The 'regular' Doctor

Now that Ellie is a year old it is time for another round of immunizations. Today we had a scheduled visit with Ellie's 'regular' pediatrician in Wellesley. Well, not the pediatrician but the Nurse Practitioner that works with the pediatrician.

Everything went fine, we got her her shots (3) but other than that, let's just say that it was educational.

It started with the nurse bringing us into to exam room and asking us very normally to strip Ellie to her diaper to be weighed. Abby and I rolled our eyes because we could tell the woman what Ellie weighed within 100 grams (3-4 ounces) and because we knew that the woman had no idea what was 'under the hood'.

I've got to hand it to her, she was quite calm when she saw the plumbing, but we could both tell that she was a bit alarmed by the whole thing. (by the way, we would have been 80 grams off on our estimate of her weight, which is 9.56 kg, 50th percentile)

The nurse practitioner was a similar case and honestly, I think that we overwhelmed her when she asked for information about Ellie. We overwhelmed her both in the depth of our answers as she struggled to take notes on what we told her and also in the fact that she had literally nothing to offer to us for advice about Ellie. But I guess she felt that we were there and that she needed to do something. Oh well.

One interesting thing we did learn is that Ellie has the enormous cranium that comes from both Abby and I. She is in the 50th percentile for weight, 75th for height and 97+ for head circumference!

Look at the big brain on Brogan! It's like an orange on a toothpick!

She told us that considering the huge melons on her folks (and grandparents) that she was probably fulfilling her genetic destiny but that we should maybe thing about having her thyroid checked. Another thing to think about..... we'll add that test to the next blood draw at Children's but didn't want to stick her again after three pokes today.

After that it was a day for enjoying the sun and letting the girl catch up on her outside time:


I am biased but man what a cute baby? These pictures really make us realize what a funny looking baby she was when she was very young.

Everyone was very nice to us and told us that she was beautiful.

Flattery helped.

I am flying solo tonight while Abby goes out for a friend's birthday. Ellie was out by 7:20 tonight with the post immunization Tylenol. It doesn't have the full narc effect that it used to have but it still does a good job.

I am still terrified to be doing everything by myself when Abby is out. Honestly terrified by the what ifs. It is all I can do to keep myself from checking on her every five minutes.

No kidding.

You would think that this would get easier but the doubt is still there.

Oh well better than not giving a shit.