Today was Andrew's 1 year checkup! We got to the appointment a little early so we had to wait in the waiting room a bit. The little ladies man made 3 girlfriends in like 5 minutes! He would crawl around and the baby girls would all run and crawl after him lol Then is was our turn to go back too see the doctor. The medical assistant weighed him (he's back down to 18 pounds), and took some measurements then the doctor came in an explained everything to us. He is only in the 1th percentile in weight. That means that 99% of children are bigger than him! The doctor wasn't concerned, she told me her son was in the negative percentile when he was Drew's age and he's a total beefcake now! Drew is now 30" tall (2 feet 6 inches) which puts him in the 46th percentile for weight (perfect!) and his head measured 18.5" which puts him in the 62nd percentile for head size (perfect). I told the doctor all the words Drew can say and she was AMAZED when I told her he can say "I did it"! She said that was a sign of incredible intelligence at this age that he can form more than one word at a time and have it make sense (as if I needed to be told that my kid is a genius! haha)! She told me to give him whatever he wants to try and pack on some pounds...bring on the Velveeta Shells and Cheese! lol
Next came the not so fun part of the visit...shots! I decided it would be better to space out his vaccines a bit so we are waiting on the MMR shot (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) until his 18 month appointment. She also assured me that all shots he receives are completely Mercury free and have been since 2000 (which people have been concerned with causing Autism). Today he got a VTAP (Diphtheria, tetanus, acullular pertussis vaccine (mostly a Tetanus shot), a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (prevents diseases that cause pneumonia, deafness, and brain damage), and the Varicella vaccine (chicken pox shot). He took the shots as well as could be expected and cried (we both did) but then he got over it as soon as I picked him up. We weren't done yet tho! The doctor wanted Drew to get some blood drawn to test for Lead and Anemia (just as a precaution). So down to the lab we went...as if the shots weren't enough for us to handle! At this point Drew is all smiles and waves, so we sit in the chair and wait for the nurse. She comes over and tells Andrew how handsome he is while she puts the tourniquet on his arm, I turn my head and she sticks in the needle...still no crying. Did she stick it in yet?? I look and yes, it's in and the second I said, "he's not crying?" he belted out a huge cry! After what seemed like an eternity, she got her two vials of blood from poor little Drew's arm. She put a cotton ball on it and slapped a band-aid on it...he liked it and still gave them smiles and waves when we left. I am so glad today is over! We won't have to deal with this again until the end of November :)