Doctor’s Report Brings Two Surprises

Josiah and Elijah had their 2.5 year and 6 month routine wellness visits today.  I worried how Josiah would do because his last visit involved a blood draw where I had to hold him down while he screamed and the nurse got vial after vial of blood.  This was just weeks after Elijah was born and my hormones left me frazzled.  I was sure to take him to every one of Elijah’s appointments so that he could have some positive experiences before going back.  We also talked about it beforehand and practiced looking in his ears, nose, and mouth with makeshift instruments.  All morning before the appointment he said over and over that he was ready and he wanted to go get in the car :)   I’m proud to say he was GREAT today!  The only thing he did “wrong” was not willingly open his mouth, but he allowed her to open it with the tongue depressor.

My two little guys are both so great, but they are so different!  Not only do they look different, but they grow different, too.  Check these percentages out:

                                               Josiah                                  Elijah

Height                           35 7/8”,  25%                26 3/4”, 70%

Weight                         28 3/4 lb,  45%            15 lb 12 oz,  25%

Head                               51 cm,  85%                     42 cm,  25%

And that brings me to the first surprise…Josiah’s weight is in the 45th percentile!  What!?!  This is the kid who was once in the <3% group when his GI issue was at its worst.  Praise God, his gut is getting happier!  We are not yet where we want/need to be but hopefully time will bring further improvements.  He also got his hearing tested and it is fine.

Elijah’s weight curve went down a bit, likely due to his hugely increased activity level and the fact that he’s not too crazy about solids.  We got some advice in this area while we were there.  Dr. Worthington was surprised to see how steady he is while sitting.  He is doing quite well overall and his eyes will not need the surgical procedure!  Yay!  I shared this as a prayer request in church a little over a month ago and we haven’t had a problem since :)  Today he also had a routine urinalysis and it was mostly fine except a bit of blood, so we are awaiting a culture.  It was likely due to minor trauma since he kept ripping the collection bag off himself!

The other surprise was not a positive one, but we’ll survive.  I had noted one tiny funky looking lesion on each of Josiah’s hands the previous night and it turns out he has hand foot and mouth virus.  Great.  Apparently it is no big deal and is practically a right of passage, but now I’m paranoid and keep looking for more lesions.  His case doesn’t seem significant and aside from the fact that he can’t figure out why I think his hands and feet are so interesting, he acts normal.  We’ll see if and how it affects Elijah.  Consequently, Josiah didn’t get any vaccines today (we’ll go back for that), but Elijah got two and he did great!