Stats

Took Julia to the doctor last week for her three-year checkup. (Okay, she was three years and two months, but I had a good reason for it being so late ... I forgot to schedule it :P Hmmmm ... so maybe not a good reason ... )

Anyway, Dr. Greg said she looks great. He gave me some ideas of things to work on and things to watch out for and then tossed us out! No shots! She did have to get her finger pricked for blood work, but evidently she didn't really care just watched as the nurse squeezed the blood out. They needed a urine sample which meant she sat on the potty until she peed and I sat right next to her and stuck the cup under her to catch some. :) Since she's just recently mastered sitting on the "big hole" (a regular sized toilet seat), but still can't do so without holding on for balance, it seemed like it would probably be a disaster in the making to try to teach her how to catch her pee in a little cup. I'm guessing there would be a lot of clean up on my part :)

And in case you're keeping track (and because this is where I keep track since the idea of writing in the baby book went by the wayside about three years and one month ago):


height: 40.3 inches (96th percentile)
weight: 36 pounds (90th percentile)

They don't measure her head circumference anymore. But, you can see from her stats that she is still a big girl! Sometimes I look at her running around and just can't believe that this long, lanky, lean princess who loves to make snow angels, jump off of things and forever brings me empty bowls full of "soup I made for you, Mommy" is the same girl as the tiny baby I cuddled only three short years ago!!

Le Doctor

Dax went for his fifteen-month check up yesterday. Everything looks great! He's fiftieth percentile for weight and height ... ninety-fifth for head size. Sigh. Seriously, the kid is wearing 18-24 month shirts and 12 month pants. All those cute little matching outfits he can't wear together because either the shorts/pants are too long or the shirt won't fit over his head! Ah, well.

For those who want actual numbers:

height: 31.1 inches
weight: 24 pounds 4.5 ounces
head circumference: 49.6 cm

It was a two shot day so Our Boy was a little fussy at home, but that might have been because Julia keeps taking any toy he's playing with at the moment. Sharing, kindness and self-control are not qualities at the top of a two-year-old's list (or a one-year-old for that matter)

And A Checkup

Dax had his one year checkup on Monday. Here are the vital stats:

weight: 23 pounds (55th percentile)
length: 29.7 inches (45th percentile)
head circumference: 49.1 cm (off the charts)

So, his Newby noggin is still enormous. Which I already knew because I have to buy his shirts a size larger than he wears to get them over his head. Really. And if it doesn't have a lap shoulder or snaps/buttons at the neck, I don't even bother. There's no way that shirt is getting over his head. So the poor boy's shirts hang down past his knees because otherwise I nearly break his neck trying to yank it on. Maybe I should just buy button downs for him.

I asked the nurse if we should be worried that he's dropped from 90th to 65th to 55th percentiles in weight. She said that since he refused to let go of his pancake and had been eating it during the entire exam, she wasn't too worried :) He eats quite a bit (more than his sister) and slurps down his milk in record time so he's obviously not starving!

She said he looks great and is happy and healthy! Which was exactly what I wanted to hear :) He had to get a TB test and a shot. The TB test was odd ... the nurse took a syringe and poked it just under the skin of the inside of his forearm. When she injected the liquid a little bubble popped up. We're supposed to keep an eye on the spot and see if it turns red. So far it's a lovely shade of blue-grey from the bruise, but no redness. The shot really bothered him this time. He ended up needing a dose of Tylenol after his nap because he had a bit of a fever and his leg seemed really sore. Boo to shots!

But HOORAY to healthy little boys!

Still Sick

Dax had to revisit the doctor today. He was up many times last night coughing so hard he couldn't stop and waking everyone up. When I called the pediatrician in the morning to see about getting a cough suppressant, she said that since we'd been treating his cough for over a week without result, we needed to come back in.

At the office, Nurse Molly said his left lung still sounded very wheezy. I had to give him another breathing treatment, but this time she added steroids to the nebulizer. Afterward she came in and said he sounded clearer. So, she added a three day course of steroids for our boy. (Unfortunately, the one she prescribed is an oral medication ... and Dax HATES it! We're glad it's only for three days.) Thankfully, his oxygen saturation levels are always good (around 98%) so we know he's getting oxygen, he just has to work really hard for it.

