My Big Boy

I took T to the pediatrician today for his 2 year well visit. When you have a preemie, doctors will tell you that by 2 years the child should have caught up with babies that are born at full term. Previously, T had never had any of the catch-up growth that preemies usually have. His weight has usually been in the 5-10th percentile and his height has gotten up to the 25th percentile, but has often been lower. He has hit all his developmental milestone on time, but really at the very tail end up what is viewed as normal.

Today my boy hit the 5oth percentile for height and is in the 20th percentile for weight. I actually think he was heavier before, but he has lost some weight in the last 2 months from one of those rare times he has been sick. I'm not really concerned about his weight. He is really quite the big eater, so we are lucky that he is not a bit of a chubster. He has also hit all his developmental milestones. I feel like physically, he is pretty much on par with other kids his age. I think his language skills are still a bit delayed, but that is more from being bilingual than from being a preemie. He is getting a lot of exposure to Spanish, which I think is great and he seems to understand Spanish a little better than English.

The only real downer about the appointment is that Y thinks his legs flail out when he walks and the doctor agreed that his walking is a bit odd, but that the problem is very subtle, so she thinks we should wait a bit to see if he self corrects instead of going to physical therapy right away. I'm fine with that approach for now.

I had thought he would get the controversial MMR vaccine or part of it today, but I have chosen to delay a little longer. My doctor can only get 2 of the 3 parts of the vaccine broken out separately and she is not sure if she will be able to get the 3rd part. If she can't get that 3rd part by the summer, I will need to move ahead with giving him the combined vaccine. He will need to be fully vaccinated before starting preschool in the fall.

T is generally pretty much a complete nightmare to take to the doctor. He will cry through the whole appointment and fight the doctor when she tries to touch him. His hatred of doctors and doctors' offices is part of the reason that we have tried to never take him to the RE's office except when totally unavoidable. Today, though, he was a little different. I had to take off all his clothes at the beginning of the appointment, so he could be weighed and measured. As always, he was very anxious to leave, but for some reason, he understood that he could not leave without clothes. He kept trying to put his clothes and his shoes on, which is something he has never done before and is not capable or doing yet, or to convince me that I should dress him. It was really funny. The doctor was very entertained.

T turns 2 on Sunday. We are just having a small party with family. We have a party with kids planned for a few weeks from now. We couldn't get it together enough to get the kids party organized in time for his birthday. Oh well. Luckily, he is still too young to really notice that his party will be a little late.