Wednesday, March 18, 2009

One year well visit

Here are Brooklyn's stats for her one year check up:

Weight - 16 pounds, 7.5 ounces (below 3rd percentile)
Length - 27 inches (below 3rd percentile)

However, Dr. A said that he is no longer worried about Brooklyn's growth the way he was last year. He said that she is staying on her own curve, and is gaining weight. So for her, this is okay. This is progress. He wanted to call it 3rd percentile, just to reassure me that Brooklyn is okay, I think, even though she is still about 2 squares below 3rd percentile on the chart. But Dr. A says we are moving in the right direction and that it is good.

Dr. A was VERY happy that Brooklyn is crawling, pulling up, and cruising. He said that about 15-20% of kids with no medical issues aren't doing all of that at her age. He said that at our last visit, he was concerned that Brooklyn might need physical therapy soon because she was lagging pretty far behind in her motor development. But now he is very happy with where she is at. Yay Baby Bear!

He looked in her mouth and said that ALL of her top teeth are about to pop through. I don't know whether this means 4 or 6 teeth....but she is definitely drooly and cranky and chewing on everything! She only has her 2 bottom teeth right now, so that will be a big change! She has a slight "head tilt" - where she always leans her head to one side a bit. This may be due to the head flattening from having to sleep in her car seat for so many months. Dr. A doesn't think it is much of anything to worry about right now, and will reevaluate it in 3 months. She may need some physical therapy to correct it if it doesn't fix itself soon. But no big deal.

We will be slowly adding more table foods as Brooklyn gets more teeth and as she can handle them without choking. She still only gets 1 or 2 baby foods a day and very little table foods. Dr. A is okay with that. We are progressing as she can handle it. She gets more calories from her milk anyway, and that is important for her. Once she can get 2-3 servings of fruits and veggies, 1 meat, and some carbs each day, we can replace her formula with whole milk. She is still breastfeeding about half of the time, and I haven't decided when I will try to wean her or if I will just let her continue until she weans herself. All of those teeth that are about to come in may help me make that decision. Eeek!

Now that we are seeing specialists, Dr. A doesn't really have much to do with or say a lot about the laryngomalacia or the reflux. He basically just defers to Dr. R (the gastroenterologist) and Dr. G2 (the pulmonologist). So he didn't say much of anything about those matters, except to make sure all of Brooklyn's meds were the same (yes), ask when our next appointments were (next week), and ask whether we knew if Brooklyn was going to have to have surgery (we don't know yet.)

Brooklyn had to get 3 shots. Poor Baby Bear. She was already tired and this made her very unhappy. She will have her *LAST* Synagis shot this Friday. I know she will be glad to be done with that. But the shots have served her well....we have stayed clear of RSV this year, thank God!!!

Dr A. said,"This is the first visit where I can say Brooklyn is doing well. I feel comfortable saying that for the first time. I'm very pleased. No 'but's' about it this time. Once she can get her malacia and reflux issues behind her, she'll be great. I want you to walk out of here feeling really good about this visit."

We took his advice! :)

6 comments:

Hope said...

Awesome appt!! I'm sl glad she's doing better. Please send her over to teach Ava some of those motor skills! I can't wait to hear about her appts next week.

btw...Ava is 27 inches too;)

Jennifer W said...

That is great news! I can't believe she can walk with that walker toy now. Avelyn wants to tell her "Game on Baby".

Beth said...

Fantastic news!!! Yay, Brooklyn!!! You must be feeling so happy... I'm feeling happiness over here for you! Nothing like a good Dr's visit to get you smiling!!! :o)

Carrie27 said...

That's great news! I'm sure you are over the moon!

Sarah said...

Great news!!! Feels pretty good to walk out of there without a ton of bricks on your shoulders, huh? I can't believe we're discussing ONE YEAR CHECK-UPS!!!!! Man, time flies! Keep up the good work Momma...she's doing awesome!

MrsSpock said...

That all sounds like great news! Go Brooklyn!

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