To recap: Dax is back to three breathing treatments a day; he still has his antibiotic dose twice a day; and now we've added steroids twice a day! We are praying that he feels better soon.

(Note to my mom: The doctor says that the antibiotics he is on would have taken care of pneumonia so it is not that!)

Then, this afternoon Julia woke up from her nap cranky and clingy. Two adjectives we don't usually have to use to describe our girl. A bit later she started coughing. After dinner she had a fever of 101. We dosed her up with Tylenol and are hoping she doesn't have to go visit the doctor tomorrow!

Kiddos

Master Dax is sick. He's got an ear infection as well as a horrible cough and runny nose. We've got the humidifier running at full blast, the nose bulb getting regular use, breathing treatments three times a day and antibiotics twice a day. We are thankful that he is at least taking the antibiotics this time. Last time it was a big fight to try to get him to swallow it. Dave and I are scheduled to work the Parent Night Out at our church this Friday so we're really hoping Dax feels better by then.

Julia is fine although she was very jealous at the doctor's office that Dax got his ears checked and she didn't. However, she stayed seated on her chair and just pointed to her ear and quietly said, "Eah? Eah?" over and over. Sweet girl. She has also started saying, "Bless you!" when we sneeze which we get a big kick out of hearing. Fun times :)

Doctor

We had Julia's two-year checkup on Thursday. Dr. Greg said she looks good and healthy! Here are her stats:

height: 36.3 inches (96th percentile)
weight: 29 pounds 3.5 ounces (80th percentile)
head circumference: 49.5 cm (95th percentile)

So she is still on the big end of the charts. Dr. Greg said it doesn't mean she'll always be tall, but the general wives' tale is that you take the kid's height at age two and double it to estimate how tall she'll be as an adult.

According to my baby book, I was 32.25 inches at two years old ... doubled that's 64.5 inches or 5 feet 4.5 inches. I'm 5 feet 2 inches so I got gypped out of two and a half inches, but it was pretty close.

I don't have Dave's stats right now ...

As for Julia, double 36.3 inches and you have 72.6 inches or 6 feet and change. If she falls short of that a couple of inches like her Mama did ... Well, she'll still probably start looking down on me around 7th grade or so. Wow. I hope she doesn't still want to play "airplane" at that point.


She got the flu mist at the visit which resulted in a miserable afternoon. She just cried and fussed all the rest of the day. Poor baby. Children's Tylenol is a wonderful thing.

And her vocabulary is still a concern. Just not as many words there as the "guidelines" say. Dr. Greg didn't seem overly worried since Julia can understand what we're saying to her. He had some suggestions about helping her improve.

And NO SHOTS! So, a GREAT appointment! :) We don't have to go back (unless she's sick or hurt) until she's THREE! I can't believe we're already to the yearly checkups.

Nine Months

Dax went in for his nine month appointment this morning. He's looking good! (Of course, we knew that!) Vital stats:

height: 28.5 inches (60 percentile)
weight: 21 lbs 3.5 oz (65 percentile)
head circumference: 47.8 cm (97 percentile)

So, he's still big, but the height and weight are evening out a little bit. There's not much news to report which is a good thing. No shots this time. He did get his little finger pricked to check his iron count which was good. It took him about 2.5 seconds to get the band-aid off and about 5 seconds for me to notice that he had it off. In that 5 seconds, he managed to smear blood all over himself, his diaper, my sweater and the exam table. He has skills. We got the go ahead to let him start eating our meals if he likes. Since he prefers finger foods to baby foods, I think he'll enjoy this stage. Plus, it's messy which is always fun :)

Six Month Checkup

Dax had his six month checkup this morning. He's still a BIG boy!

Height: 27.1 inches (75 percentile)
Weight: 19 pounds 13 ounces (85 percentile)
Head: 46.1 cm (off the charts!)

