Jonathon's 18mo check-up

As I'd mentioned before, Jonathon is 18 months and went to the doctor's office last Friday. He weighed in at 24 pounds and measured 31.25 inches.

We arrived at 8:30 even though it was snowing (again), and checked in. Sat around. At 9, all the folks who'd been there before us were being seen. More people filtered in, and were called back. At 9:30 after this had happened again I asked why we were still waiting around and was told that the nurse was involved with an emergency that had come in around the same time we did, and would see us in 5-10 minutes. This is Kaiser, there isn't just one nurse, I have no idea why one of the others couldn't have squeezed us in. Thank goodness the waiting room has toys, and even a TV. Since we were there for 2 1/2 hours, I don't mind the kids watching SpongBob.

Anyway we were finally called back, and weirded out the nurses with Jonathon's cloth diaper (he was wearing a Kissaluv fitted with a Bumpy cover, nice and easy to put on and take off for exams, weights). Thankfully Ian had come and the other kids were with him, so Jonathon was the only one bored and opening drawers and playing with the sink in the exam room. The nurse came in and we discussed his food intake, speech and all the normal stuff. Nothing terribly exciting. He was amazingly patient and still while she used the stethoscope and otoscope and all the other scopes. Anyone who knows him though, knows that he remains very somber in uncertain situations, and that's exactly how he was. He was fascinated with that sink though. Kept trying to climb up on the rolling stool to turn the water on and tumbled off once half way up. The exam light was another favorite. Why they keep the lights really low down and have an easy switch, who knows!

We learned that with missing Jonathon's 15 month visit, we had to catch up on his vaccinations. He was stalwart through all four of them, it was truly amazing. He put all his siblings to shame. One annoying thing was that I asked the nurse if I could nurse him through them since I've heard and read that it can ease the sting (guess we didn't need that though), and she told me no since there was a risk of aspirating. I guess she didn't realize that an 18 month nurser does it lots more for comfort (which is what I was offering anyway) and my number of letdowns can be counted on one hand in a week.

He did great. We got a copy of his vaccination record for the move and I guess we're all set. Rebecca peed in a cup again since the last specimen came back with some irregularities and they wanted a recheck. Let's hope that's just nothing.