Boys Will Be Boys

Posts Tagged ‘doc visit’

Last Friday we had our 4 year old check up for Braysen.  He’s 36 lbs and 42 inches tall now.  We are staying at a nice 90% height and well, his weight is on the same curve it’s always been on…didn’t say what % but I’m guessing 30% since that’s where we’ve always been.  What can I say, he’s tall & skinny like Patrick.  In fact, I pretty much think he’s a clone of him..like mini-me version of him.  Everything about him personality wise is similar really.    We were due for some shots and per my delayed schedule, we got 2 of the 4…dtap and polio.   Braysen was a trooper.  We had 2 wonderful nurses come in to do them, once for each shot/leg and got him at the same time so we saved numerous pricks.  He said “ouch that hurt” and that’s about it.

I did have one thing that really needed to be discussed with the pediatrician because of his preschool teacher’s recommendation to have him speech evaluated.   I wanted to discuss this with our doctor before that happened as I really respect his opinions.   I told him of my discussion with his teacher.  She had concerns regarding his voice tone being too quiet and sometimes higher pitched than other boys in his class.  I mentioned how the teacher thought it could be of some concern with bullying later because of his soft voice.   My doctor thought that was really unusual and that Braysen’s voice didn’t send any red flags up when talking with him.  He went on to tell me about Einstein, Gandhi and others who are soft spoken but highly intelligent people and how they have gone on to do great things.

He told me that even though he hasn’t done any IQ tests on Braysen yet, he could be in Mensa someday and is most likely going to be in gifted and talented programs. We talked about how Braysen is ahead of things in regards to patterns/sequencing and the such.  He’s doing basic addition already!   We’ve been told us all along that Braysen is a very smart kid and would need to be challenged in school.  Even as a baby we would talk in our appointments about how he just is so observant and watches everything, then as he became older we’d talk about how he was always trying to figure out how something works and manipulate things in his office.  Friday he’s in there talking science, planets, stars, bones and muscles with the doctor.  Sometimes people think the pediatrician is just saying things but I really do believe that Braysen is pretty darn smart.  Again, he’s a mini Patrick.  (of course I’m biased because I’m h is mom and very proud of him!)

So, that’s our great news on the Braysen doctor front!  We have Bugz appointment Friday afternoon.  I have my final exam for Statistics tomorrow morning so will be studying late tonight!  I’ll get a post up someday about our garden but probably after I finish the other half since we ran out of the compost that I was using to fill my bed.

I remember being 16 in my lifeguarding class and the instructors telling us to go to the deep end and start treading water.  This tread was at the end of class when you’ve just swam a million laps, practiced swimming tower to tower (NOT FUN!) and various other drills.  Anyhow, after the 10, 15 or 20 minutes were up, instructors one by one would jump in the water and try to do everything in their power to bring us down. 

Basically they were pretending to be victims and our job was to get them to the edge.  Several instructors were stalky big guys that you could barely get your arms around them to cross-chest carry and they’d be flipping you over and over in the water.  All you could do was hang on tight and let them flip you until they acted tired, in which you could finally swim them to the edge.  Of course, a few years later in training they switched to using Rescue Tubes primarily.

So why all this talk of the good ol’ days? 

Well let’s just say that my life at the moment feels like I’m being put through the drills over and over.  I’m barely treading water and there’s a million things trying to sink me but I won’t let them.  I’m fighting but I’m tired! 

Yesterday was a near drowning incident!

I had to be up by 6:30 to get in the shower so I could be out the door around 7 for my 7:30am Stats class.  I plop myself down to dry my hair and I smell this very pungent odor coming from my dryer then Bam, it was dead.  Here I am thinking, shit..it’s too early to go ask a neighbor to borrow one.   Off to class I go with my wet hair.  Now, this wouldn’t be bad if I didn’t have to head into work afterwards which requires me to look a little more put together!  I also had a long day ahead and well looking like a drowned rat all day wasn’t the style I was looking for.

7:30am-8:50am Stats and the Professor tells us he has bad news and good news.  Bad news = our Stats exams are MIA!  Good news (in his opinion) = we get the exam to retake but as a take home exam.  This sounds great in theory but honestly I studied a few nights until midnight for that test.  It was fresh in my head that day, now it’s not!  I moved on darn it and now I need to go back and rethink haha! 