His percentiles for height and weight are evening out a bit. Guess all that time we spend stretching him on the rack is paying off :)

He got three shots today--DTP (Diphtheria, tetanus & pertussis), Polio, and Hep B. Next appointment (9 months) he doesn't have any shots scheduled, but will probably end up getting the flu vaccine! Poor boy! In addition to his shots, his circumcision site had grown over (again)! I had the nurse show me very specifically the amount of pressure to use to tug on the skin so that I keep that open, but don't tear anything. Last time, we kept vaseline on the site for two months after they reopened it, but I guess that wasn't long enough. If it's grown over again at his nine month visit I don't know what I'll do ... hire someone to come change diapers and make sure it's okay, I guess.

Otherwise she said Dax looks strong and healthy. She didn't have an issue with the fact that we've been too lazy to feed him any solids other than rice cereal. Just suggested we start with veggies, then fruits, then meats. We can do that! She laughed a bit at his crawling styles and said he'll probably be a bit backwards and learn to crawl well first and then learn how to sit up. She said it's not unusual with younger kids that are trying to keep up with older siblings. And Dax is definitely trying to keep up with his big sister!

On the way home, Dax decided he'd had enough excitement for the morning.

I Wish I'd Left That Door Open

The kids had checkups today. Julia-18 month; Dax-4 month. They were supposed to go Monday a week ago, but that was the morning that Dave left for NJ for three days, Christopher was in NC and I shut the front door of the house with my keys still inside. So instead of showing up at the pediatrician's office, I showed up on my neighbor's doorstep begging for a phone book and a place to sit down. Those sweet people didn't even blink. Just led me into their house and called the locksmith for me. They even offered to pay him and let me pay them back if I didn't have cash in the house! What a blessing. I had some time to call and reschedule the kids' appointments to today**.

Both kids are off the charts in terms of head circumference. Newby family, I'm lookin' at you! Our children have enormous noggins! Julia is also off the charts in height. She's a tall little girl. Here are the stats:

JULIA
height 34.6 inches
weight 25 lbs 13 oz (70 percentile)
head 49.1 cm

DAX
length 25.2 inches (50 percentile)
weight 17 pounds 5.2 oz (90 percentile)
head 45 cm

Both kids had to get shots. Julia only had one shot and she didn't make a sound. Dave said she flinched slightly, but not a whimper! Big Girl! Dax screamed his little head off and still seems to be a bit tender in the thighs.

The doctor is a little concerned about Julia's lack of speech. She says Julia probably regressed a bit (as all children do) when her little brother came along, but if she doesn't really start saying a lot of actual English words by 22 months then we'll end up getting a referral to a speech therapist. Not something I really want to do so we're praying Julia starts letting us in on what all the jabber is about.

Dax looked pretty darn healthy. And seems to be doing well with his motor and social skills. Dr. Abby said to look for him to start crawling and such much earlier than Julia did because he'll be trying to keep up. She also said he's got a little tooth trying to poke through! WOW! There's a reason behind all that drool!

We are grateful for healthy babies and talented doctors.

**When I called to reschedule, the nurse told me they had nearly called that morning to see about rescheduling because Dr. Abby had lost a patient the night before. That pretty much stopped my pity party in its tracks. I might be stressed to the point of tears and out the money for a locksmith, but I still had my babies. Everything was a-okay.

Dax Attack

Julia and I took Dax for his two-month checkup today. His stats support my comments that this boy is a monster!

weight: 13 lbs 11 oz (90th percentile)
height: 23.25 inches (75th percentile)
head: 42 cm (90th percentile)

He's a growing boy! Poor guy, his circumcision site had grown over a bit so the nurse had to pull it back which led to bleeding and tears. *brief pause for the guys to cringe in sympathy* Then he had to get three shots! I gave him some Tylenol beforehand and he did very well. Lots of screams, but he settled down quickly. Some of the screams were because it was feeding time.

