18 Month Visit

18 month pediatrician appointment yesterday.  All went well.  Upon leaving we found out that we were apparently in a Tornado Warning during our visit, which we were not aware of at the time.  But luckily we are all safe & all in good health. 

While Dr. Harrison said that usually the 18 month visit is the hardest (in terms of crying tots, followed by month 15) this one seemed to daddy & me to be a little bit less traumatic for us than the last.  Still PLENTY of tears during their turn to get weighed, measured & examined.  And still for some reason they are terrified to walk into a small, doctors office type room (it was a problem at TIPS & the eye dr too).  BUT at least the screams of terror came to a hault in the between time this go-round.  I could actually conduct a conversation with people in the room.  They assured me that by 2 it is usually better, so hopefully the worst of crying well visits are behind us.  Yes, that means baring any illnesses, we won't be back there for 6 whole months.  Crazy!

Despite my feeling that my kids appitites are seemingly non-existant at times, we have grown from our 15 month visit & that's all that matters.  Weights of course differ from what we got at TIPS on Monday.  (And I'm starting to not believe those 16 month weights I got)  Those were both clothed, these are naked.... naked, squirming, screaming, not sitting still on the scale, and read as fast as possible before the scale had time to finish reading.  So just pick a number between these & those from Monday & go with that I'd say.  Percentiles are on their actual age growth chart.  I'm taking Logan's weight today with a grain of salt.  I have never, ever before heard that kid scream like he did today.  Terrified.  And this weight was read in about 0.5 seconds before he more or less jumped off the counter!

Hayden:  26 lbs 11 oz (62%), 32 in tall (43%), head 20 in (99%!)
Olivia:  22 lbs 15 oz (30%), 32 in tall (63%), head 18.5 in (65%)
Logan:  22 lbs 3 oz (8%), 31 in tall (16%), head 19 in (57%)

So I'm just saying Hayden is close to 27 lbs & Log & Liv are around 23 lbs.  Close enough.  What amazes me is there is 1 inch difference in height between the boys & that ONE inch is the difference between the 43 & 16 percentile!! 

In terms of development, its as if Dr. Harrison read my mind.  After our 15 month visit I was a little upset about always discussing developmental milestones in terms of their corrected age.  I know my kids were preemies & I'll give them leeway should they need it, but I'd like to push them & give them credit for catching up where credit is due.  I'd prefer to look ahead as opposed to looking back.  The nurses always go through the actual age milestones & this time we said YES to all of them.  And when Dr. Harrison went through milestones, he listed off both the 16 month & 18 month milestones.  And we were doing everything he listed for 18 months so he FINALLY said, "So I'd say we can pretty much say they are caught up right now."  I told him what Dr. Needleman had said in terms of speech from TIPS on Monday & that I knew to be closely watching.  And thats pretty much all that was said about that. 

Speaking of milestones, one of them on their list that really amazed me was that they should know 2-3 body parts.  Livi knows like 11!!

Nothing specific to report about Logan & Olivia.
Hayden is getting some steroid cream (better than the OTC stuff & Aquaphor we've been using) to hopefully, finally clear up this never ending, on & off, drool rash from teething (he has 2 more eye teeth almost through & I can see the whites through the gums of 1 of Logan's bottom molars).  AND we are scheduling Hayden a renal ultrasound.  Just as a precaution since he has that ear tag.  Something we have never discussed with Dr. Harrison before today I don't think.  I've thought about it before, but since Dr. Needleman suggested on Monday at TIPS that it wouldn't hurt to check it out, I brought it up to Dr. Harrison & he said sure.  If you don't know, ears & kidneys develop at the same time in the womb, so ear tags can indicate a renal issue.  He has no symptoms, so we aren't concerned, but just for our own knowledge, we are going to go ahead & make sure there isn't some abnormality we aren't aware of. 

We got the go ahead to start doing a gummy chewable multivitamin (since the baby liquid ones suck & we are so non compliant with them).  We did a little talking about meal portion sizes for kids (my question because of the extreme drop in their intake which I know is normal, I just wanted some specifics).  A portion size for them is the size of the palm of their hand.  A meal is 3 portions & snack is 2 portions.  Apparently a toddlers stomach is only the size of their fist!  He said to expect to get in 1.5 good meals a day average & the rest will be hit or miss.  (I think in general the recommendation is to aim for 3 meals & 2 snacks a day.)  And he said that it is a good idea to continue to encourage the kids to eat what we are eating & to limit offering an alternative meal choice.

We each got 1 shot, Hep A.  Got dressed & out the door we went.  Hayden even waved bye-bye!

Then, since we were already traumatized, it was raining & they were in need.... we headed over to Family Fun Cutz & got the boys their 2nd hair cut!  Either they have grown up a lot in the past 2 months, or they were just plain tired of crying, but they did AWESOME!  Jeff & I stood there in awe repeating to eachother, I can't believe this.  After warning the haircut girls that they were most likely in for lots of screaming & squirming, we popped in an Elmo DVD, recruted a 3rd helper to blow some bubbles, got some suckers & shead probably a total of 10 tears... then they proceeded to sit still like perfect angels for their entire cuts!  Shocked the pants right off of me. Lately they just seem to be growing up so fast!