Today was Clare’s 9month visit with Dr. Dan. Jeff met us at the office so we could both hear how wonderful, perfect and beautiful she was. As usual we didn’t have to wait long, which made me happy since there was a sick kid sitting across from us in the very small ‘Well Child’ area.
After heading back to Room 7 we meet the nurse at the scale. Clare stands at 27 ¾ inches, weighs 18lbs 8oz and has a 45 ½ inch noggin. She’s right on track and consistent with her growth curve, holding at about the 50% for both height and weight. Overall she’s perfect in every way, the nurse agreed. We went back to Room 7 to wait for Dr. Dan, but before he came in another nurse came to move us to Room 9, ‘Dr. Dan is a big guy, and this is a small room, he doesn’t like this room.’ We both thought it was pretty funny, Room 9 was a little more spacious.
Dr. Dan knocked on the door and Clare greeted him with a big smile. She passed all of his tests with flying colors, she even sat still while he looked in her ears and shined the light in her eyes, she was more curious than scared I think. We talked about her eating, sleeping, bathroom and play habits, all are on track. He said that our throwing caution to the wind and moving to ‘real’ food was fine, she is growing perfectly so whatever we’re doing is working. He cautioned us to not introduce honey, citrus, chocolate, and shellfish; I guess I’ll have to continue eating the chocolate and she won’t be getting any lobster leftovers. Jeff liked reading that we shouldn’t be afraid to add spices to her food, he figures we can burn off the first few layers of taste buds now and she’ll be used to his spicy cooking in no time.
He inquired about her sleeping habits and I said that she was a wonderful sleeper, sleeping 12-13 hours each night. He was glad to hear this but wanted to let me know that 20% of babies go thru a rough patch about this time and start waking in the middle of the night. I let him know that we wouldn’t be one of those 20%; he laughed and said he hoped it didn’t start tonight.
Clare escaped the office without any shots, yay! We did have a quick Hemoglobin test. The goal was a reading of at least 11.4, Clare initially got an 11.3 but after re-entering the slide she scored a 11.4. Dr. Dan felt that if we keep giving her iron fortified cereal and Cheerios we should be alright, they’ll recheck at her 1 year appointment.
We were given a stern talking to regarding safety at home. He told us that he had too many stories of kids dieing from bookshelves falling over on them, parents not tightening the car seat tight enough, kids chewing on the electrical cord from the Christmas tree and electrocuting themselves, and countless more stories. Long story short we need to keep the house ‘safety-proofed’ for her. Luckily our bookshelves are built in, we don’t have a lot of knick-knacks around, and keep a pretty close eye on her. I do see some ‘safety-proofing’ in our future; we need to do something about all the TV/DVD/VCR/Wii/PS2/PS3 cords that are draped around the living room; oh and Jeff’s guitars, those might want to move. It won’t be long before these things become the most interesting things in the room.
Overall it was a successful appointment. Dr. Dan confirmed that Clare is absolutely perfect and we are wonderful parents. We’ll keep doing what we’re doing and hope that she continues to grow and develop into the sweet little girl that she is. Our next appointment is until April 18th, her 1 year well check, how is it possible that I’m scheduling her 1 year check up?!?
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