give to the ENT on Monday. It's a new doctor as the one that did Andy's has somewhat mysteriously retired from practice. (The story from a friend was he'd been forced out, the story from my pediatrician through the NICU nurses whose kids she sees is that he'd developed an eye condition and was stepping back. I agree though that a surgeon with an eye condition probably shouldn't be trying to put little pin sized tubes into kids' ears.)

Meg does have a little bit of a cold and fingers crossed it doesn't turn into another ear infection. Good thing she'll get her ears looked at Monday, just in case.

In other news, I resubscribed to NetFlix. Bjorn has been dying to watch the Dark Knight since before it came out and I have wanted to watch John Adams. Jubilee!

Drama queen

I am a bit of a drama queen it turns out. I know, you never thought me and queen would ever be in the same sentence, but it's true. Meg has been sick this week and I spent almost as much time worrying about her as I have been worrying about how tough it is on me. I'm a little ashamed of myself, but what self-respecting parent isn't always a little ashamed of him or herself most of the time?

I took her to the doctor today for what was initially a follow-up to her nine-month visit three weeks ago. I had to bring her back because at her visit, we discovered she had an ear infection and her pediatrician didn't think it prudent to give her the proper 9 month vaccinations (Hepatitis B part 2 and the flu shot). So today we went in, three days after Bjorn took her in on Tuesday with her fever. Fortunately, woke up this morning in good spirits. She had developed a weird rash the day before on her face that was also gone today. Dr. Staats could make it out a little and suspects is was related to the fever. I was thinking it was due to the strawberry yogurt things I gave her earlier as an earlier attempt to introduce strawberries made her face break out. I'm relieved it's not an allergy, especially since she hearts these little things.

Meg was a trooper at getting her two shots. She looked scared, but only really cried on the second one, I believe because she knew it was coming. Andy was incredibly sweet and wanted to hold her foot to help her feel better. I nearly melted.

Six month check-up

I took Meg for his six month check-up with the doctor today. The official report is that she is healthy and perfect. She weighed in at a healthy 20 pounds even (95 percentile), 27 inches tall (75-90th percentile) and 17 1/2 inches head size (90-90th percentile). She's basically a big, healthy girl, something I certainly already knew, but it's always nice to get official confirmation.

I had both kids with me today and I was stressed how it would go with him there since Meg was going to get shots. I figured him watching her get upset would be upsetting for him and generally make the whole thing even worse for me (it is all about me, right?) Instead, it worked well with him playing with toys in the waiting room until the basic supervision of a nurse. What's even more remarkable is that Meg was generally great with the shots. She got four -- two in each leg -- and she actually didn't cry for the first two. Nurse Sylvia said the first two were relatively easy in comparison, but the second two were thicker serums and had to go right into the muscle. With the third, she started to cry and then really cried with the fourth, but after a few seconds once I picked her up, she was pretty much over it. Granted, she's got a lot of real estate on her thighs for the shots and she's a lot older than she was at her last visit, but overall I was pleasantly surprised. Fingers crossed that I'm not jinxing myself for a late reaction.

Three months

Meg had her three month appointment today. Apart from getting four shots in her not so tiny thighs, she was deemed perfect.

Height: 23 1/4 inches - 50th percentile
Weight: 14 pounds, 15 ounces - 95th percentile
Head size: 16 1/4 inches - 90-95th percentile
Chest size: 17 1/2 inches

She was in a fairly good mood until the shots came. Even with a dose of Tylenol to take the edge off, she screamed with the shots (hard to blame her) and the process took even longer because the first shot site bled and the kind nurse had to stop the bleeding before she could move on. I feel for those nurses. The doctors get to do the fun stuff in these visits and the nurses have to do the dirty work of making babies cry. It also sucks for Meg at this age. Andy gets a lollipop at each visit and she gets all the trauma and no reward (well, except for not dying of polio, but that's harder to explain).

Dr. Staats explained that in the coming weeks/months, Meg is really going to start noticing Andy and will be tickled to watch what he's doing. I am just thrilled at the thought of getting to see that interaction. He likes her, but right now there isn't much he can do with her. I think once he realizes he can dance and do his "Baby Meg" song for her and she's able to be a good audience by smiling or laughing, he is really going to love it. I figure that will last until she's able to steal his toys and then he's going to be totally annoyed.

Our next scheduled doctor's visit is around five or six months when we start talking about solid foods. I can't quite believe we're almost there. With that in mind, I'm getting out the high chair this week. I think she'll like sitting up in the kitchen and watching everything. I just need to keep Andy off it. He climbed into her swing last week and probably hurt the motor. Bugger. Fortunately, Bjorn was able to return it to Target for an exchange it since it's still new.

Six weeks

Meg had her six week appointment today. (I just love our pediatrician. I geekily want to be her BFF.) First, the stats:

• Weight: 11pounds, 4 ounces, 75-90th percentile.
• Height: 22 inches, 50-75th percentile.
• Head circumference: 15 1/8 inches, 75th percentile.
• Chest: 15 1/4 percentile,

She has been deemed "perfect" by medical professionals. And not incidentally, voted the cutest baby of the day by the staff. (Sure, it was only 11 a.m., but I'll take it.) Before the vaccinations began, she cooed adorably and even smiled, a cute side smile in an early Joey Potter way before Katie Holmes got mixed up with Tom Cruise and turned creepy.

Poor baby got four shots in her legs, which made her cry hysterically. I didn't cry, but I sure wanted to. It was pretty awful. I was smart and brought Tylenol to take the edge off. I'm not sure it did much good for her, but I felt better.

Two year visit

We went to see Dr. Staats today for Andy's two year visit. He weighed in at 28 pounds (on the standing scale, no less). They measured him at 34.5 inches, but he was really, really not into getting measured so I think he's a little taller than that. We initially tried the standing measurer, but the plastic thing on his head really freaked him out. I thought I saw him standing closer to 36, but whatever. Bjorn is freaking out that if the old wives' tale is true and doubling his height at age two (69 inches) means he'll only reach 5'9". Bjorn is the shortest of his brothers at 6'3", but since I'm only 5'2", the cards were stacked against him. Bjorn then consoled himself by vowing to make Andy a really good point guard for basketball.

The doctor said he seems perfect - that his motor skills and verbal ability seem right on target, which is always great to hear. The bad part was he had to get the flu shot and have blood drawn to check for anemia (apparently lots of kids this age don't eat enough iron). He didn't like the finger prick, but he really didn't like shot to his thigh. The nurse did distract him with a lollipop, which went over surprisingly well. You'd think these folks treat kids for a living. Afterwards, he'd forgiven me enough for all this that I had a hard time dragging him out of the waiting room which is filled with really awesome toys. I actually really appreciate that they have tons of great toys. The old pediatrician's office really had nothing for him to play with so it's great that there is so much to see out there. Plus, if he gets into something, I can take it back with us to keep him busy during the appointment. I also like that they have a ramp for strollers. We don't take the stroller out the way we did a few months ago, but it's so nice to have it as an option should I need it.