Dr's visits this week

More pictures to come hopefully tomorrow! Yesterday Grant and I had so much fun playing with our new sprinkler, and we went to our first Little League game last night! But I don't have them uploaded yet. So here's the (somewhat boring) account of our doctor visits this week (which I want to record for posterity!):


Grant had his 18 month checkup on Monday. He did very well....he got his final DTaP shot, which he handled wonderfully! Of course he cried at first but stopped after a few seconds (and I didn't even have his pacifier with me!). He's 34 inches tall (officially, although I think she rounded up a little), which puts him in the 88th percentile, and he's actually gained more weight than I expected (since some days it seems like he eats very little!). His weight was 27 1/2 pounds (69th percentile). So he's still a big boy even though sometimes I think he's gotten so skinny....especially compared with pictures I've been looking at from last summer (I'm trying to catch up with my scrapbooking!).

Also, Dr. Thomas wasn't concerned anymore about his speech....she had said at 15 months that we may do some kind of therapy if he still wasn't talking much at 18 months. But as of Monday, he could say 15 words (plus another one or two this week). The majority of these he just repeats after us, but there are some that he'll say on his own. So she said that he's doing fine, which was a relief to hear! She also said that we should be watching for signs that he might be ready to potty train (I don't think this will be anytime soon, although she said they typically show signs between 18-24 months).

I also had to fill out a questionnaire as a screening for autism. Thankfully, all of the questions were easy to answer and Grant has none of the indications for that. I pretty much knew this, but it's still a relief to be able to check all of the "right" boxes.

Probably the funniest part of the appointment was that Grant kept picking up my purse, saying (his version of) "let's go." He'd go stand at the door and try to turn the knob. And when the nurse came back in to give Grant his shot at the end, I was putting his clothes back on so that I could leave as soon as he got his shot (I wouldn't want to fight putting his clothes on after he's gotten it!). When I was dressing him, he kept waving to the nurse, saying "bye!" I felt really bad for him....if he only knew what she was about to do to him!!


My 20-week checkup:

We went to Dr. Klein this afternoon for my checkup and ultrasound. This was our third ultrasound! We had one at 12.5 weeks (as part of a screening for birth defects). Then we had our big ultrasound at 16.5 weeks. That was about a month ago, when we found out the sex. That day, the ultrasound technician (Beth) said that she doesn't like doing heart measurements until at least 17 weeks, so there was a possibility that I'd have to do another one. So Dr. Klein told me to go ahead and schedule another one for my next appointment.

My main reason for wanting to schedule one more ultrasound is because we haven't had the greatest experience with this lady, Beth, in the past. We've gotten CD images of the pictures at the past two appts, but none of them have been good! At our last ultrasound, she showed me a really good view of the baby's spine and ribcage, but apparently she didn't take a picture of it! All the pictures have been completely indiscernible to me, so I thought we might have some better luck this time!

It was basically the same experience, though.....she spent a long time taking measurements (and she doesn't let you look at the screen while she's doing this!), but she never could see his face clearly (same problem we had with Grant's ultrasound). I guess he was shy and kept facing inside, towards my back. She said that he weighs almost one pound now. It was neat for me to feel him moving so much as she'd move the wand around my belly! We did get a pretty good picture of his arm and hand this time, but no good profile shots or anything.

The thing that annoys me the most about Beth is that she says almost NOTHING the entire time. With Grant's ultrasound, the lady walked us through everything she did, and we left feeling confident that he was healthy and free of any abnormalities. When I've asked Beth how this baby looks, she says that it's up to the radiologist to make those calls. And she acts annoyed when you ask questions! Aahh! I know other people have been offended by her too, so at least I'm not the only one! Maybe they will have someone new by the time we have our next baby!

Okay, enough ranting. At least everything seems to be fine and I can feel this little guy moving around quite a bit (including as I type this!), so that's what's really important. In the scheme of things, who really cares whether we had a perfect ultrasound picture of him or not?!