Archive for September 15th, 2006

Today was a momentous day indeed in the Porter household. Today was the day of Liam’s two month pediatrician appointment. Even more, it was also the day of Harry’s first visit with the same pediatrician. How can one family handle that much excitement all in ONE spectacular day?

I’m still reeling from it, myself.

The day had a rather auspicious start to it, too. Actually, nearly every day this week has had that sort of start to it. Generally because Harry wakes up late or takes an extra long time eating breakfast or whatever. The poor kid has had to fix his lunch two out of four days. Most mornings are kinda nutso anyhow; I’m pumping for about a half or longer (after not pumping all night long, I get something like 18 oz. each morning) and then when I’m done, Liam is usually desperate to be fed. Kile has to get to work so it’s pretty much my business. However, sometimes Harry falls through the cracks and has to fix his own breakfast and sometimes lunch and I feel pretty guilty about that. But anyhow. Where was I?

Oh yes. Today. Anyhow, I picked Harry up from school early, at 2 pm. Then we stopped by Smiths so I could get some infant tylenol drops for Liam, which I administered in the parking lot before jetting over to Kile’s work to pick him up. This was a family affair, ya’ll. We got to the doctor’s office a little late (typical), but it was a while before they called us back anyhow.

It went pretty well, actually. The boys had their appointments pretty much at the same time. Liam has grown quite a bit, to put it mildly. Of course, we already knew this but our suspicions were confirmed when the little chunker weighed in at 12lbs 6oz. Ya’ll, that’s almost 75^th percentile. Not bad for Mr. Underweight Baby. He measured in at 22 1/4 inches, which is 25^th percentile. His monster noggin? 40 cm and 50^th percentile. Go, Liam! Harry isn’t doing so badly either. At 6 years, 10 months, he’s 49 3/4 inches tall and weighs 58lbs. Both of those are 75^th to 90^th percentile. That’s my big boy. :)

We got to talking to the pediatrician about different “issues” with both the boys. Mostly Harry. We talked about his emotional outbursts and the doctor didn’t think it sounded that unusual or any particular cause for concern. However, he could tell we were concerned so he suggested that a psychiatrist would be better than a therapist. Since we especially want to avoid him just being medicated to deal with it. We’re hoping that someone can help give him the tools to better deal with his emotions. Because, apparently, we aren’t as able to do it for him as we’d hoped. We also mentioned his dental issues, of which has many, and the pediatrician was able to recommend a good dentist. Because the one we’d had before just wasn’t a very good fit. We also brought up Harry’s stomach problems. For years now he’s complained of tummy aches, always after eating. It’s been getting worse in the last year, so we asked if he knew what it could be. After we answered a few questions, he said he thought it might be acid reflux or even an ulcer (!!) and prescribed Zantax. If that doesn’t stop the symptoms, then they’ll have to maybe do some bloodwork to rule out a milk allergy or even send him to a gastroenterologist. Fun! But hopefully the Zantax will work. The doctor seemed to think it would since giving him Tums and Children’s Pepto always seems to help.

We also brought up Liam’s tongue tie. He said he’d get us a referral to a ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) specialist who could clip it for us. He thought maybe it might not need clipping until we pointed out the extent of the tie. He didn’t seem to think it’d be an issue, but we’ll see. Poor kid. He wasn’t entirely surprised to hear he had one, given our breastfeeding problems. I can only hope that the clipping will help and that we’ll finally be able to breastfeed. Becuase today of all days, I’ve missed the handiness of breastfeeding as a comfort tool.

Being it was Liam’s 2 month appointment, we had the first round of vaccinations to enjoy. Why does it always feel like a betrayal? Liam was laying there, looking around curiously at all the colorful decorations in the room when all the sudden… STAB! STAB! STAB! Lord, was he mad. First was the stunned look. Then it dissolved into open mouthed silent scream and (plug your ears!) the WAIL. I took one look at his purpled face and grabbed a bottle. Of course, by then he was too upset to notice the nipple in his mouth. I wiggled it around until he finally got the hint and started to suck with abandon. And that was that, he ate a good four ounces and was pretty contented for the ride home.

Of course, since then he’s been less than contented. He had maybe one nap of an hour or so, but the rest of the time, he’s just wanted to eat, eat, eat. And we’ve had to be dilligent with the tylenol, because if we let it wear off and he starts to kick his legs and of course that HURTS so it’s this vicious circle of kicking the legs, crying cuz it hurts and kicking the legs because you’re upset and it results in mom making a frantic dash for the tylenol. FUN!

Right now he’s wide awake, wanting to suck but not hungry (I miss the boob!), and I’m just thoroughly exhausted. However, Kile just got puked on so his patience is at an end for the evening. I have a feeling it’s going to be a LONG night!

^{doo dee doo dee doo}

FYI: a? new video has been added to the Videos page.? It’s of a recent “pat a cake” game between Kile and Liam.? In other words?? You just can’t miss it.? It’s just too darn cute.

Filed under Family Circus, L'il Liam |