Talking to the nurse, we're going to go ahead and schedule an appointment with an ENT to get his tongue clipped. It is affecting his ability to suck on the bottle and the nurse seemed to think that was a pretty good sign that it would cause trouble once he begins talking. So, we're waiting on the doctor's office to call with the appointment information. The good thing about having it done now is that it is just a single office visit. If we wait until he starts talking, it would have to be done under general anesthesia and be a much bigger deal.

Otherwise everything looks healthy. He followed the light with his eyes like a pro and even treated Nurse Molly to a Dax Dimpled Grin. We go back in two months for more shots and to talk about starting him on solid foods!!

Doc Visit

We went to the pediatrician today for Julia's fifteen month checkup and Dax's one month checkup.

Vital Stats:
JULIA
weight 24 lbs 8.5 oz (80%)
length 32 inches (90%)
head 47.6 cm (93%)

DAX
weight 11 lbs 6 oz (90%)
length 22 in (75%)
head 40 cm (90%)

We'll be switching Dax to the Similac Sensitive liquid formula. He's been having quite a bit of trouble with gas and spitting up. The doctor had told us to switch from powder to liquid for a few months, but that didn't help as much as we thought it should. He still does some pretty monster spit ups (ones requiring both of us to change clothes) and an hour or so after feedings is squirming in pain from gas. Hopefully the sensitive stuff will help.

She also said Dax is slightly tongue tied, but not to worry about it unless it starts to affect his speech.

Julia got a good health report. We're hoping she starts talking soon. The doctor said there's nothing to worry about right now since she obviously understands us and knows some signs. We need to teach Julia her body parts :) Julia got her MMR shot. Crying and screams, but she soon calmed down and recovered quickly. I'm hoping Dax does as well with his shots next month!

Hospitals

My general dislike of hospitals in no way diminishes my gratitude for the services provided there when needed. I just don't like to be sick. Yesterday was no exception. However, I had caught Julia's stomach virus and went down like a brick. For over 12 hours I could keep nothing down and the less said about my more than hourly visits to the bathroom, the better. We called the emergency line for my doctor and were told to go ahead and come on in for some treatment. Christopher met us at the hospital to take over with Julia.

5 hours, one shot, two doses of Immodium and 3 liters of fluid later

I was released to come home and rest. Of course, now Dave has it! Oh boy oh boy. The good news is that Dax wasn't fazed at all by the rough treatment. He was happy as a clam.

I am feeling better this morning, but still very tired and worn out. Julia still has bad diarrhea, but no more throwing up. We'll be calling the doctor tomorrow to make an appointment if it hasn't cleared up. She's already downed a glass of Pedialyte today so hopefully we won't end up back in the hospital with her! (Poor Christopher changed his first diaper yesterday ... he had a baptism by fire with a nasty poopy mess ... ) I just pray all of this finishes up before Dax comes along. I have to admit to being frustrated that I don't have my baby here yet, but now I'm so glad he's still safe inside me and not exposed to this virus!

Update (1:45 pm) Dave's still in bed, wiped out. Poor guy has to drag himself into work at some point today to finish up some things. Julia's been super cuddly and spent most of her day lazing around on the couch with me. She was up toddling around for about half an hour, but that's been the most active she's been all day. I'm trying to get some things done in spurts. I rest, then unload the dishwasher, rest, then put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, rest, stick a load of Julia's clothes in the washer ... etc. We've just heard that Aunt Bev caught the nastiness, too. She was here on Thursday so I would have company (and a Just In Case Ride To The Hospital) while Dave was in New Orleans. Great way to repay her, right?!? My parents are on their way up to help get everyone back on their feet. They'll arrive sometime tonight. I've got to go bleach the toilet, tub, and sink in our hall bath to hopefully help keep them from catching anything!

Doctor, Doctor ...

We've been doctor visiting these two days. I had my 35 week appointment on Thursday. Everything looks and sounds a-okay. I'm gaining more weight than I would like, but my doctor doesn't seem too worried :) Since Christopher watched Julia for me, I was able to go by the hospital and take care of all the pre-registration stuff. I felt extremely accomplished getting at least one thing checked off my Baby Preparation To Do List!

