Z's 15 month checkup
>> Monday, March 26, 2012
It started off monumentally, as in on the drive to the clinic, we hit a lawn chair mattress blown up into the air by the car in front of us. It was absolutely unavoidable. We were fine, but it did rip off the plastic plate protecting my oil hoses and such on the bottom of my car. Sorry for the lack of an official part name but I am challenged when it comes to anything car related, despite handing tools to my dad when he worked on our '83 Land Rover. Hubby is going to take care of fixing it this afternoon. He's the best. And I'm glad there wasn't more damage.
Anyways, we arrived safe and mostly sound to Z's appointment. The clinic was running terribly behind, the worst I've ever experienced in the military with Z's doctors. It took them over an hour to call us back, but once they did, things moved along pretty well.
Z was weighed fully clothed and diapered, which I guess is standard from a year on. She is now 21.5 lbs, a gain of a little bit since December. Yay for any gains, right? She's still solidly in the 24th percentile for weight, and if we're not going up, at least we're holding steady. I have no clue about her height percentile, but she's 30.75 inches long (doc's handwriting looks like 34 or 54%), and her head is 17.85 inches around (30 or 80%). I was more concerned about weight than anything so I didn't really check the percentiles on her other measurements until we were already home.
Then we were taken back to the exam room where Z had her vitals checked. The nurse put the pulse-ox on her big toe and you would have thought the world ended. Poor kiddo screamed and screamed and screamed. She also screamed during all of her measurements, too. She hates being touched by medical personnel and/or strangers for the most part and she lets you know! It took a good few minutes of trying to keep her still enough for the pulse-ox to work.
I love Z's doctor. He's so reassuring. I brought up all my concerns about her birth mom having been on painkillers and such during the early parts of the pregnancy, my concern with Z giving herself purple nurples and pulling her hair when she's tired, her activity levels, her crazy eating habits like being vegetarian of her own choice, etc, and he told me she's completely normal. Phew. He says kids of her age do lots of crazy things like pinch themselves hard. Also some kids are more sedentary and others are highly active. We happen to have the latter. He doesn't think she needs observation or behavior intervention, and I'm totally cool with that. I just want to make sure I'm covering all the bases and being observant without being paranoid. And once I found out her weight is stable, a lot of my concerns evaporated. I like that I can talk to Z's pediatrician about anything and he calmly addresses my concerns. He said she's absolutely healthy and he doesn't have any cause for any concerns. Just bring her in for her 18 month check up. He gave us a pamphlet of what to expect between 15-18 months and we're already doing everything on there that we're supposed to. Hurray for common sense!
(The only thing is Z is not drinking out of a cup yet - she still uses sippy cups. She still knocks things like bowls over so I don't exactly trust her with open cups. Nor does she seal her lips around a cup when she practices in the bathtub with her bath toys. I'm not concerned. She'll get it when she's ready.)
Z did have to get two shots, which I found surprising because I thought she got everything she was due for at her one year checkup. Poor thing was inconsolable and it took me, hubby, a nurse, and the shot guy to hold her down. That's my girl! She got over it fast, though, when she found out we were leaving right after her shots were done.
She's been sleeping a lot of today, as a result of the shots and the emotional toll of this morning. Without any binky. I think we may just be pacifier free. This is the third day, knock on wood, without any pacifier at bed or nap time.
!!!!
She did it on her own. All I did was not pick up her binkies that she tossed out of her new crib. My kid is brilliant.
Anyways, we arrived safe and mostly sound to Z's appointment. The clinic was running terribly behind, the worst I've ever experienced in the military with Z's doctors. It took them over an hour to call us back, but once they did, things moved along pretty well.
Z was weighed fully clothed and diapered, which I guess is standard from a year on. She is now 21.5 lbs, a gain of a little bit since December. Yay for any gains, right? She's still solidly in the 24th percentile for weight, and if we're not going up, at least we're holding steady. I have no clue about her height percentile, but she's 30.75 inches long (doc's handwriting looks like 34 or 54%), and her head is 17.85 inches around (30 or 80%). I was more concerned about weight than anything so I didn't really check the percentiles on her other measurements until we were already home.
Then we were taken back to the exam room where Z had her vitals checked. The nurse put the pulse-ox on her big toe and you would have thought the world ended. Poor kiddo screamed and screamed and screamed. She also screamed during all of her measurements, too. She hates being touched by medical personnel and/or strangers for the most part and she lets you know! It took a good few minutes of trying to keep her still enough for the pulse-ox to work.
I love Z's doctor. He's so reassuring. I brought up all my concerns about her birth mom having been on painkillers and such during the early parts of the pregnancy, my concern with Z giving herself purple nurples and pulling her hair when she's tired, her activity levels, her crazy eating habits like being vegetarian of her own choice, etc, and he told me she's completely normal. Phew. He says kids of her age do lots of crazy things like pinch themselves hard. Also some kids are more sedentary and others are highly active. We happen to have the latter. He doesn't think she needs observation or behavior intervention, and I'm totally cool with that. I just want to make sure I'm covering all the bases and being observant without being paranoid. And once I found out her weight is stable, a lot of my concerns evaporated. I like that I can talk to Z's pediatrician about anything and he calmly addresses my concerns. He said she's absolutely healthy and he doesn't have any cause for any concerns. Just bring her in for her 18 month check up. He gave us a pamphlet of what to expect between 15-18 months and we're already doing everything on there that we're supposed to. Hurray for common sense!
(The only thing is Z is not drinking out of a cup yet - she still uses sippy cups. She still knocks things like bowls over so I don't exactly trust her with open cups. Nor does she seal her lips around a cup when she practices in the bathtub with her bath toys. I'm not concerned. She'll get it when she's ready.)
Z did have to get two shots, which I found surprising because I thought she got everything she was due for at her one year checkup. Poor thing was inconsolable and it took me, hubby, a nurse, and the shot guy to hold her down. That's my girl! She got over it fast, though, when she found out we were leaving right after her shots were done.
She's been sleeping a lot of today, as a result of the shots and the emotional toll of this morning. Without any binky. I think we may just be pacifier free. This is the third day, knock on wood, without any pacifier at bed or nap time.
!!!!
She did it on her own. All I did was not pick up her binkies that she tossed out of her new crib. My kid is brilliant.
1 comments:
You might want to try a small amount of water in a cup at meals and see how it goes. I am all for sippy cups just for tidiness and think about it, all adults use bottles with flip tops for convenience and cleanliness.
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