Riley and Avery

So, we had the girls' well-child checks today. Our appointment was at 2:30, which was exactly when we got there. We waited in the waiting room for 45 minutes before being called back to the room. Avery had to have her toe pricked to check her iron. She said "ow" but that was it. She freaked out when the nurse tried to put a band-aid on her, so I had to hold gauze on it, which she hated as well. Riley was 41 1/4 inches tall (75th percentile) and was 38.5 pounds (25th percentile) with her clothes minus her shoes. And I thought she was getting chunky. Guess not. Avery was 23 lbs. 10 oz (5th percentile) and 34 inches tall (20th). I was desperately hoping that she had hit the 25lb. mark, but no such luck. We waited another 20-ish minutes for the doctor. The doc wasn't concerned about Avery's weight, just said she was petite and that at least she's on the charts. He also didn't give us too much flack for not immunizing anymore. Of course, I was so tired (stayed up too late last night) and exhausted from waiting so long to see the doctor, so when he asked me why I was choosing not to immunize, all I could say was that "immunizations are creepy." Had I had enough mental clarity to come up with a semi-intelligent response, he probably would have backed off quicker. Oh, well. I need to start a new paragraph, just because...

So, here's the kicker. The doctor said that Avery has a very faint heart murmur. He said that he had every reason to believe that it was an "innocent heart murmur" and that it mean absolutely nothing. What astounded me was that he said that many doctors choose not to tell patients about these heart murmurs because they really are nothing, but he thinks the parents need to know everything. Well, duh! I was shocked that a doctor would withhold information for convenience.

He also did not ask parenting questions, which I was so very happy about. He did not ask where they sleep and so forth. The breastfeeding question (if there was going to be one) was negated by the fact that Avery was in my lap nursing almost the entire time. He never batted an eye. In fact the office has a VERY NICE breastfeeding room. He didn't ask about weaning or anything like that. When I told him of Riley's developmental evaluation, he asked why I hadn't stuck with that office and what I didn't like about their practice. I told him that it was "creepy" (apparently a very common word for me to use when I'm tired) because they had whole bookcases stocked with full-sized cans of formula, and formula and drug-company posters everywhere. He very visibly recoiled. His office does not have any mention of formula anywhere, no mater how subtle. And there is not a single drug-manufacturer logo anywhere. Not on poster, not on pens, not on notepads. No where. I likey. And he interacted so well with the girls, I couldn't be happier. WE'VE FOUND A DOCTOR THAT WE LIKE!! And not that we didn't put him up to high standards. As time went by in the waiting room, Rudi and I are like "this guy better be worth it" tick tick tick tick "This guy better be a really good doctor" tick tick tick tick "This guy better be the best doctor in the world" tick tick tick tick "This doctor better be a GOD!!!" I have to say, he was worth the wait.

One more thing, the doctor also pulled out a map and asked us where we lived. Turns out we live in a part of town with very little fluoride in the water. So he prescribed fluoride tablets for the girls. Could this be why Riley moved here with absolutely no cavities, not even an inkling of a cavity, and six months later she has five cavities? Coincidence? Me thinks not.

Oh, yeah, when the doctor was talking to Riley he asked her if she eats lots of healthy foods. He asked her if she ate a lot of fruit, and she said yes, so he asked her if she liked apples, bananas, strawberries, oranges, and blueberries. I told him that she's had all of those fruits TODAY plus blackberries. Go me!

Which brings me to my next topic. We bought three berry bushes, but are not entirely sure when we'll get the first crop, this year or next. We also planted tomatoes and peas as well as chamomile, lavender, and catnip to dry for Riley's tea. We're growing these all in enormous containers since we can't plant in-ground here. I'm cautiously optimistic. If we get only one tomato I'll be happy. All but the berry bushes are being started from seeds, so you never can tell.

This post is long enough...