Julia's congestion has been getting worse so she is now taking an antihistamine/decongestant. No, not an over-the-counter one ... I've read all the news reports! Her doctor phoned in a prescription. Hopefully she'll get some relief soon and we can keep the gunk from moving into her lungs. She also had to get her second flu shot today. What a trooper!

New Doc

Julia visited her new pediatrician, Dr. Greg Blackmon, today. Blackmon Pediatrics is a husband/wife team that is located in Powell (just North of us). We really liked him and think that it was a good choice to switch.

Julia's stats:
weight: 22 lbs 1.5 oz (70 percentile)
height: 31.2 inches (97 percentile)
head circumference: 46.8 cm (90 percentile)

Julia was a real trooper during her FOUR (!) shots. She had her HIB, Prevnar, chicken pox and flu vaccine. We have to go back in a month for the second dose of the flu vaccine. I was debating about whether or not to do the flu shot, but the doctor said he had only had one flu case so far which means that the worst of the season is still to come. He recommended it since both she and I are considered high risk.

Julia recovered quickly from the shots, but wasn't too keen on letting the nurse hold her while I signed the forms :) If someone had just jabbed me four times in my legs, I doubt I'd be willing to make friends, either! She's in bed for her nap now, but not sleeping. I can hear her playing. Hopefully she'll take a nice nap and not wake up with sore legs.

Snooze

Dave's been doing the doctor rounds these past couple of months trying to find a way to help with his snoring and sleep issues. His general practitioner referred him to an ENT who put him on allergy medicines first and then referred him to a sleep clinic. The result of his sleep study was a diagnosis of Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea. He was stopping breathing over 50 times in ONE HOUR! That sounds severe to me! The diagnosis wasn't a big surprise. In fact, we were both relieved that there is a name for his problem and also a treatment.
The past two nights, Dave's been using his new CPAP machine as he sleeps. The machine is little smaller than a shoe box and makes a continuous white noise during the night. A bit like if you have an oscillating fan turned on high. Dave wears a small mask over his nose and tries to keep from knocking any tubes loose during the night :) So far things are going well. He doesn't snore (even on his back!) and the machine's noise doesn't bother me at all. Hopefully his energy levels will rebound soon now that he's actually sleeping through the night!
(It was also suggested that he have surgery to remove his tonsils, adenoids and (possibly) part of his soft palate. He's trying out the machine first to see how it works. Maybe after we get settled in after Dax's arrival, he can revisit the surgery option if needed.)
[Also, I had no idea how rough this is on your body. Sleep apnea can increase the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, heart attack, complications during and after surgery, depression and accidents. Plus it turns into a vicious cycle of being too tired during the day for any sort of physical activity which increases your chance of weight gain which makes your sleep apnea worse! Eek!]

Julia's Stats

Length: 27.25 inches (93 percentile)
Weight: 17 pounds (71 percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.75 inches
Shots: two
Next Visit: nine months

It's official. Julia has better reflexes than I do as evidenced by her victory in the unsanctioned Parent/Child Reach for the Bottle Filled with Formula but without a Top event. However, there were no true winners since Julia's triumph meant she spilled her breakfast all over the floor and my defeat meant that when the doctor walked in I was crawling around on my hands and knees trying to mop up six ounces of Similac with paper towels. My shoes are still wet.

The doctor expects Julia to cut a tooth fairly soon. He said her lower left gum was very swollen. (The evidence in her diaper backs him up on the teething diagnosis.)

We can start her on baby food at any time. We'll be waiting until after our trip to do that, though. The doctor said it didn't matter if we started with fruits, vegetables or meats.

Yum ... pureed sushi.

Booo!

We went to Julia's four-month doctor appointment yesterday. She weighed 15 pounds 6 ounces (83rd percentile), was 25 1/4 inches long/tall(?) (82nd percentile) and had a head circumference of 16 1/4 inches (57th percentile).