Worked from 8:50 to 12:50

12:50-1:50 Developmental Psych. rolls around.  Not bad but our study guide is well not much of a guide as much as it is a list of every term listed that were covered in 5 Chapters.  So Monday I have not only my Stats exam due but I have my Psych. exam on 5 Chapters. 

I get home around 2:15 and get Merrick all dressed, we are out the door by 2:40ish to head to his well baby check up at the doctors.  I love our pediatrician and we always end up there for a while because I think most of our visit is us talking about this that and the other.  We had a few shots to get taken care of because I have him on a delayed schedule and we were up for some of our next ones.

I will post his growth stats here soon.  I wanted to get it all typed up and put in a little chart that I can just update in one spot! 

I get home around 4:15 or so and then start trying to get things picked up.  Realizing that I haven’t eaten ALL DAY!!! It’s nearly 5 by the time I get a meal in my stomach. 

6:00 rolls around and I have Braysen loaded up in the car for swim lessons and off we went.  His lessons are in a nearby town that can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 to get to ..if you are stuck behind a tractor (like I had the privilege of encountering yesterday).  We get there in time, he does great (a whole post should be about this really so I’ll save that!).  Swim lessons go from 6:30-7:00 so we get home anywhere from 7:30/7:40.

Home finally for the night right?  NOPE!  Off to Walmart (the dreaded store I hate and cannot stand but Target is 40 minutes away and well my options were pretty limited.)  I finally get home around 9 from my town trip and I was beat….tired…exhausted and drowning.  Yes, completely under water by this time.  I seriously felt like I was treading water all day and finally everything that was thrown at me took me under…only briefly.  I will not let myself sink, I must stay afloat and keep treading!

Considering we are in the house of sick currently and spent this week + last weekend with throwing up + other digestive fun and are still contending with it, I’ll keep this short!

Patrick took Merrick in Monday while I was busy throwing up and he is

18 lbs 6 oz!!!  28 inches tall….

let’s just say that Braysen barely hit 20 lbs at 1 year!  Merrick is such a stalky tank of a boy but tall like Braysen.  Oh how 2 kids can be so different!

Ok, off to bed before I end up rambling when I should be trying to recover and get some sleep finally!

So today was my 1st day back to work.  Lots of stress leading up to this unlike when I returned after Braysen.  With Braysen I stayed home for the 1st year and at that point was more ready to go back.  This time it was harder leaving a “baby”.   Besides just the necessary leaving the kids behind, there’s the whole fitting into clothes for work issue and also the pumping at work/keeping up with supply & bottles issue.

Luckily I went out shopping this past Saturday morning while Patrick held down the fort and I got some great sale deals and now have a few things to tide me over until I either a) lose more weight or b) get out to the outlets and find some more deals.

I also am VERY thankful for having a nice pump this time around.  I have a back room at work that my boss suggested me use and it worked out great today and it looks like it shouldn’t be as dreaded as I thought.  I’ll only have to do it once while i’m there since I only work 4 hours.  I managed to get enough today to cover the 2 bottles we used today so ideally if I can pump what he eats while I’m gone, my freezer stash that I’ve built up will not dwindle!

2 weeks ago I also started doing water aerobics in a nearby town with 2 of the gals from my neighborhood. It feels great to be in a pool again, even if I’m not swimming laps quite yet.  The water aerobics isn’t a walk in the park when it comes to working out though!  I did hit up the sporting goods store to buy up a new pair of goggles, a new cap and some new hand paddles for me to start swimming laps again.  I still have my zoomie flippers and my pull buoy.  I’m trying to figure out a night to do that but not to stick Patrick with the boys every night.  I thought maybe before work I’d hit up the pool but getting ready for work at the pool is well not my ideal situation.

This week we have another doc appt. for shots.  I mentioned before that I’m spacing them out and doing an alternative shot schedule. I have the book in my tote bag so I can try and read some of it this week before heading off to meet the doc. and do the next few we scheduled.  I’m definitely happier that we are doing them 2 at a time instead of a lot each visit.  This may mean a few extra visits instead of every few months but it’s worth it to me.

Oh!  Merrick can roll both ways now. He doesn’t do back to front often but he can pull it off!  He started that like 2 weeks ago or so!!  (Why do my boys have to be so fast to go mobile?)
To cut this short…I’m going to hit the sack.  So tired after the 1st day chaos and I’m going in at 8:30 tomorrow instead of 9.  I thought I did pretty good getting us all out the door today and ready but tomorrow will be even earlier!

New pics and updates soon.