Hermosos Dientes

On Wednesday Pearson and I set out on an adventure. Our first stop was the Pediatrics Department at the RAF L.akenheath Hospital.

While we waited for the doctor to come in, Pearson got a little typing practice in:

The doctor didn't keep us waiting too long. She did a quick physical on Pearson and the biggest takeaway from the appointment is that Pearson has grown two inches in the last two months!

We then headed upstairs for an Anesthesia Pre-Op appointment. Unfortunately we ended up waiting for over 45 minutes and then the appointment itself lasted five minutes. But, once again there was nothing to worry about so Pearson was cleared for surgery.

On Thursday morning we reported back to the hospital at 6:30AM. We went into the Pre-Op Prep Area and Pearson was forced into a hospital gown and hospital bracelet. He tried his best to rip both things from his body. We chatted with two doctors, two nurses and two techs to verify why Pearson was here and what was going to happen.

At 7AM I helped the anesthesiologist give Pearson a medicine to help keep him calm. It took affect after about 20 minutes.

At 7:30AM the anesthesiologist came back and carried Pearson into the operating room.

I then just had to wait. While I was waiting Pearson was put under general anesthesia, had x-rays done of his teeth and then had three molars capped (one required a root canal) and a fourth molar had a filling put in. Thankfully he had no other teeth in need of repair.

Why all the trouble for routine dental care? Because of his age. The dentist did not want to risk traumatizing Pearson by doing such invasive work in the office. Plus there was the possibility that the dentist wouldn't have been able to do any of the work if Pearson started fighting and screaming. He wanted to go straight to anesthesia to keep things as calm for Pearson as possible.

A bit before 9AM the dentist came out to the waiting room to let me know that Pearson's dental work had gone perfectly. I then had to wait a bit longer for him to come out of the anesthesia.

As soon as Pearson stirred, they called me back. It was a bit before 9:30AM. We then had to sit for an hour so they could observe him.

While Pearson and I were cuddling in the Post-Op Area, McColley was performing.

His spanish class put on a little musical performance. Luckily his best friend's mom was there to take pictures:

Pearson got cleared to leave the hospital at the same time as McColley's class finished up their performance. It was a busy day for everyone!

The Twelve Month Well-Baby

My freshly minted one year old got to go and get checked out by the doctor today. Everything is well and he is doing exactly what he should be.

His official statistics are:
Length: 30in (64%)
Weight: 23lbs 8oz (57%)
Head Circumference: 19in (92%)

Of course, I had to answer all sorts of questions about his motor skills and the big questions were about walking. I told the doctor that he pulls up, stands unassisted and cruises like a motor boat but has so far only taken two or three steps when going between objects like the couch and a chair.

Guess who took a good six steps across the living room when we got home... little stinker.

An Unfortunate Milestone

My poor sad looking baby:

I'm pretty sure Pearson is currently in the last stage of roseola (note the rash all over his face). That 104º fever he spiked over a week ago now makes sense. Luckily the rash just looks bad and isn't bothering him at all. Now it just has to clear up and Pearson should be all done with his first childhood illness.

Wanting to avoid any additional illnesses in the family Pearson and I took the cats to the vet today for their annual vaccines. Being us, I had to make it as difficult as possible.

I, unfortunately, missed the vet's quarterly visit to our area so I had to go an hour away to their main clinic. It was an interesting ride with two mewing cats and one screaming baby along the back roads of the Fens.

At least the cats got complimented on how clean their teeth are by the vet!

6 Month Well-Baby

Today Brayton and I took Pearson into the doctor for his six month check up.

Here are his official stats:
Weight - 20lbs (83%)
Length - 69cm (71%)

His growth is right on track! I'll admit to being very happy that his percentiles are up in the 70-80 range, which is where his two older brothers hung out, as opposed to the 30-50% range he was rocking at two months.

Unfortunately the eczema behind his right ear has gotten infected, so we'll be applying an anti-bacterial/steroid cream for a while to (hopefully) clear it all up.

Pearson's least favorite part was the immunizations. He cried a bit but the shots did go quickly. Now he's 'sleeping it off' in the swing... which he'll be too heavy for soon!

