A Visit to the Doctor

Relax, it was just a checkup. I mostly just want to share their height/weight results: First of all, I'm proud to annouce that for the first time in three years, Chase is ON THE GROWTH CHARTS! Period! He never even made the 1st percentile before. He is 28 1/2 lbs and 36 1/2" (although that was with shoes and clothes on, so I must be honest and round downward a little) putting him at a solid 15% for weight and 10% for height. I did an online growth predictor which said he would be 5'7" at age 18. That's short, but at least he will be taller than his mom. And Frodo. That's Kurt's and my yardstick: as long as he's taller than a hobbit, that's OK with us.

Kai was 30 lbs (30%) and 38" (50%). I have to say, I was a little surprised by this. He feels a lot heavier when he body-slams you as you're sitting on the floor watching TV or leaps onto your back from the couch as you walk by. I thought I was carrying a lot more weight when lugging him upstairs to bed. Whatever.

And then we have Miss Kate, with the enviable body measurements of 29 lbs (30%) and 39" (90%). Maybe she can support us in our old age with the money she will make walking the runways in Paris. That's why I let her wear lip gloss and paint her toenails. Just grooming her early.

Nothing much else to report from the visit. The kids were in fine form for the doctor (meaning: insane), prompting him to say "Well, they definitely have their own...interesting personalities, don't they?" Kurt tried to keep them quiet with a crinkled-up piece of paper off the exam table and by drawing scary/happy/funny/sad faces on tongue depressors. (There's not much to play with in those rooms.) I had some Red Vines in my purse I was saving as bribes, but they spotted them as we walked in and they went through the entire box in 15 minutes. So the doctor got to examine a lot of sticky red teeth and slimy fingers. Kate threw a fit and refused to let the doctor look in her ears, mouth, eyes, nose or anywhere else, so after a few minutes, he gave up and said, "Well, she seems healthy to me." Kai was fine until he saw how Kate was acting, and then started fake-crying about the ear exam. Chase liked it all, especially the part where he got to open up and say "ahh". Well, that's what he was supposed to say. What he really said was, "AAAAHHHHHHAHAHAHA! HAHAHA!" When we got to the car he even started yelling, "I wanna go back and see the doctor!" (There were no shots at this visit, obviously.)

So we're all good for now. Nobody is sick, knock on wood, everybody is where they should be developmentally, and things are good. At the end of the exam, the doctor told us were were very blessed to have healthy, normal kids, especially for preemie-multiples, and we definitely are. Sometimes I forget how intensely worried and scared I was about my kids when I was carrying them and in the early days. Anxiety took over my life from the minute I found out I was pregnant to the day they were born. There were many scares along the way (some real, some only in my mind) but everything turned out perfectly. And I'm sitting here now, January of 2010, they are three years old, and everything is fine. No matter what fears I had in the past, no matter what happens down the road, things are good right now. I don't always appreciate that on a day-to-day basis, I guess. I often take their health for granted these days until I see something on TV or hear stories about others who weren't so lucky, and then I say a little silent thank-you prayer for my normal, healthy, amazing, crazy, funny, darling, quirky children. They are miracles--in many ways--and I don't use that word lightly. Even though sometimes it takes getting locked in a small exam room with them for 45 minutes to make me remember that. :)