Julia was (of course) quite impressive in her displays of her social, physical and intellectual skills. Since we had been told that we could start rice cereal, I was a little worried that the doctor wouldn't like it when we said that we hadn't. But I asked some questions about it and she listened to our reasons why we hadn't started yet and seemed to agree with us. She said that if we wanted to wait until Julia was five or even six months that we could. So, we'll wait a little bit on that. Mommy's ready for feeding fun, but I just don't think Julia is yet.

We liked the doctor we saw, but after she left everything went to pot. The office is switching over to computer based records rather than paper. I'm not sure if there was a glitch in the system or if we were just there at a bad time, on a bad day or what. But after the doctor left it took over ONE HOUR for a nurse to come give Julia her shots. By that time Julia was hungry, it was time for her nap and she was a cranky-puss. Dave eventually just stood outside our door and stopped nurses and doctors and asked "Could you check on why it's been over an hour for our girl's shots?" We were both very irritated. [And it was only an inconvenience to us. Can you imagine if you had a three-year-old sitting there waiting to get her shots?]

But, this is the first time something like this has happened. And we've enjoyed all the doctors that have done Julia's check ups. Hopefully this was a one time thing and won't happen again.

Julia didn't like getting the shots, but she did very well and hasn't been very fussy at all. Even when Mom accidentally ripped off one of her Snoopy band-aids that was stuck to her diaper.

Eek

Julia and I are back from Mississippi and I have tons of pictures and stories to share. Unfortunately, I also have unpacking to do, meals to plan, groceries to shop, and a house to clean. So it will be a bit.

Julia did go to the doctor today. She did great. She weighs 14 pounds 3 ounces (90th percentile) and is 23.5 inches long (50th percentile). So she's still our little Princess Chub-Chub. I had to fill out some sort of childhood development survey and they said she was tracking at the four month level. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but am going to assume it's a slick way of telling us Julia is way smart. :) The doctor told us some skills to work on this next month and recommended that we start rice cereal a few days before her next visit. So our baby needs some spoons! :P

(The doctor also gave us some formula samples ... he's my new best friend!)

Shot Update

Julia did so well the day after her shots. I didn't like the drugged out look she had when given Tylenol so I decided to wait and see if she seemed to need it. But she didn't. She was just her cool Julia-self most of the day and her fussy Julia-self starting around 4 pm. Just like always! The main difference happened when I was changing her for bed. She started coughing so I sat her up and she threw up all down the front of her dress! Poor Julia! I think it had more to do with the fact that we've had company for the past two days and haven't been on our usual schedule than with the fact that she had her shots. Hopefully it was just a little upset stomach and is done.

Dr. Visit

Julia went to the doctor for her two month check up this morning. She stretches out a good 22 1/2 inches and weighs a hefty 12 pounds!! She's still in the 50th percentile for her height, but has jumped up into the 90th percentile for weight. That's our Princess Chub-Chub. The doctor was quite impressed that she sleeps for a ten hour stretch at night and said her social skills (cooing, smiling, giggling) were advanced. He also commented on her incredible strength.

After the doctor visited, the nurse came in to give Julia her shots. On the doctor's recommendation (based on the fact that Julia is not going into daycare), we opted not to give her the Rotavirus vaccine. Of course, this was the oral vaccination so it didn't help Julia out at all. But she was a little trooper. The nurse gave the first shot and Julia whimpered, cried and quickly worked her way up to a nice yell. She had just started to come down in volume a little when the nurse poked her again. This time she skipped the crying and just upped the yelling. THEN the nurse stuck her a third time. And Julia got angry! She started screaming for all she was worth. Her face turned bright red; her lips turned white; and her little tongue just shook. She was so indignant. It was like she was trying to say "LISTEN! I TOLD you this hurt the FIRST TIME! Then you did it AGAIN! So I told you it STILL hurt. Now I'm going to MAKE SURE you can hear me!!!!!" Poor thing. She calmed down quickly once Dave wrapped her up in her blanket and snuggled her. I was very glad we had gone ahead and put her clothes back on after the doctor left rather than waiting until after the shots. (I was also very glad we had taken the advice of friends and family and doped her up with some Tylenol first ... even though the nurse wasn't too happy about it.)