Three shots and a sucker

With two kids in tow, we (Jen) visited the Doctors office yet again. Aspen was ready for her 4 year checkup and Bryant, well let's just say he didn't know what was coming. The three of us sat down far away from everyone in the hope that none of the snotty nosed kids would visit. Normally it wouldn't bother me but with Bryant not having any immunization shots yet and knowing that colds and sickness are in our near future I wasn't in the nood to accelurate that. Especially with Bryant's TEF. And what is it about babies drawing in strangers? It's like moths to a light. Thank goodness we had a short wait. After picking up all of Aspen's "show and tell" items, we headed back.

Aspen was up first. The little girl weighed in at 35lbs and more that 46inches tall. To put things in perspective to kids her own age, she is in the 25th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Tall and thin. Some days I feel like she will never get to be without a car seat.

She did get to tell the Doctor all about herself and enjoyed every last minute of it. She almost got a shot. But Mom came in and saved the day and showed the Doctor Aspens immunization records and she was saved. She did however get a sucker.

Bryant wasn't so lucky. The little guy weighed in at 11lbs and 22 inches tall. He is in the 25th percentile all around. Both Joe and I are happy that his weight has doubled but he is still on the small side. But we'll take it. But he is working on it. He's eating every three hours. Like clock work.

After the weigh in we had a chat about his dry skin and what to look forward to down the road. So after all this came the moment of truth. Bryant received three shots, because we had to catch up with what he has missed thus far. He also received an oral dose to help prevent the rotavirus. For first time parents you cannot pay enough money to have this dose. The rotavirus is one of those sicknesses that will keep coming back. Week afte week. It's a nice case of diarhea, v0miting, and lots of crying. Both yours and the babies. With Aspen having this when she was a baby we were delighted to hear that there was an immunization available for Bryant. Oh so happy!

It seems Billings is catchin up with the times. We have finally gotten an Ears, Nose, and Throat specialist for infants and children. It is funny (scarry more like it) to think that Billings has NO Doctors to work with infants and small children on almost any level except very minor, non life threatening issues. Jen only found out last week that the clinic/hospital we go to doesn't even admit infants and small children. They have to be shipped up the street to another hospital whose history with small children hasn't been that great. It makes us even more grateful for Primary Children's Medical Center. No matter how many Doctors and nurses they train or bring to Billings, they will never live up to the high respect we have for the Doctors and nurses and PCMC.

Updates.

We drove back down to Salt Lake City to do follow up exams with the surgeons and redo Bryant's hearing test since he failed the first one on the left ear.

The hearing test was interesting. Bryant passed on his left ear with flying colors, but failed on his right ear. The audiologist doing the test thought Bryant might have fluid in his ear and we should follow up with our pediatrician when we get home.

We then met with Dr. Rollins for our surgical follow up. He weighed Bryant and he is up to 9 3/4 pounds. We are very proud. Dr. Rollins thought he was doing good. He took his heart rate and other vitals. I started thinking "I hope we didn't drive all the way down here for a 10 minute meeting of heart rates, and temprature." But Dr. Rollins ordered a chest x ray and another Esophogram. So the trip wasn't a waste of time. Everything looked good but we need to hear back from Dr. Rollins with specifics. We also ran into one of our favorite nurses in the NICU, Melissa. She let us in to say hi to some of the staff. We weren't sure if that was allowed. But we got to see our development therapist, LeAnne, and Kathie Neff.

We spent some good times with my dad and the rest of the family. Always in for some good laughs with the Martin clan. We can't take anything seriously. They spoiled the kids (just seems weird to say after having one for so long).

We stopped off at Jen's folks place on the way back. We had a terrific roast and mashed potatoes. Watched a fantastic movie, August Rush. Good movie. The time really flew and it was Sunday morning already, and time to go. Next we will go fishing. I promise.

Monday morning was a first for Bryant. His first day at daycare, and Jen's first day back at work. She only got 3 weeks at home with Bryant. She got cheated out of time with Bryant, but he has managed to give mama the googley eyes whenever she walks into a room. He adores his mother and sister. Dad is ok, but he is more of a ladies man.

His first day at daycare was good. He ate, slept, and pooped. Not in that order, but you get the idea.

We did have a follow up for his hearing. Our Dr. was out of the office so we got a different Dr. It was close to 5pm and she just kind of brushed through our appointment. She looked at his ears and didn't really say anything. She just told us to follow up with the Ears, Nose, and Throat doctors in a couple of weeks. Not all that thrilled with her.