Just a (not so) cheap shot!

Piper had her 12 month well child visit today.

She informed me that “well child” is phrase used to trick babies into going to the doctor when they have to get shots.

She was not amused.

The funny part was that she seemed to know once we got there.  I couldn’t get a smile out of her for anything, which is really saying something.

I took quite a few pictures while we were waiting for the doctor, and in at least half of them her maraca is covering her mouth. 

…and in the other half,  she’s frowning.

This is the closest I got to a smile.  And it’s not very close.

Oh yeah.  She knew. 

Truth-be-told, I think I was more nervous than she was.

Piper hasn’t been growing as well lately.  She’s always been right on the 10% on the Ds chart for her adjusted age, but the last few months we’ve been drifting off that mark.  And now that she’s moving, it’s making even more difficult to keep up.

We’d always heard that so long as she maintains her curve, they wouldn’t be too worried.  But now that she hasn’t maintained her curve, I was afraid it’d open a whole new can o’ worms.  It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve gotten into “trouble” for her weight gain (or lack thereof), and I was simply not in the mood. 

So we got there, and got her measured.

The first thing the pediatrician (have I mentioned how much I LOVE her???) said?  “I’m just not worried about her weight gain- I think she’s just a small kid!”.  She said that since Piper’s achieving milestones at a very age-appropriate rate, she isn’t going to be worried about it.

Holy. Cow.

I am SO thrilled.  That’s been exactly my theory the whole time.  Besides, I sincerely don’t think that she’d be doing the things she’s doing if she were undernourished. 

And on top of that?  She said that she’s not a huge fan of adding fats to add calories.  She said that she’d rather see us add protein calories instead.  Which, again, is exactly what I wanted to hear.

I can’t tell you how relieved I am.  Seriously.  I’ve been dreading this visit for a while now.  And for nothing! 

Next she asked me a bunch of questions based on the 12-month-old development scale.  I could answer “yes” to all the questions but one- “Does she get into sitting by herself”.  That’ll be one of the next posts I do, so stay tuned.  Everything else, though, was a go.  And she was thoroughly impressed. 

Piper ended her visit with a trip to the lab for a blood draw (to check her thyroid function, which is done on all Ds kiddos every six months, and a CBC just to follow up with the Petechiae from a couple months ago), and then back to the room for three shots.

AND, to top it all off, the lab results already came back- everything was A-okay!  Hooray! 

AND we don’t have to go back until she’s 15 months old.

So long, that is, Piper behaves herself. 

Pleeeeeease???