4 Month Well-Baby and 36 Month Well-Child

Nicely enough, Brayton and Pearson were both due for doctor's appointments this month.

Today we went in and had them checked out. Both are perfect and growing right on track.

Here are Brayton's 36 Month stats:
Height - 39.5in/100.5cm (87%)
Weight - 37.4lbs/16.8kg (89%)

I also realized that I never put up Brayton's stats from his 24 Month Well-Child check up last year because of our move.  So, just for record keeping, here are his 24 Month stats:
Height - 35.75in/91cm (85%)
Weight - 33lbs/15kg (97%)

As you can see he's grown almost four inches and put on over four pounds!

Here are Pearson's 4 Month stats:
Height - 25.6in/65cm (62%)
Weight - 17.5lbs/7.9kg (83%)
Head Circumference - 17in/43cm (85%)

Pearson has definitely made up for his first two weeks of weight loss!

Both boys are right on their growth curves and meeting all of their developmental milestones. The only unpleasant part of the whole appointment was the vaccines at the end. Brayton put up with his one shot very stoically and Pearson only cried for a bit - they both did excellent!

Incredible^3

This Month Pearson Has:
-Started laughing
-Started attempting to roll over and 'sit up'
-Started 'playing' with himself in a mirror
-Saw his first fireworks
-Had his first Thanksgiving
-Met Santa Claus and bought his first Christmas tree
-Had his first evening with a babysitter


Current Stats:
Weight - 14.5 lbs (75%)
Length - 25.5 inches (90%)
Head Circumference - 16.67 inches (75%)

Right On Track

Pearson had his two month appointment today.

Here are his stats:
Weight - 12lbs 4oz (30%)
Length - 23 2/3 inches (50%)
Head Circumference - 16 inches (50%)

The doctor said his growth was right on track! The only part of the appointment Pearson did not enjoy was the part where he got three shots and something nasty to drink. He also did not understand the coolness of Sn.oopy Band-Aids.

When we got home I compared Pearson's stats to McColley's and they are almost identical.  I'm interested to see if the trend holds, because if it does Pearson should explode into the 90th percentile for everything at six months!

A Discharge Of Joy

One of the nice things about having Pearson at the British hospital is that the local midwife actually comes to your home to do follow-up checks on the mother and baby.

Our first midwife visit was the Friday after Pearson was born.  At five days old, he had lost weight.  He was down about two hundred grams.  The midwife wasn't too worried, it's normal for babies to lose a bit of weight plus Pearson looked great.  No jaundice, great muscle tone.

The midwife came back a week later to do our final check.  However, Pearson had lost more weight.  He was now down 360 grams.  He still looked just fine and was eating often but the midwife couldn't discharge us from their care until he gained weight. 

So, the midwife came back two days later.  All Pearson had to do was gain SOMETHING.  Even just one gram.  But he hadn't.  He was down another 40 grams.  He'd lost a total of 400 grams - or almost a pound from his birth weight.

The thing is, there was nothing obviously wrong.  He still looked fine.  I'd been feeding him constantly and we'd even topped him off with a bottle a few times.  The midwife had checked Pearson's latch a few times and all seemed to be well but this time I asked her to look specifically at his tongue.  McColley had been born with a severe tongue-tie that we got clipped at 24 hours of age.  Pearson's tongue was also tied, but not as severely as McColley's had been.  I wondered if it was affecting how efficiently he could eat.

Luckily the midwife knew another midwife who was licensed to perform tongue (ferenium) clippings.  She was able to come over Sunday afternoon.

The hospital's midwife came back over today - Pearson has gained back 110 grams!  He's eating less often but acting more full.  We've all noticed that his face seems to have filled out a bit.  It was just that tongue-tie!  I only wish we'd had it clipped sooner.

Excited that we've finally been discharged from the hospital midwife's care, we decided to go on an outing to Bur.ghley House.  We toured the state rooms and then headed out to the garden.

Brayton wanted to play in the water but didn't want to get wet:

Finally he understood that he could just put his hand in and avoid wet clothes:

And then he realized that it was super funny to go and give wet high fives to everyone: